Audio metadata storage

Question

I checked through the questions asked on SO on audio metadata, but could not find one which answers my doubt. Where exactly is the metadata of audio files stored, and in what form? Is it in the form of files or in a database? And where is this database of files stored?

Answer 1

Thank you Michelle. My basic confusion was whether the metadata is stored as a part of the file or in a separate file which is stored somewhere else in the file system - like inode in case of Unix like systems. ID3 shows that it is stored with the file as a block of bytes after the actual content of the file.

Is this the way of metadata storage for most of the other file types?