# Tag .flac or alac (.m4a) with originaldate and reissue/remaster date

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-flac-or-alac-m4a-with-originaldate-and-reissue-remaster-date/47687>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 27, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-flac-or-alac-m4a-with-originaldate-and-reissue-remaster-date/47687 "2020-01-27T21:26:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![esumsea](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/esumsea/32/7219_2.png) [@esumsea](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/esumsea)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-flac-or-alac-m4a-with-originaldate-and-reissue-remaster-date/47687/1 "2020-01-27T21:26:16Z")

</div>

Hello!

I have been working on getting a Classical Music selection into itunes. I want to be able to assign a date for when it was originally released, a date for a reissue/remaster, and a date for date composed.

I have been using .flacs, but I also have copies in alac (m4a), so I could use either to accomplish this. Up to now, I have been using the YEAR field, which is mapped to DATE in .flac by MP3Tag. In itunes, this shows up as "Year." I see that itunes has a "release date" which I would like to use for the year the album was released, reissued or remastered. I can't figure out how to map it. I tried to map the VorbisComment, Source: ORIGINALDATE, TARGET: RELEASETIME, but it does not work.

Is it possible to do this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 6:07am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-flac-or-alac-m4a-with-originaldate-and-reissue-remaster-date/47687/2 "2020-01-29T06:07:28Z")

</div>

> [@esumsea](#):
>
> . I tried to map the VorbisComment, Source: ORIGINALDATE, TARGET: RELEASETIME, but it does not work.
> 
> Is it possible to do this?

I think it is definitely possible to map fields.  
I would also think that MP3tag displays the data as it is.  
I would like to point out that the format for RELEASETIME is:  
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ  
If you supply only the YYYY then it could be that the target system does not recognize this as valid data.  
So, how does the player behave?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![esumsea](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/esumsea/32/7219_2.png) [@esumsea](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/esumsea)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-flac-or-alac-m4a-with-originaldate-and-reissue-remaster-date/47687/3 "2020-02-06T15:56:33Z")

</div>

Hey ohrenkino,

Sorry for the late response. iTunes is not reporting the data I have imputed, which was a 4 digit year.

As I said, I am using the %releasetime% for the field and mapping it as I specified above.

To keep things simple, I just tried to Tag the already converted ALAC. I tried many different formats. I tried just the year; the year, month, and date; and I even tried a number such as 2016-06-23T09:07:21.205-07:00 and still nothing transfers.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-flac-or-alac-m4a-with-originaldate-and-reissue-remaster-date/47687/4 "2026-02-09T12:28:25Z")

</div>