ID3 Tag Standards

MediaMonkey, and the OCD of making sure every single IDv3 tag was correct and formatted to a standard. I think that's a big part of why I'm so obsessive over coding standards now.

I'm not an expert on the intricacies of ID3 but I can tell you that major drivers for updating the standard are not for people's winamp libraries. It's for professional audio distributors who need accurate download metrics and clear ad placements.

Which is why everyone is so keen on standards (Convention, formatting, architecture,...), because it is less a burden when you're just comparing expected to actual, than learning unknowns.

To be fair, ID3v2 is a ridiculously complex and over-engineered "standard". It reeks of second-system syndrome, despite not being created by the same person who created the original ID3 format. What was needed was a basic key-value store. What was delivered was a custom container format with an over-complex frame system, a bunch of redundant frame types, an unsync scheme, etc.iTunes is hardly the only software with issues related to ID3v2 reading/writing.