The ID3 reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

ID3

ID3 is a tagging format for MP3s. It allows metadata such as the title, artist, album, track number, etc., to be added to the MP3 file.

Versions

ID3 comes in several versions:

ID3

ID3 was the original standard. It consisted of 128 bytes that were added at the end of the file, beginning with the string "ID3" so that a tag could be easily spotted by media players. Legacy players would occasionally react badly to such data injected into the MPEG stream, why it was placed at the end of the file instead of at the beginning.

ID3v1.1

ID3v1.1 added a field for track number to ID3. This was done by removing some bytes from the comment field, so that the tag was stil 128 bytes long.

ID3v2

ID3v2 greatly expanded ID3, adding many more fields and allowing those fields to be much longer. ID3v2 allowed information such as lyrics and images to be encoded in the file. The ID3v2 information is encoded as a large data block at the beginning of the file, and thus requires players to be aware of the tag and it's structure.

External links

• http://www.id3.org - ID3v2 website

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