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01 Inspector & batch editing
Edit one file in a focused inspector, or select hundreds and apply only the fields you intend to change. Untouched fields are preserved across batch writes — no accidental wipe of artist credits or release dates.
The Mp3tag alternative for macOS & iPadOS
Edit audio tags the way
Edit audio tags the way
your music library deserves.
The audio tag editor Mac users have been asking for since Mp3tag stayed Windows-only. Inspect tags, batch-edit fields, manage artwork, rename files from metadata, extract metadata from filenames, renumber tracks, and tag releases against MusicBrainz — across MP3, FLAC, M4A, Opus, DSD and twenty other formats. Built in SwiftUI. Open source. Nothing leaves your device unless you ask.
Capabilities
An audio metadata editor for people who actually maintain a music library.
Whether you rip vinyl, archive lossless masters, hand-tag a podcast back catalogue, or clean up two decades of MP3s — MetadataMaster handles the work that quickly turns painful in a generic media player.
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02 MusicBrainz-assisted tagging
Search MusicBrainz by track, by release, from existing tags, or paste a release link. Review recordings, identifiers, catalog numbers, labels, and relationships before anything is written to disk.
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03 Filename ⇄ metadata
Rename audio files from tags using a token-based template, and extract metadata from existing filenames with a matching template. Conflicts are validated before any file is moved.
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04 Artwork management
Preview, replace, paste from clipboard, or clear cover art across a single file or a multi-file selection. Online artwork lookup is opt-in — never automatic, never silent.
1·n
05 Track & disc renumbering
Renumber from list order with custom start values, ascending or descending, and zero padding preserved where the container supports it. Track totals and disc totals stay structurally correct.
{·}
06 Raw property-map editor
Drop into the underlying TagLib property map for any file. Inspect, add, and edit raw keys with mixed-value awareness across selections. Power-user surface for FLAC, Vorbis, MP4, and ID3v2.
How it compares
An honest comparison against the tools you might already use.
People ask all the time — is there a true Mp3tag alternative for Mac? Mp3tag itself is excellent, but it is a Windows application; running it on macOS means Wine, a virtual machine, or a Boot Camp partition. Below is an honest side-by-side against the real options Mac and iPad users actually consider.
| Feature | MetadataMaster | Mp3tag (via Wine) | Cross-platform Qt editor | Generic media library | MusicBrainz-only tagger |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native macOS app (SwiftUI, Apple Silicon) Built natively, not ported. | ● Yes | ◐ Partial Wine / cross-compile | ○ No Qt cross-platform | ● Yes Native | ● Yes Native |
| Native iPadOS app Document workflow with security-scoped access. | ● Yes | ○ No | ○ No | ○ No | ○ No |
| Local-first by default Audio never leaves your device unless you opt-in. | ● Yes | ● Yes | ● Yes | ● Yes | ◐ Partial MusicBrainz lookups required |
| MusicBrainz tagging built-in Search, review, map files to release tracks. | ● Yes | ● Yes | ● Yes | ○ No | ● Yes |
| Bidirectional filename ↔ metadata Tokens go both ways with conflict validation. | ● Yes | ● Yes | ◐ Partial | ○ No | ○ No |
| Track / disc total round-trip preservation Numeric + text intent, both preserved. | ● Yes | ◐ Partial | ◐ Partial | ○ No | ◐ Partial |
| Raw TagLib property-map editor Inspect and edit underlying keys directly. | ● Yes | ◐ Partial | ● Yes | ○ No | ○ No |
| DSD / DSF / DFF support High-resolution audio without conversion. | ● Yes | ○ No | ● Yes | ○ No | ◐ Partial |
| Open source (MIT) Inspect the code, build it yourself. | ● Yes | ○ No | ● Yes | ● Yes | ○ No |
| Free of charge No subscription, no upgrade tax. | ● Yes | ○ No | ● Yes | ● Yes | ○ No |
Batch editing
Fix a hundred files without losing the ninety-nine fields you didn't touch.
The single biggest reason people end up with corrupted metadata is a batch edit that wrote blanks across fields the user never intended to change. MetadataMaster's batch editor only writes the fields you explicitly modify — every other tag in every other file is left exactly as it was on disk.
