id3 (1)

id3 [-tTaAycg newdata] file1 [file2 [file3...]]

id3 -l file1 [file2 [file3...]]

id3 -d file1 [file2 [file3...]]

id3 -L

id3 is an ID3 v1.1 tag editor. ID3 tags are traditionally put at the end of compressed streamed audio files to denote information about the audio contents. Up to thirty characters of Title, Artist, and Album information can be stored, as well as a 28-character comment, four-digit year, track number up to 255, and an enumerated genre.

-t title

Sets the title tag to the first 28 characters of title.

-T track

Sets the track tag to a number between 0 and 255.

-a artist

Sets the artist tag to the first 28 characters of artist.

-A album

Sets the album tag to the first 28 characters of album.

-y year

Sets the year tag to the first 4 characters of year.

-c comment

Sets the comment tag to the first 28 characters of comment.

-g genre

Sets the genre number tag using a genre number or predefined genre label.

-l

List/view the ID3 tag.

-L

List all genre tags.

-R

Use rfc822-style output for tag printout.

-d

Delete the ID3 tag.

The ID3 format has some shortcomings. There is a 1 in 16777216 chance of your mp3 having a certain bit-pattern, causing id3 to write over the last 128 bytes of your mp3 upon tag creation. If you add a track number to an ID3 v1.0 tag, the last two characters of the comment string will be truncated. Any bugs found in id3 should be forwarded to the author, Robert Woodcock <[email protected]>.