Hi,
BACKGROUND: I have just started to use Mp3tag (v3.27a). I am digitizing all my LPs, CDs, cassette tapes, and etc - around 600 to 700. Except for more recent CDs, the metadata has to be created from scratch. Typing from the record label, scanning and OCRing the covers, etc.
I the started to use Mp3tag to add the metadata to the digital files. That is when I bumped into my first problem - nothing I could do would get Mp3tag to put the data into the field "Album Artist". I spent a whole afternoon and eventually gave up and removed the application and started looking for another tag editor. It was only when I was looking at reviews of other packages that I came across a comment about removing the space in the tag name and making it "AlbumArtist". So I re-installed Mp3tag editor and tried again: and it worked.
Q1. So my first question is: are there any other tags that have a different actual tag name than that displayed in the column heading by Mp3tag?
This then resulted in the realisation that not all software uses the same name for tags - e.g. my Windows 7 shows a column in Music Folders named "Contributing Artist" which (in my case at least) shows the data I have added under the tag "Artist" which I assume is the main artist, i.e. the composer in most classical music, whereas "AlbumArtist" would be the person or orchestra on the actual recording. I could use the tag "Composer" but this does not seem to be displayed by my very expensive MP3 player or on any car entertainment system I have tried.
There seems to be a compromise between using tags correctly for their intended purpose (which is great for searching libraries of music) and using only 2 to 4 tags for display on various devices - and truncating the data so it fits on-screen.
Q2. Is there any standard for what goes into each tag field and the format used - e.g. standard abbreviations?
More or less all of them?
E.g. the column for ARTIST would have "Künstler" as heading in German.
See the documentation
And please: do not mix the localized label as representation of the internally used tag field identifier.
MP3tag translates/maps the various identifiers into internal variable names.
Please look at the documentation to see which ID is taken for which tag format.
I would say that the composer is the composer.
And perhaps Anne-Sophie Mutter is the artist who interprets that particular composition. She could be supported by other artists like the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - which you could also add to the field ARTIST.
And if you buy a whole album then the ALBUMARTIST would be the name for which you would ask in the shop "have you got the latest album by ..."
E.g. Peter Gabriel is the ALBUMARTIST of the ALBUM "So" and he is also the ARTIST for most tracks but there is the track "Don't give up" in which he performs a duo with Kate Bush, so the field ARTIST has "Peter Gabriel; Kate Bush" as data.
The purpose of ALBUM ARTIST is mostly to hold a set of tracks together as an album, e.g. it's often used by players to distinguish multiple "Greatest Hits" albums by different artists. So ALBUM ARTIST should normally be one and the same for all tracks of an album, e.g. "Beatles" or "Various Artists".
If there's only one performer on the album, it might work to use ALBUM ARTIST as you suggest for classical albums, but personally I think it's too pragmatic to re-define ARTIST and ALBUM ARTIST that way. And consider a "Best of Beethoven" compilation by multiple performers - it's begging for problems to use ALBUM ARTIST for the different performers. It may work on your present player but not on the next one - you could end up with split albums.
Besides, what would you prefer to be displayed - ARTIST or ALBUM ARTIST - as many players don't display both.
Classical albums are not straightforward to tag... Search the forum and the internet for ideas, there are plenty discussions.