- Selective writes. Touched fields ship; untouched fields stay. There is no "apply all" trap.
- Per-file warnings. If the FLAC parser normalises
02/09to2/9, you see it as a structural note. - Mixed-value awareness. Selecting twelve files with three different artist credits shows a mixed indicator.
- Live model refresh. After a successful write the inspector and list reflect what is actually on disk.
- Text-import field assignment. Paste a list of titles and assign in row order with mismatch preview.
ALBUMKind of Blue ALBUMARTISTMiles Davis DATE1959 GENRE‹ mixed: Modal Jazz / Jazz › DISCNUMBER1 DISCTOTAL1 PUBLISHERColumbia COPYRIGHT‹ mixed: 8 values ›
12 files selected ● 2 fields edited · 10 preserved
Pending writes
· DATE → 1959 (was: blank)
· ALBUMARTIST → Miles Davis (was: mixed)
· 10 fields untouched · will not be written
A1So What9:22
A2Freddie Freeloader9:46
A3Blue in Green5:37
B1All Blues11:33
B2Flamenco Sketches9:26
MusicBrainz tagging
Tag a release against the world's largest open music database — without giving up control.
MusicBrainz is the gold standard for canonical music metadata, and MetadataMaster integrates it as a first-class tagger rather than a side panel. Search by track, search by release, search from selected files, or paste a MusicBrainz release URL directly.
- Review before write. Inspect recordings, releases, media, identifiers, dates, artist credits, labels, and relationships.
- Tagging workbench. Map selected files to release tracks visually.
- Same write path. MusicBrainz applies through the exact same metadata pipeline as the inspector.
- You control the network. No background sync, no fingerprinting your library.
Filename ⇄ Metadata
The bridge between your tags and your filesystem, in both directions.
Half the time, the canonical truth lives in the metadata. The other half — bootleg folders, archival rips, FTP downloads — it lives in the filename. MetadataMaster moves cleanly between the two with token-based templates, conflict validation, and a per-format awareness of what is actually safe to write.
- Rename from tags. Generate filenames like {albumartist}/{album}/{disc}-{track:02} {title}.
- Extract from filenames. Reverse the same templates to populate metadata from filename structure.
- Conflict preflight. Path collisions are flagged before any file is moved.
- Token library. Title, artist, album artist, composer, year, genre, track totals, disc totals, and literal text.
Template
{albumartist} / {album} / {disc} - {track:02} {title} .flac
Source file
/Drop/Inbox/03 - blue in green.flac
↓
Renamed
Miles Davis/Kind of Blue/1-03 Blue in Green.flac
Or — extract from filename
{track:02} - {title}.flac
track = 03 · title = "blue in green"
Track & disc number handling
Numbering, taken seriously — because every container disagrees about it.
In practice MP3, FLAC, MP4, Vorbis, APE, and WMA each store track and disc data
differently. MetadataMaster treats Track Number,
Total Tracks, Disc Number,
and Total Discs as first-class structured fields.
- ID3v2-style formats use canonical
TRCKandTPOSvalues. - Vorbis property maps use
TRACKNUMBER,TRACKTOTAL,DISCNUMBER, andDISCTOTAL. - MP4 / M4A writes standard
trknanddisknumeric pairs. - Renumbering tools. Renumber from list order, choose direction, set custom start, and preserve zero padding where supported.
Raw property-map editor
Drop into the actual property map. No abstraction, no surprises.
For cases where the inspector's normalised view is too far from what is on disk, MetadataMaster ships a raw editor that exposes the underlying TagLib property map directly. Every key is yours to read, write, add, or remove.
- Direct TagLib bridge. The same library that powers serious tag editors across the industry.
- Suggestions, not gates. Add fields from a known-keys library or write anything else you need.
- Mixed-value editing. Select multiple files, see which keys diverge, and resolve them deliberately.
- Sidecar to the inspector. Daily editing and repair work share the same write pipeline.
+ Add field · ↻ Reload from disk 18 keys
Format support
Twenty-three readable extensions out of the box. Lossless, lossy, and DSD.
