Last.fm's recent decision to change some more musical tags overnight started a heated discussion on their forums. Up until now I mostly tagged my musicals with the artist being the title of the musical. Musicbrainz - and lately to some extent Last.fm - is of the opinion however that the composer should be credited. Which is equally wrong if you ask me, after all isn't the composer a separate id3 tag?

The way I see it the biggest problem is with the id3 tagging. I think it's the remainder of an obsolete format (mp3). It would be a lot better if there were a standardised tagging method, using XML, that all formats could embed from m4a to flac. I see XML as a solution because it doesn't limit the amount of data that can be added. It could even incorporate a plethora of additional information such as if the track in question is a live recording or not, if anyone's guest starring, if it's a cover of a song, etc.

Of course I'm dreaming of some utopia...