An audio metadata viewer that shows what is really inside a song file
Every music file carries more than sound. This free audio metadata viewer opens MP3, M4A, FLAC, OGG, Opus and WAV files (and reads AIFF, WMA, APE and WavPack too) and lists everything stored alongside the audio: title, artist, album, track and disc numbers, genre, composer, comments, lyrics, chapters and embedded cover art, plus the technical facts — codec, bitrate and whether it is constant or variable, sample rate, bit depth, channels, duration, the encoder that made the file and its ReplayGain values.
Use it when a car stereo shows the wrong song name, to check whether a download is really 320 kbit/s or lossless FLAC, or before you share a recording. The file is read inside your browser, so even private voice memos never leave your device.
How to use the Audio Metadata Viewer
- Drop an audio file onto the box, or click it to pick one from your device.
- Read the summary: duration, bitrate, sample rate and channels, then the technical details below them.
- Check the Tags list and the embedded pictures — each cover shows its type, format, pixel size and file size, and can be downloaded.
- If a yellow box appears, the tags contain a location or personal data such as a store account; follow the link to see it on a map.
- Open “Raw tag frames” for every frame or key exactly as stored, or “File structure” for byte offsets, and copy the whole report as JSON.
Audio Metadata Viewer features
Every tag system
ID3v1, ID3v2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 (including unsynchronised and non-standard iTunes v2.4 frames), APEv2, Lyrics3, Vorbis comments, FLAC picture blocks, iTunes ilst atoms, QuickTime keys and RIFF INFO.
Real bitrate mode
MP3 frames are counted one by one and the Xing/Info and LAME headers are decoded, so you see CBR, ABR or VBR, the LAME preset (V0, V2 …), lowpass and encoder delay.
Cover art in full detail
Front, back and other pictures with their ID3 picture type, MIME type, real pixel dimensions and size — downloadable exactly as embedded.
Lyrics and chapters
Unsynchronised lyrics are shown as text; podcast and audiobook chapters from ID3 CHAP frames, Vorbis CHAPTER tags and MP4 chapter lists are listed with start and end times.
Privacy check
GPS coordinates from phone recordings, Apple ID e-mail addresses in purchased songs, private frames left by store apps and the names of recorders and encoders are pointed out.
Two independent readers
Galaxy of Tools’ own byte-level parser and the open-source music-metadata library (MIT licence) read the file, so the raw frames and the summary can be cross-checked.
Where audio formats keep their tags
| Format | Tag system | Cover art | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| MP3 | ID3v2 at the start, sometimes APEv2 and ID3v1 at the end | APIC frames | Old ID3v1 holds only 30 characters per field and no cover |
| M4A / AAC / ALAC | iTunes-style atoms in moov › udta › meta › ilst | covr atom (JPEG or PNG) | Store purchases may include the buyer’s name and Apple ID |
| FLAC | Vorbis comment block | PICTURE blocks | STREAMINFO also holds an MD5 checksum of the decoded audio |
| OGG Vorbis / Opus | Vorbis comments in the second header packet | METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE (Base64) | The vendor string names the encoder library |
| WAV | RIFF LIST INFO, often an id3 chunk | Only inside the id3 chunk | Recorders add bext and iXML chunks with device and project data |
Reading the technical details
- CBR, VBR and ABR: constant bitrate uses the same number of bits for every frame; variable bitrate spends more on complex passages. A LAME “V0” MP3 averages roughly 220–260 kbit/s and “V2” about 170–210 kbit/s.
- Lossless or lossy: FLAC, ALAC and WAV keep every sample; MP3, AAC, Vorbis and Opus discard detail the ear is unlikely to miss. A FLAC made from an MP3 is still lossy in practice — look at the encoder and lowpass if a “lossless” file sounds dull.
- Sample rate and bit depth: 44,100 Hz and 16-bit is CD quality; 48,000 Hz is the video standard; 24-bit files come from studio masters or recorders.
- ReplayGain: a loudness adjustment in dB (negative values mean the track is louder than the reference) that players can apply so songs play at similar volume.
- Encoder delay and padding: MP3 and AAC add a few hundred silent samples at the start and end; the LAME header and iTunSMPB tag record them so players can play albums gaplessly.
What your audio files may reveal
Tags are written by every program a file passes through. A ripping app may store your name in a comment, a store app can embed purchase IDs, a phone recorder can save the place and time of a recording, and editing software often signs its own name. When you only want to share the sound, strip the rest with Remove Audio Metadata. To fix wrong or missing details use the ID3 Tag Editor, tidy a messy collection with the MP3 Tag Cleaner, or find missing artwork with the Album Art Downloader.
Audio Metadata Viewer FAQ
How do I see the metadata of an MP3 file?
Drop the MP3 onto this audio metadata viewer. Its ID3 tags, cover art, lyrics and the technical details such as bitrate, sample rate and encoder appear straight away, and the raw frames are listed underneath.
How can I tell if an MP3 is really 320 kbit/s?
Look at the Bitrate row and the MPEG frame count. A genuine 320 kbit/s CBR file shows “320 kbit/s · CBR”. If an upscaled file was re-encoded from a low-quality source, the encoder lowpass (for example 16 kHz instead of 19–20 kHz) often gives it away.
Why does my music player show different tags?
A file can contain several tag blocks at once — ID3v2, APEv2 and ID3v1 in an MP3, or RIFF INFO and an id3 chunk in a WAV — and players choose different ones. The raw frames table lists each block separately so you can spot the stale one.
Can I save the cover art from a song?
Yes. Every embedded picture has a Download button and is saved byte for byte as stored in the file, in its original JPG or PNG format.
Does it work with FLAC, M4A and WAV files?
Yes. FLAC, M4A (AAC and Apple Lossless), OGG Vorbis, Opus and WAV are read by both parsers; AIFF, WMA, APE, WavPack and DSF are read through music-metadata.
Is my audio file uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is opened with JavaScript in your own browser. Only the open-source reading library is downloaded from a public CDN; your music never leaves your device.