Quickly tag music and audio files in terminal with id3

id3 is available in Linux, Windows and MacOS. Make sure you install latest id3 (v0.80 as of writing) from https://squell.github.io/id3/#getting-it

Basic id3 usage #

Let’s say you have the album “Melophobia” by Cage The Elephant as below:

├── 01-Spiderhead.ogg
├── 02-Come A Little Closer.ogg
├── 03-Telescope.ogg
├── 04-It's Just Forever.ogg
├── 05-Take It Or Leave It.ogg
├── 06-Halo.ogg
├── 07-Black Widow.ogg
├── 08-Hypocrite.ogg
├── 09-Teeth.ogg
└── 10-Cigarette Daydreams.ogg

Tagging album #

Go into your terminal, then run:

id3 --album "Melophobia" *

Tagging year #

Go into your terminal, then run:

id3 --year "2013" *

Tagging artist #

Go into your terminal, then run:

id3 --artist "Cage the Elephant" *

Tagging genre #

To tag the genre, please refer to the table at the end of this page. The number 41 is for “Alternative Rock”.

Go into your terminal, then run:

id3 --genre "41"

Tagging track number #

You can tag the track number of each file one by one with:

id3 --track 1 FILENAME

Tagging title #

You can tag the title of each file one by one with:

id3 --title "TITLE" FILENAME

Powerful --match option #

the option --match is the most powerful option of this program. Please read the manpage if you are interested in the details

Or if you have your the track number in your filenames with the pattern 01-Spiderhead.ogg. Go into your terminal, then run:

id3 --match "%T-%t.ogg"

Note that --match require using the shorthands of the ID3 tag name T is short for “track” and t is short for “title”.

All of the above #

You can tag all ID3v1 information in one line:

id3 --album "Melophobia" --year "2013" --genre "41" --artist "Cage the Elephant" --match "%T-%t.ogg"

Help yourself #

id3 --help

ID3v1 genre list #

Number	Genre
01	Blues
02	Classic rock
03	Country
04	Dance
05	Disco
06	Funk
07	Grunge
08	Hip-Hop
09	Jazz
10	Metal
11	New Age
12	Oldies
13	Other
14	Pop
15	Rhythm and Blues
16	Rap
17	Reggae
18	Rock
19	Techno
20	Industrial
21	Alternative
22	Ska
23	Death metal
24	Pranks
25	Soundtrack
26	Euro-Techno
27	Ambient
28	Trip-Hop
29	Vocal
30	Jazz & Funk
31	Fusion
32	Trance
33	Classical
34	Instrumental
35	Acid
36	House
37	Game
38	Sound clip
39	Gospel
40	Noise
41	Alternative Rock
42	Bass
43	Soul
44	Punk
45	Space
46	Meditative
47	Instrumental Pop
48	Instrumental rock
49	Ethnic
50	Gothic
51	Darkwave
52	Techno-Industrial
53	Electronic
54	Pop-Folk
55	Eurodance
56	Dream
57	Southern Rock
58	Comedy
59	Cult
60	Gangsta
61	Top 40
62	Christian Rap
63	Pop/Funk
64	Jungle
65	Native US
66	Cabaret
67	New Wave
68	Psychedelic
69	Rave
70	Show tunes
71	Trailer
72	Lo-Fi
73	Tribal
74	Acid Punk
75	Acid Jazz
76	Polka
77	Retro
78	Musical
79	Rock ’n’ Roll
80	Hard rock
81	Folk
82	Folk-Rock
83	National Folk
84	Swing
85	Fast Fusion
86	Bebop
87	Latin
88	Revival
89	Celtic
90	Bluegrass
91	Avantgarde
92	Gothic Rock
93	Progressive Rock
94	Psychedelic Rock
95	Symphonic Rock
96	Slow rock
97	Big Band
98	Chorus
99	Easy Listening
100	Acoustic
101	Humour
102	Speech
103	Chanson
104	Opera
105	Chamber music
106	Sonata
107	Symphony
108	Booty bass
109	Primus
110	Porn groove
111	Satire
112	Slow jam
113	Club
114	Tango
115	Samba
116	Folklore
117	Ballad
118	Power ballad
119	Rhythmic Soul
120	Freestyle
121	Duet
122	Punk Rock
123	Drum solo
124	A cappella
125	Euro-House
126	Dancehall
127	Goa
128	Drum & Bass
129	Club-House
130	Hardcore Techno
131	Terror
132	Indie
133	BritPop
134	Negerpunk
135	Polsk Punk
136	Beat
137	Christian Gangsta Rap
138	Heavy Metal
139	Black Metal
140	Crossover
141	Contemporary Christian
142	Christian rock
143	Merengue
144	Salsa
145	Thrash Metal