From the roots of the alternative
movement to the voice of a generation,
the Pacific Northwest is very relevant
By Kyelzbub
Kyelzbub is the writer/singer/guitarist for the hard rock band, Second Player Score. He has a weekly radio show
based on local music called, Northwest Exposure where he discusses his life and dealings in and around the
scene. It airs Thursdays from 9pm to 11pm ES T
TAG...YOUR IT!
WEDNESDAYS
9PM EST
www.neueregelradio.com
This issue’s article is not so much For those that don’t know already I will
about the Pacific Northwest scene, as it is
just good information for bands coming up
in any scene. In my work as a DJ for Neue
Regel Radio I run into a problem a lot that
I do find concerning for new bands, and
surprisingly even some old ones. What I am
coming to find as problematic is bands tag-
ging their songs, or more to the point, the
lack thereof. I know that new bands may
not know how to do this, but it is no excuse.
I’d say 95%, if not more, of the stations you
submit music to say in their submission in-
structions to tag your mp3s. Some stations
will even give links to videos on how to do it.
So, whether you are brand new or not there
is no excuse to not be doing this. explain a tag. You know when you’re in your
car and a song comes on the radio, Spotify,
Pandora, CD player, etc., and you see the
name of the band, song title, and album ti-
tle? Those are from tags. Without those your
band becomes “Unknown Artist”. In an in-
dustry that is already out to grind you into
dust, the last thing you need to become is
anonymous. How do you think your phone
keeps your music sorted by band and album?
Those are just the basics of tagging. You
know when you listen to a song on a media
player and an image of the album the song is
on shows up on the player. That too is part
of extended tagging. So, enough beating you
over the head about tags. How about I give
you some instructions on how to tag?
Blah, blah, blah… I know, who is this
guy lecturing bands. Well, I’m the guy that
is going to make sure your mp3 doesn’t end
up in the recycle bin. Look, I will go ahead
and tag mp3s that aren’t done properly,
but I am a snob and have a very small
amount of new material I let in. Other
stations and DJs though, get mountains of
mp3s they have to sort through. I can tell
you right now, if your music isn’t tagged,
you’re out. Plus, they will remember your
band, and never even check your future
submissions just assuming you didn’t tag
those either. I have even seen mp3s that
weren’t labeled. No tags, no label, and no
telepathy to channel the band that sub-
mitted it. Bands!!! You have enough that
you are up against. Don’t make you an-
other thing you have to overcome.
Tagging is actually really easy. It is just te-
dious which is why some not so new bands
still don’t do it. It’s no fun and I don’t think
people sometimes realize its importance.
Now you can just do a simple tag on an mp3
in Windows by right clicking on the file, go-
ing to Properties, and then the Details tab.
You fill out the Title, Contributing Artists,
and Album fields. This will at least get the
basic information onto whatever is playing
your track. What I suggest though is that you
down load MP3tag, here: https://www.mp-
3tag.de/en/download.html
This is by far the best tagger I have found and
it is free. The best thing about MP3tag is that
it will also tag your WAV files effectively. I
tried about 5 different softwares and they all
sucked for WAV files. Mp3tag also lets you
add images, lyrics, UPC codes, IRSC codes,
and more. There is a lot more involving this
so, I would suggest going to YouTube as there
are multiple instructional videos for Mp3tag.
They will have you operational in less than
10 minutes. As you get further and further
up the ladder of the industry these pieces of
information become more and more critical,
especially when you start getting into licens-
ing and publishing. Unfortunately, the music
industry is not just about being an artist.
There is a lot of administrative work that
goes along with it. If you do the tedious stuff
now though, it will help you towards a better
future in the music industry. If you get high
enough on the food chain you can then hire
someone to do your light work for you.
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