# QuickTime metadata keys Use QuickTime keys to hold data in a Metadata atom. ## Overview |Key |Key Type|Value Payload |Definition | |------------------------------------|--------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| |com.apple.quicktime.album |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Album or collection name of which the movie content forms a part. For example, “Technical documents performed to blues tunes Volume 1.” | |com.apple.quicktime.artist |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Name of the artist who created the movie file content. | |com.apple.quicktime.artwork |`'mdta’`|An representative image for the movie content in a format such as JPEG (value type 13), PNG (value type 14) or BMP (value type 27). This might be album artwork, a movie poster, etc.|A single image that can represent the movie file content. | |com.apple.quicktime.author |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Name of the author of the movie file content. | |com.apple.quicktime.comment |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |User entered comment regarding the movie file content. For example, “Great for a laugh.” | |com.apple.quicktime.copyright |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Copyright statement for the movie file content. For example, “Copyright © 2012 Example Company.” | |com.apple.quicktime.creationdate |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |The date the movie file content was created. For example, “4/21/2012”. | |com.apple.quicktime.description |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Description of the movie file content. For example, “This group of engineers takes popular technical documents and does music videos performing them to novel blues tunes they write.” | |com.apple.quicktime.director |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Name of the director of the movie content. | |com.apple.quicktime.title |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |The title of the movie file content. This is typically a single text line. For example, “Technical Writers Do the Blues”. | |com.apple.quicktime.genre |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Text describing the genre or genres to which the movie content conforms. There is no prescribed vocabulary for names of genres. For example, “Blues”. | |com.apple.quicktime.information |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Information about the movie file content. For example, “Recorded live on location.” | |com.apple.quicktime.keywords |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Keywords associated with the movie file content. For example, “Blues Specifications Group Video Music”. | |com.apple.quicktime.location.ISO6709|`'mdta’`|Defined in ISO 6709:2008. |Geographic point location by coordinates as defined in ISO 6709:2008. For example, “+27.5916+086.5640+8850/”. | |com.apple.quicktime.producer |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Name of producer of movie file content. | |com.apple.quicktime.publisher |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Name of publisher of movie file content. | |com.apple.quicktime.software |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Name of software used to create the movie file content. | |com.apple.quicktime.year |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Year when the movie file or the original content was created or recorded. For example, “2012”. | |com.apple.quicktime.collection.user |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |A name indicating a user-defined collection that includes this movie. | |com.apple.quicktime.rating.user |`'mdta’`|A BE Float32 (value type 23). The range of this number is 0.0 to 5.0, inclusive. |A number, assigned by the user, that indicates the rating or relative value of the movie. This number can range from 0.0 to 5.0. A value of 0.0 indicates that the user has not rated the movie. For example, “4.5”.| In addition, QuickTime recommends the auxiliary keys shown in the following table for holding additional metadata to be associated with a location. |Key |Key Type|Value Payload |Definition | |------------------------------------|--------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| |com.apple.quicktime.location.name |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Name of the location. For example, “Sweden” or “Grandmother’s house”. | |com.apple.quicktime.location.body |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |The astronomical body, for compatibility with the 3GPP format. ‘earth’ is assumed if not present. | |com.apple.quicktime.location.note |`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1). Can have multiple values with different language and country code designations. |Descriptive comment. For example, “following a dog”. | |com.apple.quicktime.location.role |`'mdta’`|An unsigned integer (value type 22). |A single byte, binary value containing a value from the set: 0 indicates “shooting location”, 1 indicates “real location”, 2 indicates “fictional location”. Other values are reserved. | |com.apple.quicktime.location.date |`'mdta’`|Defined in ISO8601:2004. |A date and time, stored using the extended format defined in ISO 8601:2004- Data elements and interchange format. For example, “2012-02-24T17:56Z” for a date of February 24, 2012, time of 17:56, UTC.| |com.apple.quicktime.direction.facing|`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1)holding a machine readable direction value, as described below. This should not be tagged with a country or language code. |An indication of the direction the camera is facing during the shot. For example, “+20.34M/-5.3” for a heading of 20.34º magnetic, looking or going down at 5.3º below the horizontal. | |com.apple.quicktime.direction.motion|`'mdta’`|A UTF-8 string (value type 1) holding a machine readable direction value, as described below. This should not be tagged with a country or language code.|An indication of the direction the camera is moving during the shot. For example, “+20.34M/-5.3” for a heading of 20.34º magnetic, looking or going down at 5.3º below the horizontal. | --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. 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