the resulting .mp3 have an ID3v2 tag in front with some binary info that confuses the Empeg car player. Uploading with emplode seems to avoid the problem, but uploading with emptool results in a front panel message of "invalid mp3 format" when attempting to play such files.

Ooo! Ooo! I know this one!

Emplode, in a recent version, started storing in the database a bit of new information: The offset to the starting point of the actual song data. The player takes this into account when validating the file. Your tool doesn't need to strip the V2 tag, it just needs to write this value into the database.

Oh and one more thing: Word wrap is your friend.

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Tony Fabris