The present invention relates to a device and method for managing metadata. A principal object of the present invention is to provide a device and method for managing metadata by which only key metadata can be selected and provided in accordance with their priorities upon playback of audio content by defining attributes of key metadata according to characteristics of the audio content. To achieve this object of the present invention, there is provided a method of managing metadata, comprising the steps of assigning priorities to attributes of key metadata according to characteristics of audio contents, reading the metadata for a specific audio content, extracting the attributes of respective metadata from the read metadata, classifying the extracted metadata attributes according to the assigned priorities and setting their priorities, and displaying the metadata for the audio content according to the set priorities. According to the present invention, there is an advantage in that major information on respective audio content can be efficiently provided to a user based on the metadata that are classified and selected according to the respective audio content.