diff --git a/gst-libs/gst/tag/gstid3tag.c b/gst-libs/gst/tag/gstid3tag.c
index f50988e160..e400894f52 100644
--- a/gst-libs/gst/tag/gstid3tag.c
+++ b/gst-libs/gst/tag/gstid3tag.c
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ gst_tag_list_new_from_id3v1 (const guint8 * data)
     gst_tag_extract_id3v1_string (list, GST_TAG_COMMENT, (gchar *) & data[97],
         30);
   }
-  if (data[127] < gst_tag_id3_genre_count ()) {
+  if (data[127] < gst_tag_id3_genre_count () && !gst_tag_list_is_empty (list)) {
     gst_tag_list_add (list, GST_TAG_MERGE_REPLACE, GST_TAG_GENRE,
         gst_tag_id3_genre_get (data[127]), NULL);
   }