How to Tag and Retag MP3s From Club Ready Songs

Every MP3 from Club Ready Songs arrives with ID3v2.3 tags already filled, and you can change the title, artist, album, genre or comment in Mp3tag, Kid3, Serato or rekordbox as long as you edit fields in place and never use a remove-all-tags command. Studio tracks carry title, artist, album Club Ready Songs, genre, TBPM, TKEY, Camelot and Open Key in TXXX frames, a comment, a front cover and two Serato GEOB frames for hot cues and beat grid. DJ edits carry title, artist, album Club Ready Songs, genre DJ Edit, TBPM, TKEY and a comment with the cue times. The GEOB frames are the ones most tag editors cannot show, and they are the ones a careless retag destroys.

Steps

1. See what is already there

Open the file in Mp3tag or Kid3 and read the existing fields before you change anything. On a studio track you will see TIT2 title, TPE1 artist, TALB Club Ready Songs, TCON genre, TBPM, TKEY such as Am or F#, TXXX INITIALKEY with the Camelot code, TXXX OPENKEY with the Open Key code, a COMM comment such as 8A · 1m · A minor · 126 BPM · intro 16 · outro 32 · Club Ready Songs, and an APIC cover. Kid3 also lists the two GEOB frames named Serato Markers2 and Serato BeatGrid. On a DJ edit you will see title, artist, Club Ready Songs, DJ Edit, TBPM, TKEY and a comment that starts with the BPM and lists start, intro end and outro start.

2. Decide which fields to touch

Change presentation fields, title, artist, album and genre, and leave the data fields alone. TBPM is the tempo the grid was built at, TKEY and the TXXX key frames feed your software's key display, and the comment is the cue sheet for a DJ edit. If you want your own label on the file, add it to the title, or use a grouping or comment field your software exposes, rather than overwriting the fields filled with measured values.

3. Edit in place in Mp3tag

Select the file, type new values into the Title, Artist, Album or Genre boxes and press save. Mp3tag rewrites the tag header and keeps frames it does not display, so the GEOB frames survive an ordinary save. Do not use the remove tag command or any option that strips unknown or non-standard frames, and keep the write format at ID3v2.3 if your settings offer a choice. Check the extended tag view afterwards: the frame list should still show the Serato entries.

4. Edit in place in Kid3

Kid3 shows the ID3v2 frame list directly, including GEOB. Double-click a field to edit it and save. Because every frame is visible, Kid3 is the easiest place to confirm nothing was lost, and it is free on Windows, Mac and Linux. Avoid the command that removes the whole tag, and do not convert the tag version. Kid3 can also show the TXXX INITIALKEY and OPENKEY frames so you can see the Camelot and Open Key codes next to the musical key.

5. Retag from inside your DJ software

Serato lets you edit title, artist, album, genre, comment, key and BPM in the library columns and writes them back to the file, and it leaves its own GEOB frames untouched. rekordbox edits in the Information pane. Both are safe for presentation fields. Remember that both programs re-analyse BPM, and Serato only keeps the tagged key if use key from tag is on under Setup > Library + Display, so check that setting before you assume the Camelot code came through.

6. Verify and re-import

After saving, reopen the file in Kid3 or Mp3tag's extended view and confirm the GEOB frames, the TBPM and the comment are still present. Then drag the MP3 back into Serato and confirm the hot cues and beat grid appear. If you edited files already in a library, rescan or re-read the tags so the new title shows. On a DJ edit, the comment line is what you will read when placing hot cues, so make sure it was not overwritten by a batch comment edit.

Tips

• Treat the comment on a DJ edit as data, not a note. If you want your own notes on the file, append them after the existing text instead of replacing it.
• Batch actions in Mp3tag are fine for title and artist, but switch off any option that clears fields you leave blank, or an empty Comment box will erase the cue sheet.
• Keep album Club Ready Songs and genre DJ Edit unless you have a strong library convention. They are the two fields that make Club Ready Songs files easy to group later.
• MusicBrainz Picard is built to overwrite tags from a database. It will not find these files and may blank fields, so leave them out of Picard runs.
• The WAV file from a DJ edit or studio track is for mastering and playback. Tag the MP3, which is the file that carries the ID3 frames your DJ software reads.

Common problems

• Hot cues vanished from a studio track in Serato. A remove-tags or strip-unknown-frames action deleted the GEOB frames. Download the MP3 again from the Crate and retag with in-place edits only.
• Serato shows a different key from the tag. Use key from tag is off, so Serato analysed the key itself. Turn it on under Setup > Library + Display and re-read the tags.
• Cue times disappeared from the comment of a DJ edit. A batch edit wrote over the comment. Press Copy link or open the Crate, download the MP3 320 again and merge your notes after the existing text.
• rekordbox ignores the Camelot code. rekordbox analyses its own key and reads the standard frames, not the TXXX frames. The musical TKEY and your rekordbox analysis are what you will see.