# Where are mp3 music info fields stored? - freeDB, CDDB **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2005, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-mp3-music-info-fields-stored-freedb-cddb/312936 "2005-07-18T02:47:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-mp3-music-info-fields-stored-freedb-cddb/312936/1 "2005-07-18T02:47:29Z")
When you download information about a song from CDDB or freeDB, where is that information stored? Is it appended to the mp3 or ogg file? Is the album cover image appended to the music file? Is it the case that once you have this information incorporated into the music file you have it as long as you have that file? What if you want to edit the music file? Does that affect the music DB info? I cant find this info on the web - maybe it is too basic. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-mp3-music-info-fields-stored-freedb-cddb/312936/2 "2005-07-18T02:50:15Z")
All that stuff is stored in the .mp3 itself. If you want more info than that, go searching for the ID3 v2 specification, but be warned that it’s dry reading. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-mp3-music-info-fields-stored-freedb-cddb/312936/3 "2005-07-18T02:50:16Z")
It’s called the ID3 [http://www.id3.org/faq.html](http://www.id3.org/faq.html) > [@](#): > > It is most likely located at the beginning of the file. Look for the marker “ID3” in the first 3 bytes of the file. > > If it’s not there, it could be at the end of the file (if the tag is ID3v2.4). Look for the marker “3DI” 10 bytes from the end of the file, or 10 bytes before the beginning of an ID3v1 tag. > > Finally it is possible to embed ID3v2 tags in the actual MPEG stream, on an MPEG frame boundry. Almost nobody does this. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-mp3-music-info-fields-stored-freedb-cddb/312936/4 "2005-07-18T02:58:18Z")
Perfect. Thanks for that. 🙂