Audiotag is a command line audio tagger written in python3. It uses TagLib to write the metadata. It features a very simple to use interactive mode which lets you tag a single album as fast as possible.

You can install audiotag directly from PyPI.

pip install audiotag

If you are running Arch Linux you can install it from the AUR. The package is called audiotag.

Audiotags functionality is split into different subcommands.

usage: audiotag [-h] [-v] {clean,copy,interactive,print,rename,set} ...

positional arguments:
  {clean,copy,interactive,print,rename,set}
    clean               delete all tags except 'ENCODER'
    copy                copy the tags from files in one folder to those in another folder
    interactive         tag a single album interactively. Treats files in subdirectories as different discs.
    print               print all tags
    rename              rename files based on their tags
    set                 set or delete tags

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         show program's version number and exit

The print subcommand prints all tags. Multiple values per tag will be printed as a list.

$ audiotag print *.flac
Filename: 1 - Nova.flac
ALBUM: Nova/Moth
ALBUMARTIST: Burial & Four Tet
ARTIST: Burial, Four Tet
DATE: 2022
DISCNUMBER: 1
DISCTOTAL: 1
ENCODER: Lavf58.76.100
GENRE: Electronic, UK Garage, Future Garage
TITLE: Nova
TRACKNUMBER: 1
TRACKTOTAL: 2

Filename: 2 - Moth.flac
ALBUM: Nova/Moth
ALBUMARTIST: Burial & Four Tet
ARTIST: Burial, Four Tet
DATE: 2022
DISCNUMBER: 1
DISCTOTAL: 1
ENCODER: Lavf58.76.100
GENRE: Electronic, UK Garage, Future Garage
TITLE: Moth
TRACKNUMBER: 2
TRACKTOTAL: 2

The interactive subcommand interprets all given files as a single album and asks for all the necessary information. If the the files are in different directories, audiotag assumes that each directory is a disk of a multi-disc release. The TRACKTOTAL and DISCTOTAL tags are set automatically. Multiple values have to be seperated by //.

$ audiotag interactive *.flac
Artist: Burial//Four Tet
Album Artist: Burial & Four Tet
Albumtitle: Nova/Moth
Genre: Electronic//UK Garage//Future Garage
Year: 2022
File: 1 - Nova.flac
Track 1: Nova
File: 2 - Moth.flac
Track 2: Moth

If you pass the --compilation flag, audiotag will ask the artist of each track.

If you want to set the tags in a non-interactive way you can use the set command. You can choose from these options:

• --artist="Example"
• --albumartist="Example"
• --title="Example"
• --album="Example"
• --date=2000
• --genre="Example"
• --tracknumber=1
• --discnumber=2
• --tracktotal=10
• --disctotal=2

Multiple artists and genres have to be separated by //. If you want to add a literal // you have to escape it like this \/\/.

If you want to remove tags you can choose these options:

• --noartist
• --noalbumartist
• --notitle
• --noalbum
• --nodate
• --nogenre
• --notracknumber
• --nodiscnumber
• --notracktotal
• --nodisctotal

You can combine these options as you like. Here is an example:

$ audiotag set --artist="Burial & Four Tet" --album="Nova/Moth" --nodiscnumber 01-nova.flac

The clean subcommand removes all tags from the given files. If you want to keep certain tags, you can specify them using the --keep parameter. If none are specified, audiotag defaults to keeping the ENCODER tag.

The rename subcommand lets you rename files based on the audio tags. You have to provide a pattern for renaming. The pattern may contain a combination of these placeholders:

• {A}: Artist
• {T}: Title
• {L}: Album
• {Y}: Date
• {G}: Genre
• {N}: Tracknumber
• {D}: Discnumber
• {NT}: Tracktotal
• {DT}: Disctotal

If you don't specify a pattern, audiotag will use {N} - {T} if the Disctotal tag is set to 1 or {D}-{N} - {T} if the Disctotal tag is set to something else or missing. You do not have to add the extension to the pattern. Audiotag adds the extension to the output file name for you.

$ ls
01-nova.flac  02-moth.flac

$ audiotag rename *.flac

$ ls
'1 - Nova.flac'  '2 - Moth.flac'

If the new filename already exists Audiotag will ask if you want to overwrite the existing file. This check can be disabled with the -f or --force option.

The copy subcommand copies the tags from all the files in the sourcefolder to corresponding files in the destination folder. The filenames are sorted alphabetically before they are matched. You may also specify a single file as source and destination. Note that the ENCODER tag ist not copied.

The config file is located here:

• Linux: ~/.config/audiotag/config.ini or in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, if defined
• MacOS: ~/Library/Preferences/audiotag/config.ini
• Win: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\audiotag\audiotag\config.ini

These are the default values:

[global]
; Input key bindings. 'emacs' or 'vi'
editing_mode = emacs
; Character for separating multiple tags
value_separator = /
; Rename pattern for single disc releases
pattern_single_disc = {N} - {T}
; Rename pattern for multi disc releases
pattern_multi_disc = {D}-{N} - {T}

The following dependencies are needed to run audiotag:

• appdirs: Standard file locations for multiple platforms
• prompt-toolkit: Better console I/O
• pytaglib: Python wrapper for accessing TagLib