Yup. ID3v1 sucks. Period. It's worse than just encoding the data in the filename (unless you've got an operating system that arbitrarily prevents you from using large sets of characters in filenames). I'm not sure what it is that you're doing that takes either 5 seconds or 15 minutes. Regardless, poor implementation is not a sign that the specification is poor. Then again, it's hard to beat the speed of fixed-size buffers that are always at the same exact location. Also, you can put an ID3v2 tag anywhere in an mp3 file except in the middle of an mp3 frame. It makes the most sense in most cases, however, to put them at the beginning. If it confuses your VBR player, then just put it right after, since that's just as valid. It would be nice if you could have an offset to the tag, or individual frames in the mp3 header, but mp3 has no file header. Except for the VBR header, which is yet another ``aftermarket'' specification. Unfortunately, we can't change the mp3 spec because it's fixed by a governing body well removed from the public. This is one of the many reasons that Ogg support would be nice. Too bad it's (apparently) so hard to port to integer math.

Sorry for the ramblin'.