# Freeware OS X app for editing MP3 tags en masse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 22, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965 "2009-02-22T18:15:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/1 "2009-02-22T18:15:37Z")

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I have hundreds of “Old Time Radio” MP3s downloaded from [archive.org](http://archive.org). I’m especially fond of the series [Dimension X](http://www.archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Dimension_X) and [X Minus One](http://www.archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_X_Minus_One).

However, whoever posted those MP3s chose to populate the “Album” tag with the original air-date, so that the “Album” is something like “11/10/55, episode 24”. This means that the Album sections in iTunes and my iPod get cluttered up with hundreds of these single-item “Albums”.

I’d like to preserve the air-date info by moving it to the “Comment” tag. Is there some software package that would let me do this for hundreds of files in one step? That is, I want something where I can basically say, “In each of the MP3s in the following directories, take whatever is in the Album tag and append it to the Comment tag.”

I don’t think that I can do this just using iTunes because I want to put different information in the Comment tags of the different MP3 files. However, I still want to do something very mechanical, so there should be an automatic way.

Searching for “mp3 tag editor” brings up a bunch of for-pay software packages, which I hope to avoid for this one-off task. Does anyone know of any freeware options for this kind of thing?

ETA: I put it in the subject line, but I forgot to mention in the OP that I’m using OS X. Specifically, OS 10.5.6.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/2 "2009-02-22T18:20:06Z")

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Maybe this: [http://members.verizon.net/pucklock/id3Infiltr8/IDInfiltr8.html](http://members.verizon.net/pucklock/id3Infiltr8/IDInfiltr8.html) ?

Or Automator.

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**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/3 "2009-02-22T19:57:51Z")

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This might work:  
[This Tag That Tag Scripts](http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=thistagthattag)

Once you install it, you just select all the songs you want changed (directly from within iTunes), invoke the script from the Script menu and let it prompt you for which attributes you want to swap.

I tested it with several files and it seems to work perfectly well. It’s not quite as simple as dropping a folder on something, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to select contiguously or even non-contiguously all the files you need, even if you might have to do it in two or three batches.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/4 "2009-02-22T20:49:28Z")

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> [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](#):
>
> I don’t think that I can do this just using iTunes because I want to put different information in the Comment tags of the different MP3 files. However, I still want to do something very mechanical, so there should be an automatic way.

AppleScript will handle this easily.

```auto

tell application "iTunes"	
	set alb to album of current track
	set comment of current track to alb
end tell

```

I just chose the current track. You’ll have to write a loop to step through every track.

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**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/5 "2009-02-22T20:54:40Z")

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Thanks for the replies. I’m at work right now, so I haven’t had a chance to try any of these options yet. **Hoops** ’s and **Squink** ’s suggestions look like they should do the trick, though. **beowulff** ’s link looks very useful, too, but I don’t think it’ll do exactly what I need, at least not in an obvious way.

The one concern I have about the scripting solutions is that I don’t want to lose whatever might be in the comment tag already. I’d just like to append the album info to it. Are there script commands for doing that?

Thanks again for the help. It’s saving me hours of tedious work.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/6 "2009-02-22T21:01:36Z")

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& is the concatenation operator

```auto

set namen to "vug"
set wook to "wert"

set pflug to namen & wook

display dialog pflug

```

The Apple website has the Applescript manuals.  
There _is_ a language guide, but it can be a bit hard to find depending on whta Apple does with their website this week.

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**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/7 "2009-02-22T21:23:01Z")

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> [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](#):
>
> The one concern I have about the scripting solutions is that I don’t want to lose whatever might be in the comment tag already. I’d just like to append the album info to it. Are there script commands for doing that?

The script bundle from my link can do this.

All in all, I suspect that This Tag That Tag Scripts is just a convenient collection of the sort of scripts that **Squink** has recommended.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/8 "2009-02-22T21:56:44Z")

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> [@Hoops](#):
>
> All in all, I suspect that This Tag That Tag Scripts is just a convenient collection of the sort of scripts that **Squink** has recommended.

Yup. “Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes” is great, if you can find the script that does just what you want, and it runs on your system. Barring that, it’s useful to learn how to roll your own.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/9 "2009-02-23T02:23:28Z")

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This appears to be the latest version of the AppleScript Language Guide:  
[2008-03-11 Updated to describe AppleScript features through Mac OS X v10.5 and AppleScript 2.0.](http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptLangGuide/revision_history/ASLR_rev_history.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40000983-CH212-BCIHHGJH)

Click at top left of window to download pdf.

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/10 "2009-02-23T03:19:55Z")

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Look for TriTag… works well enough for me!

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**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-os-x-app-for-editing-mp3-tags-en-masse/486965/11 "2009-02-24T12:48:09Z")

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Thanks, guys. The script solutions worked perfectly.