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Topic: How common is APE tag in mp3? (Read 7060 times) previous topic - next topic
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How common is APE tag in mp3?

Is APE tag somewhat common in mp3 files?
I am trying to determine level of robustness of my mp3 parser in dealing with mp3 tags.
Thanks all

How common is APE tag in mp3?

Reply #1 –
MP3Gain uses APE tags to store replaygain information and undo data.

Searching the forum for this program might give you an idea of its relevance, at least in this community.

How common is APE tag in mp3?

Reply #2 –
I have never seen APE tags on MP3s "in the wild", but it is possible, especially among the more technologically-aware (like people on this board). Personally, ID3v2 meets all my needs so I haven't had a reason to use APE tags.

How common is APE tag in mp3?

Reply #3 –
In the early days of Replaygain (and foobar2000) there was a need for extra tags to store the replaygain information. ID3v1 did not provide room for extra tags and ID3v2 was considered "bad by design" at the time. So there has been a time when mp3 were tagged with ID3v1 and APE2 tags.
Foobar2000 still has an advanced setting to use this scheme, but in my opinion, it has become obsolete by the time a good ID3v2 tagging library was added to foobar2000. And that was many years ago.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

How common is APE tag in mp3?

Reply #4 –
Quote from: wonderfuljames on
Is APE tag somewhat common in mp3 files?
I am trying to determine level of robustness of my mp3 parser in dealing with mp3 tags.
Thanks all


There are many robust libraries for parsing MP3 files.  Should you even be considering making a less robust one rather than just using a preexisting one?

How common is APE tag in mp3?

Reply #5 –
I am still using APEv2 tags for all MP3 files for the reason explaine by GeSomeone. The format was superior at that time, and hasn't "become worse" since. The format is simple, and directly compatible with FLAC, Vorbis and other formats using APE. All fields written to an MP3 from a FLAC source can be read back with any software that supports the standard at all, in Unicode, and with few exceptions the field names are exactly the same as in the source FLAC ("lossless"). I also feel that my carefully entered "proprietary" tags are protected from inadvertent modification by other MP3 players, worst case it will prepend and ID3v2, which can be removed. APEv2 tags are the main reason why I don't have any AAC files.

I have had zero issues with player compatibility. This could not be said about ID3v2, where players have failed to skip large tags with album art, or have displayed garbage symbols when they failed to pick the right encoding (ignoring a valid version 1 tag).

I've seen an APEv2 tag in the "wild" only once or twice. I have, however, seen Lyrics3, truncated last audio frame, MP3 streams with RIFF Wave metadata at the end, and double ID3v1 tags. None of those cases have caused any issues with playback. The simplest choice you could make is stop decoding upon encountering this unexpected data. You would be and the end of the stream anyway. Not so with skipping unknown data at the start.

How common is APE tag in mp3?

Reply #6 –
I used to delete APEs on sight - I don't like having one application displaying one tagset and one the other. That was before I realized it could happen to ID3 as well (... should it?)

So I have thought of starting to use APE. Ditch ID3v2 completely, write tags to ID3v1 and APE.

For example, if the mere existence of an ID3v2 tag is something that should warn me I have lost some settings ...? Good?

How common is APE tag in mp3?

Reply #7 –
I've never had any issues with ID3v2 in general. I couldn't use APE tags because my car stereo wouldn't know what to do with them and nor would my BR player