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[patricklang]

I regularly purchase MP3 music from BeatPort.com, but have run into an issue using the files on other media players.  MC does the right thing - reads the tags and album art, and imports it into the library.

Is there any way I can run multiple versions of ID3 tags in the same file or "downgrade" a file to an older ID3 version?  I tried updating the tags based on the library, but nothing changed.  I'm trying to work around the Zune software's lack of recent ID3 tag support so I can sync downloaded tracks with artist, album, and track numbers to my Zune devices.  I'm ok losing album art, etc since its still stored in MC's database where I organize my collection.

BeatPort says this is a known issue with Windows, but doesn't offer any solutions or more specific info on what ID3 formats are used and which are supported in Windows.
https://knowledgebase.beatport.com/kb/article/000081

[Alex B]

I guess they use the ID3v2.4 format which isn't supported in MS programs. (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=76998)

You could convert the tags to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1 with MP3 tag. You would need to set Mp3tag to use ID3v2.3 and save the tags once with it. Mp3tag provides three options for the ID3v2 tag format:



The "ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1" format is the most compatible option. If you have tags that contain non-latin characters (Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc) you can use ID3v2.3 UTF-16 for those files.

Regarding cover art, it is not enough to have it "stored in the database". The database does not contain the actual cover art files. The thumbnail cache stores small cached thumbnail images, but these may be deleted whenever MC updates thumbnails and in any case the thumbnails do not work in the cover art display visualization which requires access to the original image file.

Mp3tag preserves embedded cover art when it converts between different ID3v2 tag formats. You can also use MC's "Save Cover Art To External Location Specified In Options" tool for creating backup copies of the embedded cover art images. (Tools > Cover Art > Save Cover Art To External Location Specified In Options)