Feature request: Lyrics and Cover Art imported from text file

General Discussion
#1

Hi,

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS...

I have looked long and hard to find a tagging tool that would allow me to simply...

a. Set up all my desired tag values for all my song files in a text file.

b. Apply all the tag values to my often-recreated MP3 files in one fell swoop.

This is because I have a small number of song files (approx 40) that I want to manage, BUT they get re-created over and over (they are my own songs that I am authoring, editing and changing over time). Every time I change or edit the song, I end up re-creating the MP3 and all the tag settings are LOST. Most tagging tools are not any help at all for my authoring scenario, but Mp3Tag is the ONLY one that I can use, hooray!! Why? Because I can specify all the tags in an external text file and re-apply them all again and again in a handy BATCH MODE.

NOW, HERE IS MY ONLY PROBLEM...

I still have to apply the cover art manually (I cannot specify it in the external file), and I don't know how to embed lyrics at all (no clearly-documented HOWTO steps).

Could you guys PLEASE consider adding these options to the importing of tags from an external text file?

  1. A field which is the pathname of a local image file to be embedded as cover art (e.g. using a format string like "%cover" or "%cover_image_file%")

  2. A field which is the pathname of a local text file containing song lyrics to embed into the ID3V2 lyrics tag (e.g. using a format string like "%lyrics" or "%lyrics_image_file%")

These would be really nice changes which would allow me to automate my tedious tagging tasks 100% !!!

Thanx so much,
/Mark

#2

Well, your suggestion sounds to be desirable and do-able, and could be able to automate the import process even for external lyrics text files as well as for external picture files.

But ... aren't those abilities in Mp3tag already?
See actions:
Import cover from file
Import text file

So try it out to create an action group of single actions, for each doing it's own special thing.
One action to get the external text data into the tag fields, one action to get the lyrics text into the destinated tag field, one action to get the cover image, all together in one action group.

Beside the previously described procedure, which is already widely known the "normal" way of copying meta data from one musicfile to another, there exist also another method, which may fit to your needs.

For each of your special songs you can create a dummy companion file, which includes all meta data and covers for the one song you want to tag, will say one for one or one for a group or one for all. Make the dummy tag as perfect as you would tag your original music file to release.

After recreating one of your special files you can load both files into Mp3tag: the prepared companion file and the fresh untagged file. Then use [Ctrl]+[C] to copy the prepared complete tag from the companion file into the fresh untagged file using [Ctrl]+[V] or use the specific command symbols from Mp3tag menu.

How to create such a master companion file or will say stamp file?

Because there is no need to have any music data in the companion file, you can create a simple text file with 0 Byte size. Name the file to whatever you want, e. g. "01.MyMusicMasterTag.mp3".
Fill this dummy mp3 file with the meta data and covers of your will using Mp3tag. When you are ready with the tagging process then set the file attributes to "read only" (not absolutely necessary, but can avoid accidentally deleting).

Then use the companion file to stamp the prepared tag into the corresponding release file.

If you want to stamp 40 files at once from one master companion source file, this is also possible, since Mp3tag v.2.45c.

I hope that I have given you enough excitation to try and adapt for your purposes.

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