<P> Digital audio formats such as digital audio files superseded music formats such as cassette tapes and CDs in the 2000s . Digital audio files could be labelled with more information than could be contained in just the file name . That descriptive information is called the audio tag or audio metadata in general . Computer programs specializing in adding or modifying this information are called tag editors . Metadata can be used to name, describe, catalogue and indicate ownership or copyright for a digital audio file, and its presence makes it much easier to locate a specific audio file within a group, typically through use of a search engine that accesses the metadata . As different digital audio formats were developed, attempts were made to standardize a specific location within the digital files where this information could be stored . </P> <P> As a result, almost all digital audio formats, including mp3, broadcast wav and AIFF files, have similar standardized locations that can be populated with metadata . The metadata for compressed and uncompressed digital music is often encoded in the ID3 tag . Common editors such as TagLib support MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, Speex, WavPack TrueAudio, WAV, AIFF, MP4, and ASF file formats . </P> <P> With the availability of cloud applications, which include those to add metadata to content, metadata is increasingly available over the Internet . </P> <P> Metadata can be stored either internally, in the same file or structure as the data (this is also called embedded metadata), or externally, in a separate file or field from the described data . A data repository typically stores the metadata detached from the data, but can be designed to support embedded metadata approaches . Each option has advantages and disadvantages: </P>

Metadata are data that describe the properties of other data