Identifying MP3 files with no MP3 tag

[shockme]

I have all of my CD collection stored as MP3 files. As part of this system, I have several Perl scripts which rely upon the MP3 tag in order to perform certain processes. As I was testing these scripts, I discovered that (for whatever reason) many of the MP3 files did not contain MP3 tag information.

The following script creates a file of all MP3 files which don't have MP3 tag information. This file can then be passed to another script for further processing.

The script is quick and dirty, is of obvious limited usefulness and could probably be coded more cleanly. However, it works and it works well. I'm just posting it here (1) because once again, Perl has the solution to my problem, and (2) in the hopes that others may find it useful.

Comments and improvements are most welcome.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

# only these fields need to be changed
@ARGV = qw(/music/mp3/);   # where MP3 files are located
my $outfile = "$ENV{HOME}/mp3/NoTag";   # where to write the output

# nothing below here needs to be changed
open (MP3, "> $outfile") || die "can't open MP3: $!";
use File::Find;
use MPEG::MP3Info;

&File::Find::find(\&check, @ARGV);
exit;

sub check {
        if ($File::Find::name !~ /\.mp3$/) {
                return;
        }

        my $tag = get_mp3tag($File::Find::name);
        if (!($tag)) { # if no id tag, print
                print MP3 "$File::Find::name\n";
        }
}

If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me.

[edebill]

I've been using a handy little utility called "mp3cddb" and it's companion "mp3cddbtag" to look up mp3's in the cddb database and tag them appropriately. Works quite well. And it's a perl script. :-)

It might just make the perfect post-processing step after running your script. You can find it at http://k2.jozsef.kando.hu/~drewie/mp3cddb/

[Rich36]

Quick question - Where is this function? my $tag = get_mp3tag($File::Find::name);. Is get_mp3tag() from a module that's not listed or a function that is not listed or am I missing something?
Rich36

[shockme]

get_mp3tag is provided by MPEG::MP3Info.

If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me.

[Kickstart]

Why not just parse the info that the 'file' command gives you?

An example:

$ file Tracy\ Chapman\ -\ Fast\ Car\ Live\ Acoustic.mp3
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car Live Acoustic.mp3: MP3, 128 kBits, 44.1 kHz, 
+JStereo

And yes, if you are with the RIAA, I DO own the CD. :)

Kickstart