What tags are
Tags are information stored inside the music file, not in its filename: title, artist, album, genre, BPM, key, comment, artwork, and more. MP3 and FLAC store tags in different ways, but a tag editor handles that for you.
DJ software reads tags to show, search, and sort tracks. Wrong tags mean a messy library, even when every file is in the right folder.
Common tag problems
- Empty title, with the track name only in the filename.
- Artist and title crammed into one field: "Artist - Title".
- Keys written every which way: Am, A minor, 8A.
- Meaningless filenames: track_final (1).mp3.
- Missing artwork, or artwork so big it bloats the file by several MB.
A batch editing workflow
- Select the whole batch and fill in shared fields once: album, genre, year.
- Split filenames into tags where the title is empty: Artist - Title.mp3 becomes separate Artist and Title fields.
- Use one key format, for example Camelot codes. See what the Camelot wheel is.
- Rename files from tags with one fixed pattern for every track.
- Preview, then save. Batch editing without a preview is the fastest way to wreck a whole folder.
Filename patterns for DJs
- Artist - Title (Mix).mp3: easy to read, good for sharing.
- 8A - 128 - Artist - Title.mp3: sorting by name also sorts by key and BPM. Handy when you play straight from a USB stick.
Pick one pattern and stick to it. Switching halfway is messier than having none.
With TaxonomyDJ
The batch tag editor in TaxonomyDJ edits 30 fields plus artwork across many tracks at once. You build your own action groups by drag and drop: drag Camelot, BPM, and the filename into a pattern, see the result on real tracks right away, and save it to reuse. It splits filenames back into tags, too.
Key and BPM detected for free go straight into the tags, the start of the title, or the filename. There's always a preview, and existing files are never overwritten. Works on any folder on your computer. Part of Premium.