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What “every tag” means here
An MP3 can carry metadata in three separate places, written by different generations of software. Most tag editors only clear the first one:
- ID3v2 at the head of the file — the modern tag: title, artist, cover art, comments, credits, links, the software that exported it, private vendor data.
- ID3v1 in the last 128 bytes — a 1990s leftover that many encoders still append, and that some players read when ID3v2 is missing. An old comment can sit in it for years after the main tag was edited.
- APEv2 near the end — added by some rippers and loudness tools, ignored by most players, and therefore rarely noticed.
This page opens with Every tag already selected, so all three are cut out. What comes back is the audio stream alone.
When stripping everything is the right call
For a track you are releasing under your own name, removing the title and artist is usually a mistake — the file turns up as “Unknown Artist”. But there are plenty of jobs where a bare file is exactly what you want:
- Uploading to a platform that writes its own metadata. Distributors, stores and beat marketplaces take the title, artist and artwork from their upload form. Leftover tags in the file do nothing at best and contradict the form at worst.
- Sending stems, previews or references to a client. A bounce should not arrive carrying a session name, a comment from mixdown or another project’s cover art.
- Sample packs and sound libraries. Hundreds of one-shots each carrying an old tag bloat the pack and leak whatever the tagging software wrote.
- Archiving and de-duplication. Two copies of the same recording with different tags have different checksums. Stripped, identical audio produces identical files.
If you only want the personal and technical data gone and the labels kept, switch to Technical data only before cleaning. Same tool, one click.
No re-encode, so no quality loss
Tags are blocks attached to the head and tail of the file; the MPEG audio frames sit between them. The tool finds those boundaries and copies the frames across byte for byte. A 320 kbps file stays 320 kbps and its length does not change by a single frame.
That is the difference from “removing tags” by opening a track in an audio editor and exporting it again: every export is another lossy encode, and each one costs a little quality.
The one thing that stays
Most encoders write a small Xing/LAME info frame as the first frame of audio. It records the encoder version and the numbers a player needs to seek accurately in a VBR file and to play gaplessly. It is part of the audio stream rather than a tag, so it is kept — removing it would break seeking. It contains no names, comments or anything anyone typed.
How to strip all tags from an MP3
“Every tag” is already selected on this page.
Step 1: Drop in one or more MP3s
Drag files onto the box above or click to choose them. Several at once come back as a single ZIP.
Step 2: Check the report
For a single file the panel shows the tag version and lists the kinds of metadata found, so you can see what is about to go.
Step 3: Clean and download
Press the button. The tags are cut out in your browser and the file downloads straight away; the original on your disk is not changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the file still play everywhere?
Yes. Tags are optional, and an MP3 without any is completely valid. Players show the file name instead of a title, and no artwork.
How do I check that nothing is left?
Drop the cleaned file back into the tool. The report says no tag and lists nothing.
Does it work on WAV, FLAC or M4A?
FLAC and WAV, yes — each keeps its metadata in structures of its own (Vorbis comments, RIFF chunks), and each has its own page: FLAC, WAV. M4A too: the tag boxes are overwritten in place with empty space of the same size, so the audio stays exactly where it was and the file still plays everywhere it did.
Is there a size or file-count limit?
None is imposed. The practical ceiling is your device’s memory, because each file is held there while it is processed. If you clean thousands of files every week, a desktop tag editor such as Mp3tag will be faster.
Are my files uploaded?
No. They are read and rewritten by this page in your browser and never sent anywhere.
Related Tools
- View and Clear the Copyright Tag in MP3 MetadataClear the copyright, owner and publisher fields an MP3 carries while keeping its title and artist — and know exactly what that text does and does not control.
- Remove Producer Tags from an MP3Strip producer credits, software names and links a beat carries in its metadata — and see why a voice tag inside the audio is another matter entirely.
- Remove Metadata from a FLAC FileClear the comments, credits, cover art and encoder name a FLAC carries — without decoding a single audio frame.
- Remove Metadata from a WAV FileTake out the software, engineer, project notes and XMP a WAV picks up on its way through a DAW — and keep the loops and cue points a sampler needs.
- MP3 Metadata & ID3 Tag Remover (also M4A, FLAC, WAV)Strip studio, software, device and personal details from MP3, M4A, OGG, FLAC and WAV files, keeping title and artist.