Renaming using MP3/MP4/AAC tags

We are all familiar with MP3 and AAC music files, but did you know that these files contain additional information about the song, such as the name of the artist, the album, the song, etc?

This information is stored in so-called “MP3 Tags”.

Better Rename supports mp3 tags in the following file formats:

• mp3
• m4p (FairPlay-protected AAC files bought from the iTunes Store before it went DRM-free)
• m4b (bookmark-able mp4 for audio books)
• m4a (AAC files, for instance CDs ripped with the Music app or purchases from the iTunes Store)
• m4v
• flac
• aiff
• ogg
• ape

Better Rename can read the most common tags, including:

• The song’s title
• The name of the album
• The name of the artist
• The track number on the album
• The total number of tracks on the album
• The number of CDs in a set
• The number of the current CD in the set

Depending on which kind of file you are renaming, you may also be able to extract:

• The sample rate
• The bit rate

• The beats per minute

• You can use this information to rename your files in a uniform manner

Select the MP3 rename action in the MP3/AAC Music category. The Preferred Pattern: field contains the pattern to which the music files will be renamed. You can drag & drop the tags from the list below the field, or simply type them in. The music tags are:

• <Artist>, <AlbumArtist>, <Album>, <Song>, <Genre>, <Year>
• <TrackNum>, <NumTracks>, <CDNum>, <numCds>; prefix a 0 for zero padding, e.g. <0TrackNum> gives 03
• <Duration_MM_SS>, <AudioBitRate>, <AudioSampleRate>, <BeatsPerMinute>
• Case variants of the text tags: <artist>, <ARTIST>, <Artist_Capitalized>, <Artist_sentence_case>

For example, the pattern <0TrackNum> - <Artist> - <Song> renames Track 3.m4a to 03 - Miles Davis - So What.m4a.

Dealing with missing, incomplete or inconsistent music tags

One problem that you may encounter when renaming files from mp3 or other music tags is that it is not unusual for hand-ripped music files to have incorrect, inconsistent or simply missing tags.

Music files that are sold online by a reputable source, such as the iTunes Store, usually do not have this problem because some care has been taken to ensure that the tag information is correct.

You can avoid this problem by editing the tags in the Music app before renaming the files in Better Rename.

Better Rename itself also provides a mechanism for dealing with missing tags.

In addition to the Preferred Pattern, Fallback Pattern 1, Fallback Pattern 2, etc. fields are also present.

This mechanism deals with missing tags by applying the first pattern for which all information is available.

When the preferred pattern contains information which is not available for a particular music file, the program “falls back” to the first fallback pattern. If the first fallback pattern requires information which is not available, the program falls back to the second fallback pattern, etc.

A typical set is <0TrackNum> - <Artist> - <Song> as the preferred pattern, <Artist> - <Song> as the first fallback for files without a track number and <Song> as the second fallback for files that only carry a title.