How to tag m4a files?

Your aac/m4a files will already carry a tag, but Windows Explorer doesn't know how to display this information when in the details view. I'm not aware of any third-party shell extention to overcome this although they might exist. If you need to modify the tag data use iTunes or MediaMonkey.

tt2

Since you want to see them in Explorer, can I assume you don't really mean the tags, but rather you wish to rename the file? If you are looking at files in Windows, it may be handy to have them named with more detail, such as Artist-Album-Track#-Title, for example.

If that is what you want, just use the normal Windows method to rename the file. When you do so, iTunes will lose the file, but you can re-add it manually to your iTunes library.

If you are ripping from CD, iTunes gives you no options on file naming, but most other ripping programs do. If you use another program, just finish ripping and then add the files to your iTunes library.

If that is not what you meant, pls clarify and we will try to help.

Gala_Apple wrote:
In windows explorer, music files like mp3 and wma have tags that can be displayed in details view as columns next to name, date, size, etc.

OK, I know what you are referring to now.

It seems m4a files have proprietary tags that is only viewable inside of iTunes and ipods.

They are not really proprietary (AAC is an accepted standard), but then again they are not as widely compatible as MP3.

Is there another media format that can act as a container for m4a file, but has tags that windows understands and can display?

Container? Ouch. Consider using a good quality (LAME-based) conversion program to convert the purchased M4As to MP3s, so that they will be compatible with Explorer, iTunes, and virtually everything else you might want to use. Since the songs start as AAC/256, they will convert with no noticeable degradation to MP3/256.

You can also save some trouble by buying MP3s in the first place, which can be done at just about any online music download store besides iTunes.

So, if I got it well, the way the tags work in aac files is keep under secret, right?
That means I can't use any automatic tag finder to fill up the tags using Amazon dbase and so on, isn't it?
Sorry, that quite *****.

flapane wrote:
So, if I got it well, the way the tags work in aac files is keep under secret, right?

No... that's not true at all.

That means I can't use any automatic tag finder to fill up the tags using Amazon dbase and so on, isn't it?

You can use any tag editor/finder that supports aac. As I mentioned earlier MediaMonkey is one (though that's for Windows)...

tt2

I was using Tagrunner to fill up tags via internet, so I appreciate your tip.
I'll let you know.

EDIT: Seems like it does the trick, thanks!
It can't find lyrics, btw.

Anyway, why not using the common id3 tags protocol with AAC? I used to do some stuff using id3v2 cli in OSX 😟

Message was edited by: flapane

Seriously, if you don't like the way m4a's are, why buy from iTunes?