Is there a good reason not to include lyrics (or cover art) in flac tags? My question is prompted by the advisory below that is at http://xiph.org/vorbis/doc/v-comment.html.
I'm reluctant to take the advice with respect to lyrics because it seems that many experienced users of MP3Tag do embed this information in their tags, and a slimserver plugin allows me to display lyrics that are embedded in a tag. I did embed lyrics on one album and found that it increased the file sizes by less than 0.01 percent.
With respect to cover art, it seems wasteful to embed the album cover in every song on the album. (I generally rip full albums.) So I don't think I'll do that in any case.
Two specific questions:
- Is it possible that writing tags would ever compromise the integrity of the music file itself?
- Regarding the assertion from the quote below: "arbitrary metadata belongs in a separate logical bitstream (usually an XML stream type) that provides greater structure and machine parseability," is this a possibility with respect to lyrics, is it advisable, and would other programs be able to access the information?
Thanks,
Randy
Advisory at http://xiph.org/vorbis/doc/v-comment.html
"The Vorbis text comment header is the second (of three) header packets that begin a Vorbis bitstream. It is meant for short, text comments, not arbitrary metadata; arbitrary metadata belongs in a separate logical bitstream (usually an XML stream type) that provides greater structure and machine parseability.
The comment field is meant to be used much like someone jotting a quick note on the bottom of a CDR. It should be a little information to remember the disc by and explain it to others; a short, to-the-point text note that need not only be a couple words, but isn't going to be more than a short paragraph."