How to Add Explicit or Clean Tags in iTunes with Mp3tag (Windows)

Last Updated: January 31, 2023

If you have songs that you bought from iTunes, you may have little boxes next to the song names that say "EXPLICIT" or "CLEAN." They are one of the few things iTunes does not let you edit. However, you can add, delete, or change the tag. Maybe iTunes labeled a song that actually contains no profanity as "EXPLICIT." Or maybe you bought a song or downloaded a free mixtape and the songs are explicit, but the parental controls don't filter them out because they do not have a tag. This article tells you how to change the tags.

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iTunes can do this. You can select all of your music files, right click, and click "Create AAC Version." However, this option converts your music files and moves them to a different folder which you will have to hunt down. I would suggest downloading a different software, such as RealPlayer Converter, which is free, to convert the files to .m4a files. Make sure you convert the files to a separate location from your old music files and make sure you can access the new folder.
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In the File menu, click "Add Directory" and choose the folder in which you put the converted music files.
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Select them all (Ctrl + a) and right click. On the list of options, you should see an option named "Extended Tags." Click on that option.
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Type in "ITUNESADVISORY" in the "Field" box in the new window that pops up and "0" in the "Value" box. Click "OK" on both windows.
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Click "Customize Columns" and click "New." Type in "iTunes Advisory" for "Name" and "" for "Value." Click "OK."
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The column may be all the way to the right, so make sure to check there.
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If a song is explicit, type in a "1" in the "iTunes Advisory" column. If a song is clean, type a "2" instead. If the song had no profanity to begin with, leave the column a "0" (or you could leave it blank).
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Your old music files are still there. Select them all and press delete. Drag the new files in. Your explicit songs should now have the "Explicit" tag and your clean songs should now have a "Clean" tag.

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In order to select multiple files at the same time, hold down control and click on multiple files to select them. To label all of the selected songs with the same tag, right click, click on "Extended Tags," and type in a "1" or "2" depending on the tag that you want for the value of the tag. Click "OK."

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Warnings

When converting a file to another file type, you may lose some sound quality.

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You may lose some previously entered metadata, such as album art during the conversion process. You can add it again after the process.

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How to Add Explicit or Clean Tags in iTunes with Mp3tag (Windows)

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