When we’re talking audio masters, metadata is information about the music which is written as part of the audio file itself. While relevant information like artist name, album name, and song titles all get written to your music in the case of a CD release via a DDP, you can actually add this information to the digital version of your music, as well. While the process varies depending on the exact file type, specifically here we’re going to talk about how to add metadata to WAV files.
Adding Metadata to WAV Files

As I covered in my types of audio formats comparison, WAV files are both uncompressed and loseless. While they show it in the biggest file sizes possible for music, they’re the purest and most accurate representation of your audio digitally. While other audio formats are more metadata compatible, it’s still possible to add metadata to WAV files.
So how do we add metadata to WAV files?
There is a thankfully FREE software available to all platforms called BWF MetaEdit which you can use to (relatively) easily include an extensive amount of information about your track within that WAV file.
I say extensive, but I really mean a RIDICULOUSLY extensive amount of information beyond simply adding the artist, song, and album name to a WAV.
BWF MetaEdit was made specifically to add metadata to WAV files and was initially commissioned in part by the Library of Congress of all institutions.
You can use it to write/embed metadata to your WAVs as well as validate or export metadata in a WAV.
To add metadata, you simply drag and drop your WAV file(s) into the interface.

After it gets populated with your tracks, you can click on the edit marker for a specific track, or you can go to the expanded settings chart by clicking the icon on the left.
This allows you to somewhat more efficiently add information, and copy and paste between boxes in the case of repeats like artist or album name for multiple WAVs.
While you can use BWF MetaEdit to add any metadata you want to your WAV file(s), note that support for displaying this information is far from universal for WAV files.
Most notably, the metadata will appear in its folder in Windows or other operating systems, making it excellent for cataloging purposes.
Adding metadata is satisfying for tagging WAV files of your own music after you’ve just finished creating them, and it’s much more reliable than falling back on file names which can easily be changed.