# Adding Genres (not replacing)
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 3, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473 "2011-09-03T15:31:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bthoem](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/bthoem)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473/1 "2011-09-03T15:31:43Z")
Hi - I was planning on adding some tags to genre on a number of albums, in order to easily be able to select and choose between my 24 bit and 16 bits albums.
Can this be achieved with a script in MP3Tag?
Add genre - keeping the existing genres (one, none or several).
Thank you,
Bjørn TOre
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473/2 "2011-09-03T15:44:49Z")
> [@Bjørn Tore Hoem](#):
>
> ... Add genre - keeping the existing genres (one, none or several). ...
Beside this ...
[Actions](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/967/5)
... there is also the possibility to create a multi value GENRE tag-field, using the action "Format value" on the tag-field GENRE with a Formatstring containig values, which are separated by the "Double Slash" separator, e. g. 'Rock\\Trash'.
Use the dialog "Extended Tag View..." to display all tag-fields with their content.
DD.20110903.1945.CEST
---
### Author:  [@pone](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pone)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473/3 "2011-09-03T15:49:17Z")
> [@Bjørn Tore Hoem](#):
>
> Hi - I was planning on adding some tags to genre on a number of albums, in order to easily be able to select and choose between my 24 bit and 16 bits albums.
>
> Can this be achieved with a script in MP3Tag?
>
> Add genre - keeping the existing genres (one, none or several).
Action: Format Value
Field: `GENRE`
Formatstring: `$if(%genre%,%genre%', ',)new genre`
Comments:
`', '`
this is the seperator between the old and the new genre. You can replace it by `'; '` or `'/'` or whatever you like. Thanks to the $if function, it is only written when there is already a genre.
`new genre`
you may have guessed it, you should replace this by the name of your new genre
Attention:
If you are multivalue tags for GENRE (displayed as `genre 1\\genre2\\genre 3` in Mp3tag), you have to use this:
Formatstring: `$if(%genre%,$meta_sep(genre,\\)'\\',)\\new genre`
---
### Author:  [@bthoem](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/bthoem)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473/4 "2011-09-03T18:16:02Z")
Hi - and thank you so much for your kind help.
I have tested and it seems to work perfectly!
If the tag to add to genre is "24 bit" - is there a way to avoid double tagging, if this keyword already exists in the Genre-field?
Bjørn Tore
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473/5 "2011-09-04T06:03:08Z")
> [@Bjørn Tore Hoem](#):
>
> ... If the tag to add to genre is "24 bit" - is there a way to avoid double tagging, if this keyword already exists in the Genre-field? ...
You can apply the Mp3tag Filter with the Filter expression:
`NOT GENRE HAS "24 bit"`
If you want to hard code the different cases into Mp3tag Scripting Language, then you may use this proposals ...
For GENRE as single value ...
`$ifgreater($strstr(%GENRE%,'24 bit'),0,'do nothing','do something')`
For GENRE as multi value ...
`$ifgreater($strstr($meta(GENRE),'24 bit'),0,'do nothing','do something')`
Detect, whether a tag-field is a multi value tag-field or not ...
`$if($neql($meta(GENRE,1),),'IsMeta is TRUE','IsMeta is FALSE')`
Combined ...
`
$if($neql($meta(GENRE,1),),$ifgreater($strstr($meta(GENRE),'24 bit'),0,'do nothing','do something'),$ifgreater($strstr(%GENRE%,'24 bit'),0,'do nothing','do something'))
`
DD.20110904.1050.CEST
---
### Author:  [@bthoem](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/bthoem)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473/6 "2011-09-04T12:25:16Z")
Excellent support - thank you so much!
Bjørn Tore
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-genres-not-replacing/12473/7 "2026-02-09T12:23:19Z")