Should an mp3 filename include the track number?

runswithascript

Just starting out to properly tag and rename all my mp3 files using Tag&Rename and I am looking for some input on which you think is more correct considering that both options would have the track number in their ID3tag anyway.

Should files be name:

01 - Artist - Song

or simply:

Artist - Song

All mp3 players should pick up on the track numbers from the tag to put them in the correct order, but it's nice when you open a folder to see them in order too...

What do you think?

chiloutus

Personally I would go with the latter
Artist-Song

Therefore if you do have multiple albums from the same artist you can have them all in order! Whereas if you use 01-Artist-Song most mp3 players will just give you
01-Artist1-Song
01-Artist2-Song

And so on.

runswithascript

chiloutus wrote: »

Personally I would go with the latter
Artist-Song

Therefore if you do have multiple albums from the same artist you can have them all in order! Whereas if you use 01-Artist-Song most mp3 players will just give you
01-Artist1-Song
01-Artist2-Song

And so on.

That most mp3 players will just give you scenario vexes me, surely it's now standard to use the tag rather than the file name?

chiloutus

dusf wrote: »

That most mp3 players will just give you scenario vexes me, surely it's now standard to use the tag rather than the file name?

Maybe there is an option to use the tag...but anyone I've ever seen defaults on sorting alphabetically

runswithascript

Would that includes modern iPods etc? Also, would you happen to know if one were to download music from iTunes would the filenames (rather than the tags, or just the tags) appear as 'Artist - Song' instead of 'Track Number - Artist - Song'?

pleasant Co.

I've no idea what mp3 players you're using, but nearly all recent ones - like from the last 5 years - sort by ID3tags.

Ipods most definitely do not sort by filename (since that gets scrambled once the file is transferred to an ipod)

Anyway, for my own on computer storage my files are sorted by Artist/Album/<tracknumber> - <tracktitle> [which IMO is as basic as you need to go to have a neat collection]

cnocbui

iPods use tags. If you include the track number, you have the option of playing an album in the order it was intended, so I would include the track number as a tag, but not as part of the filename.

BostonB

I put a lot into the file name.

01. Title - Album - Artist

In that way if the tags get messed up you can recreate the tags from the info in the file name. MediaMonkey allows you to rename the file name to match the tag or the other way around. Rename the tag from the file name.

Its like a back up of the tag in the filename.

iTunes only use tags. Which wouldn't be a problem except can get them wrong. I don't let itunes manage my tags. I do that myself.

Brian

MP3tag allows you to tag files from filename, and conversely rename based on tags.