The ultimate way to tag and rename mp3s

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 18, 2007
Updated • Sep 1, 2013
Music, Music and Video
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20

I'm one of those guys who likes to have a neatly categorized mp3 collection with a distinct folder structure ( band name / album ) and properly named and tagged songs. I absolutely hate it if songs are not properly named or are missing tags because it messes up the structure on my iPod and many other mp3 players as well.

I tried a lot of mp3 taggers in the past and was never 100% convinced to continue using them. Some would rename songs without asking, some were not able to import tags which meant that I had to manually edit all tags by hand - do that for thousands of songs - while others were just so complicated that it took simply too long to use them.

I almost gave up but then I found a sweet little software called Tag Scanner. I hear you guys mumbling already that you surely would have heard about Tag Scanner if it was that great. I do understand your doubts but they are not justified this time. The author is from Russia and decided to create no English version of his website.

This in turn makes it impossible that search engines index the site properly and all those freeware hunters will fail to notice it - well, most of them that is, hehe.

The Tag Scanner interface looks fantastic and a little bit confusing at the same time. The most important parts are the four tabs at the top of the screen which are: Music Renamer, Tag Editor, Tag Processor and List Maker.

Music Renamer:

Rename files with ease using placeholders and tag information. The default format is artist - title which can be easily changed to artist / album / artist - title for instance. Gives you a lot of options, absolutely brilliant.

Tag Editor:

This is the manual Tag Editor which is not needed most of the time because of the Tag Processor which does it automatically. In case it does not you can use the Tag Editor to edit the tags by hand.

Tag Processor:

Looks up songs in an online database (you can select a default one in the options), preview the tag output and save it. Change the tags of an album with only three clicks. Offers manual searches if the automatic one did not come up with results.

List Maker:

Export song lists as html, csv or excel tables. You can also save and import playlists in here.

Technical Mumbo Jumbo:

  • Can save ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2, ID3v1 + ID3v2, ID3v1 + APEv2 and all combined
  • Supports ID3v2 Lyrics and attached pictures
  • Import and Create Playlists
  • Scans Directories and subdirectories for mp3s
  • Able to convert between tag formats
  • Case conversions
  • Export song list in html, csv and excel format
  • Supports online music databases, automatic and manual searches

Verdict

Tag Scanner is one of the most sophisticated tagging programs out there. It supports everything you could possible want and more, and is easy to use so that you won't run into any issues when you are using it for the first time.

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Comments

  1. SKIP said on January 21, 2009 at 4:19 pm
    Reply

    Hi I have been looking for a free tag & rename program for a long time now, is this as good as you say or does it have a down side that I will only find out when I use it.
    I have a large music collection and it worries me the program might muck thisngs up for me so I need to know as I am a bit worried in using it. Please let me know your thoughts. Many thanks in advance.

  2. chris said on December 15, 2008 at 4:18 am
    Reply

    been looking for a decent freeware tagrenamer for years.
    thanks for this!! amazing program!
    Chris

  3. l3utterfish said on October 16, 2008 at 1:04 pm
    Reply

    I use tag&Rename
    also great, with album art support.

  4. aengus said on April 26, 2008 at 8:12 pm
    Reply

    why not just use foobar2000?

  5. dh said on January 29, 2008 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    Seemed like it was going to be good, but it’s a crashy little mf.

  6. Martin said on August 20, 2007 at 10:07 pm
    Reply

    CC I did not try it but it is listed in the features: Supports ID3v2 Lyrics and attached pictures

  7. tash said on August 20, 2007 at 2:48 am
    Reply

    looks pretty good. I’m gonna try this! I’ve been needing to tidy up my mp3 collection again
    I like the new theme btw

  8. J.O.S.E. said on August 19, 2007 at 5:17 pm
    Reply

    looks good. nice post. i’m just wondering if the ID3 tags you name will go across the board for all mp3 software.

  9. HED854 said on August 19, 2007 at 8:27 am
    Reply

    Tagscanner is the best way to tag and rename, period :)
    I tried so many others apps, without success.
    Now my MP3 collection is clean and tidy !

  10. JB said on August 19, 2007 at 4:45 am
    Reply

    I’ve used Tag Scanner for years. It is a great lil program.

  11. Alter Falter! said on August 18, 2007 at 7:01 pm
    Reply

    My favorite folder naming rule is Artist Year – Album (instead of Artist – Album)

    mp3tag from mp3tag.de can create such and other folder structures from tags.

    mp3ext is a cool little app which shows you the bitrates of mp3s with different colored icons in windows explorer. Unfortunately it isn’t updated since 2004 and therefore doesn’t recognize new v2.4 tags.

  12. cc said on August 18, 2007 at 4:25 pm
    Reply

    Does this program embed album art in the tag?

  13. Timo said on August 18, 2007 at 2:36 pm
    Reply

    something i also use for my mp3 archiv is “album art cover downloader” very nice little prog

  14. Timo said on August 18, 2007 at 2:17 pm
    Reply

    great prog

    i also tried much but this is the most intuitive one and fast

  15. kain said on August 18, 2007 at 12:08 pm
    Reply
  16. aldrin said on August 18, 2007 at 10:58 am
    Reply

    i use tag&rename and i am quite satisfied
    but i ll give this freeware a chance :)

  17. in0de said on August 18, 2007 at 10:56 am
    Reply

    So, you didn’t like Tag’nRename ?

  18. buzz said on August 18, 2007 at 10:36 am
    Reply

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