audio-metatag

Clean metadata and tag audio files (MP3, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis)

• Copyright (c) 2015-2026 Corey Goldberg
• Development: GitHub
• Download/Install: PyPI
• License: MIT

About:

audio_metatag is a Python CLI program for cleaning metadata and adding ARTIST/TITLE tags to MP3, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis audio files. It can be used on individual files or a library of files.

• In order to tag a file, it must be named in a specific format:
  • Artist - Title.mp3, Artist - Title.flac, Artist - Title.ogg
  • File names must contain a delimiter (-) between Artist and Title, and end with a valid extension: .mp3, .flac, .ogg (case-insensitive)
• It will skip any files that are not named according to the format specified above

Warning: Edits are done in-place. Backup your files first if you want a copy of the originals.

• Existing metadata is deleted
• ARTIST and TITLE tag data is taken from the filename
• New metadata is saved to the file

Requirements:

• Python 3.12+

Installation:

Install from PyPI:

pip install audio-metatag

CLI Options:

• If filenames are given as command-line options, it will only process those files
• If no filename is specified, it will process all files (recursively) in the current directory
• A different directory can be specified using the --dir option

usage: audio_metatag [-h] [-d DIR] [-c] [-s] [filename ...]

positional arguments:
  filename       [optional] file to process (multiple allowed)

options:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  -d, --dir DIR  start directory
  -c, --clean    only clean metadata (don't write new tags)
  -s, --show     only show metadata (don't remove or write tags)

Usage Examples:

Install from PyPI with pipx:

pipx install audio-metatag

Clean metadata and tag a single file:

audio_metatag "Some Artist - Some Title.mp3"

Clean metadata and tag all files in current directory (recurse subdirectories):

audio_metatag

Clean metadata from all files in a directory (recurse subdirectories):

audio_metatag --clean --dir=/path/to/files

Metadata Details:

Metadata that is clean/removed:

• FLAC

  • VORBIS_COMMENT
  • PICTURE
  • SEEKTABLE
  • CUESHEET
  • APPLICATION
  • PADDING
  • ID3 (extraneous)

• MP3

  • ID3v1
  • ID3v2
  • APEv2

• Ogg Vorbis

  • Vorbis Comments

Metadata where new tags are written:

• FLAC

  • VORBIS_COMMENT

• MP3

  • ID3v2.4

• Ogg Vorbis

  • Vorbis Comments