Foobar2000:Metadata Compatibility 1.1.6 changes

To improve the interoperability between foobar2000 and other media players, foobar2000 v1.1.6 offers the following changes to metadata handling:

• ID3:
  • Special work-around for "AC/DC" artist in ID3v2.3.
    • ID3v2.3 specification does not support slash characters in artist names, however foobar2000 will write "AC/DC" as is, emulating behaviors of other software in this specific case.
  • The ALBUM ARTIST field is now mapped to the ID3v2 TPE2 (BAND) frame. ALBUM ARTIST entries written by older foobar2000 versions are still being read.
  • ID3v2.3 tags are now written by default, without unsynchronization.
    • Various popular software does not read ID3v2.4 tags or any ID3v2 tags with unsynchronization. The new default behavior aims for maximum compatibility, not for specification compliance.
  • foobar2000 links the iTunes ITUNESCOMPILATION tag to the ALBUM ARTIST tag. In case an ITUNESCOMPILATION tag is found in a file, foobar2000 treats it as if ALBUM ARTIST was set to "Various Artists". If an ALBUM ARTIST tag is found, ITUNESCOMPILATION will be ignored.

• WMA:
  • Support added for multi-value fields in WMA tags, as specified here.

• MP4
  • foobar2000 links the iTunes ITUNESCOMPILATION tag to the ALBUM ARTIST tag. In case an ITUNESCOMPILATION tag is found in a file, foobar2000 treats it as if ALBUM ARTIST was set to "Various Artists". If an ALBUM ARTIST tag is found, ITUNESCOMPILATION will be ignored.

To benefit from these changes, users have to reload the metadata from the relevant files. This can be done by selecting the files in the Media Library or Playlist, and opening the context menu (right mouse button) while holding down the shift key to show additional options. From the menu select Tagging->Reload Info from file(s) to reload the info of the selected files.