Format coverage is discovered at runtime from the underlying audio metadata package, so the app's capabilities scale with the library — not with arbitrary marketing-list decisions.
.mp3ID3v2
.flacVorbis
.m4aMP4
.m4bMP4
.m4pMP4
.mp4MP4
.aacADTS
.oggVorbis
.opusVorbis
.ogaVorbis
.spxSpeex
.mpcMusepack
.apeMonkey's
.wvWavPack
.ttaTTA
.wavRIFF
.aiffApple
.aifApple
.wmaASF
.asfASF
.mp2MPEG-1
.dsfDSD
.dffDSD
macOS & iPadOS
Two platforms. Two honest workflows. Not one stretched compromise.
The macOS build is the full desktop tool. The iPadOS build is intentionally not a shrunken Mac — it is a touch-first session document workflow that respects the iPad sandbox, document picker, and sheet conventions.
macOS
Tahoe · Apple Silicon · Intel- Three-pane window. Sidebar · middle list · inspector — native macOS controls.
- Persistent watched folders. Add a directory once; auto-rescan on every change.
- Dedicated tool windows for MusicBrainz Browser, Filename & Metadata, and the raw Metadata Editor.
- Finder-style file actions — reveal in Finder, open with default app, copy path.
- Configurable toolbar & columns — Settings tabs for General, Toolbar, Columns, About.
- File-path display in the inspector for unambiguous identification.
iPadOS
iPadOS 26 · Touch-first- Session document workflow. Open files for the active session — security-scoped access throughout.
- Content + inspector workspace optimised for touch and pencil.
- Tools as in-page sheets instead of separate windows — matches iPad conventions.
- No persistent watched folders. Sandbox-respecting by design.
- No desktop sidebar. The iPad gets an iPad UI, not a stretched menu bar.
- iPad-tuned settings — list metadata controls and About info, nothing more.
Privacy & network
Local-first, by design — not by accident.
Your audio is yours. Core editing runs entirely on the device. The network only opens when you explicitly choose an online feature, and the disclosure is in writing.
What stays on your device
Audio file contents are never uploaded for ordinary metadata editing. Reading, writing, batch operations, raw property-map work, renumbering, renaming, and local artwork replacement are on-device.
- Tag reads and writes
- Batch edits and selective writes
- Raw property-map inspection
- Local artwork import
- Filename ⇄ metadata templates
- Track and disc renumbering
When the network opens — and why
Online features are explicit and user-initiated. We name every endpoint and every search term we send. There is no telemetry, no fingerprinting, no background sync.
- MusicBrainz lookups → musicbrainz.org
- iTunes artwork search → itunes.apple.com
- Release notes → api.github.com
- Search terms may include title, artist, album, track, ISRC, barcode, MBID
FAQ
Questions that come up before people commit to a metadata editor.
We've heard most of them. If yours isn't here, the project is open source — file an issue or read the code.
Is this an Mp3tag alternative for Mac?+
Yes. MetadataMaster is built natively in SwiftUI and covers the workflows Mac users typically miss when looking for an Mp3tag replacement: batch tag editing, token-based filename ⇄ metadata templates, MusicBrainz tagging, cover-art management, and direct property-map editing.
Which file formats can I edit?+
Out of the box: mp3, flac, m4a, m4b, mp4, aac, ogg, opus, ape, wv, wav, aiff, wma, dsf, and dff, plus related container extensions.
Will batch editing wipe my untouched fields?+
No. Only the fields you explicitly modify are written. Mixed-value indicators show when a selection contains divergent data so you can resolve it deliberately.
Does MetadataMaster upload my audio anywhere?+
No. Audio file contents are never uploaded for ordinary metadata editing. Online lookups send search terms derived from your tags or inputs, never the audio file itself.
Is it really free?+
It is free, MIT-licensed, and the source is public. There is no premium tier, subscription, telemetry, or pro feature locked behind a paywall.
Get the app
Stop fighting your music library. Start editing it.
MetadataMaster is a free, open-source audio metadata editor for macOS and iPadOS. Drag in a folder, fix what's broken, and put your library back in order — without uploading a single byte.