As of today, all the MP3 files are tagged using the same 10 genres as Magnatune uses.
Previously, we tried our best to label music using the ID3 genre which seemed most appropriate.
However, we ran into problems all the time, as the available ID3 genres were defined years ago by Winamp, aren't the most consistent, and there are only 80 of them, with odd choices made.
For example, there are ID3 Genres for "Sound Clip", "Pranks", "Dream", "Bass" and "Trailer", but none for "Electro Rock" or "World", which are two main genres at Magnatune. To work around this in the past, we've identified our World music albums using the ID3 tag "Ethnic", but that doesn't seem all that great a compromise.
Sometimes, where the ID3 tags seemed more nuanced than our "main ten genres" we would assign that genre to the mp3, so some MP3s from us might be labelled "Classic Rock" or "Death Metal". However, when this was all loaded into iTunes or an iPod, there were too many genres too look at, and they were too inconsistently applied.
So... as of now all the MP3 files at Magnatune are assigned the same top level genre that you'll find them in at Magnatune. On my iPod, this makes for a much cleaner organization of our music, and I hope you'll agree.
Thankfully, 8 of our main genres can be found (albeit with slightly different spelling) in the ID3 Genre list, and these are:
32 classical
10 new age
52 electronic
26 ambient
8 jazz
7 hip-hop
40 alternative rock
79 hard rock
two of our main genres (World and Electro Rock) aren't available in the ID3 genre list, and so are assigned custom "other" tags, using the ID3v2 standard. That should work fine with iTunes, Winamp, and any modern mp3 player.
However, some mp3 players that only support older style id3 tags might see "Pop" instead of "Eletro Rock" and "Ethnic" instead of "World".
-john
In case you're curious, below is a table of the 80 genres built into the MP3 id3 genre standard. Extensions are possible by using an "other" genre, which works with newer mp3 players (iTunes/Winamp) that support that, which is what we've used for World and Electro Rock.
The standard 80 genres that are part of the ID3v1 standard:
| 0 | 'Blues' | 20 | 'Alternative' | 40 | 'AlternRock' | 60 | 'Top 40' |
| 1 | 'Classic Rock' | 21 | 'Ska' | 41 | 'Bass' | 61 | 'Christian Rap' |
| 2 | 'Country' | 22 | 'Death Metal' | 42 | 'Soul' | 62 | 'Pop/Funk' |
| 3 | 'Dance' | 23 | 'Pranks' | 43 | 'Punk' | 63 | 'Jungle' |
| 4 | 'Disco' | 24 | 'Soundtrack' | 44 | 'Space' | 64 | 'Native American' |
| 5 | 'Funk' | 25 | 'Euro-Techno' | 45 | 'Meditative' | 65 | 'Cabaret' |
| 6 | 'Grunge' | 26 | 'Ambient' | 46 | 'Instrumental Pop' | 66 | 'New Wave' |
| 7 | 'Hip-Hop' | 27 | 'Trip-Hop' | 47 | 'Instrumental Rock' | 67 | 'Psychadelic' |
| 8 | 'Jazz' | 28 | 'Vocal' | 48 | 'Ethnic' | 68 | 'Rave' |
| 9 | 'Metal' | 29 | 'Jazz+Funk' | 49 | 'Gothic' | 69 | 'Showtunes' |
| 10 | 'New Age' | 30 | 'Fusion' | 50 | 'Darkwave' | 70 | 'Trailer' |
| 11 | 'Oldies' | 31 | 'Trance' | 51 | 'Techno-Industrial' | 71 | 'Lo-Fi' |
| 12 | 'Other' | 32 | 'Classical' | 52 | 'Electronic' | 72 | 'Tribal' |
| 13 | 'Pop' | 33 | 'Instrumental' | 53 | 'Pop-Folk' | 73 | 'Acid Punk' |
| 14 | 'R&B' | 34 | 'Acid' | 54 | 'Eurodance' | 74 | 'Acid Jazz' |
| 15 | 'Rap' | 35 | 'House' | 55 | 'Dream' | 75 | 'Polka' |
| 16 | 'Reggae' | 36 | 'Game' | 56 | 'Southern Rock' | 76 | 'Retro' |
| 17 | 'Rock' | 37 | 'Sound Clip' | 57 | 'Comedy' | 77 | 'Musical' |
| 18 | 'Techno' | 38 | 'Gospel' | 58 | 'Cult' | 78 | 'Rock & Roll' |
| 19 | 'Industrial' | 39 | 'Noise' | 59 | 'Gangsta' | 79 | 'Hard Rock' |
I find the whole genre tagging system mostly useless and in fact most of my Magnatune albums are filed on a genre I created called "Magnatune". The "smart playlists" in iTunes is how I divide everything up into different listening for different moods.
Posted by: Daniel Clements | January 26, 2012 at 04:51 PM
I SO wish modern Mp3 players and programs supported multi-tagging. and searching by multiple tags. The industry seems to be dragging its feet about what to me seems an obvious needed innovation.
Posted by: Spike Page | January 30, 2012 at 08:15 AM
Is this true for MP3, only? Or are other formats affected as well?
Posted by: Dirk Heinrichs | January 31, 2012 at 03:06 AM
Is this true for MP3, only? Or are other formats affected as well?
All new FLAC/OGG/AAC files will use the new genre tags. I haven't yet rebuilt all the older files to use the new tags. However, I'll be doing that this week, thanks for reminding me.
-john
Posted by: John Buckman | January 31, 2012 at 09:08 AM
The problem with allowing multiple tags is, that it encourages tag spamming - i.e. publishers are tempted to maximize the numbers of tags just to show up in as many listings as possible. At least with one genre/tag, as a publisher you put your best foot forward once and mislabeling becomes unappealing.
That being said -- musical labels are like language itself - always evolving and never totally consistent. The argument could be made, that forcing things into fewer genres invites more long term stability. But of course it fails miserably when large new branches of music appear.
However with language I'm ok if I know there's some consistency in the same geographic area - e.g. official UK English vs. official US English etc. In the case of music, Magnatune is the equivalent of a geographical location for me. So I for one welcome the consistent application of tagging within Magnatune.
Posted by: Niels | March 25, 2012 at 07:48 PM