MP3 files have imbedded metadata that I would like to edit. I have between 35K and 40K files that I would like to edit one or two fields in each. I would also like to export to an Excel database a selection of fields: Title, Artist, Comment and so on. I can open each individual file in File Explore and select Properties and edit the field but I could spend years doing that. Has anyone had any experience using VBA to automate the process? I have some experience with VBA over the years but the interface between Excel and File Explorer is my problem.
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ParamRay
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Here are some helper methods to read from/write to the ID3 tag of an MP3 file.
Place the code below into a module, and then you can call the methods like this...
To get the artist:
strLeadArtist = GetTagItem("C:\Users\John\Music\Like a Rolling Stone.mp3", LeadArtist)
To set the artist:
SetTagItem "C:\Users\John\Music\Like a Rolling Stone.mp3", LeadArtist, "Bob Dylan"
You could also call the methods within a loop if you want to read/write multiple MP3 tags at once.
Place the code below into a module, and then you can call the methods like this...
To get the artist:
strLeadArtist = GetTagItem("C:\Users\John\Music\Like a Rolling Stone.mp3", LeadArtist)
To set the artist:
SetTagItem "C:\Users\John\Music\Like a Rolling Stone.mp3", LeadArtist, "Bob Dylan"
You could also call the methods within a loop if you want to read/write multiple MP3 tags at once.
Code:
Public Enum TagItem
Album
BeatsPerMinute
Comments
CopyrightHolder
CopyrightYear
FileId
Genre
ISRC
Label
LeadArtist
Movie
PartOfSet
Title
TrackPosition
Year
End Enum
Public Function GetTagItem(ByVal Path As String, ByVal Item As TagItem) As String
Dim id3Tag As Object ' CDDBCONTROLLib.CddbID3Tag
Set id3Tag = CreateObject("CDDBControl.CddbID3Tag")
id3Tag.LoadFromFile Path, True
Select Case Item
Case Album: GetTagItem = id3Tag.Album
Case BeatsPerMinute: GetTagItem = id3Tag.BeatsPerMinute
Case Comments: GetTagItem = id3Tag.Comments
Case CopyrightHolder: GetTagItem = id3Tag.CopyrightHolder
Case CopyrightYear: GetTagItem = id3Tag.CopyrightYear
Case FileId: GetTagItem = id3Tag.FileId
Case Genre: GetTagItem = id3Tag.Genre
Case ISRC: GetTagItem = id3Tag.ISRC
Case Label: GetTagItem = id3Tag.Label
Case LeadArtist: GetTagItem = id3Tag.LeadArtist
Case Movie: GetTagItem = id3Tag.Movie
Case PartOfSet: GetTagItem = id3Tag.PartOfSet
Case Title: GetTagItem = id3Tag.Title
Case TrackPosition: GetTagItem = id3Tag.TrackPosition
Case Year: GetTagItem = id3Tag.Year
End Select
Set id3Tag = Nothing
End Function
Public Sub SetTagItem(ByVal Path As String, ByVal Item As TagItem, ByVal Value As String)
Dim id3Tag As Object ' CDDBCONTROLLib.CddbID3Tag
Set id3Tag = CreateObject("CDDBControl.CddbID3Tag")
id3Tag.LoadFromFile Path, False
Select Case Item
Case Album: id3Tag.Album = Value
Case BeatsPerMinute: id3Tag.BeatsPerMinute = Value
Case Comments: id3Tag.Comments = Value
Case CopyrightHolder: id3Tag.CopyrightHolder = Value
Case CopyrightYear: id3Tag.CopyrightYear = Value
Case FileId: id3Tag.FileId = Value
Case Genre: id3Tag.Genre = Value
Case ISRC: id3Tag.ISRC = Value
Case Label: id3Tag.Label = Value
Case LeadArtist: id3Tag.LeadArtist = Value
Case Movie: id3Tag.Movie = Value
Case PartOfSet: id3Tag.PartOfSet = Value
Case Title: id3Tag.Title = Value
Case TrackPosition: id3Tag.TrackPosition = Value
Case Year: id3Tag.Year = Value
End Select
id3Tag.SaveToFile Path
Set id3Tag = Nothing
End Sub
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DRSteele
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I can't help with VBA. But there are programs that extract metadata like MP3 tags and create an Excel spreadsheet. TagScanner is a music app that can export MP3 tags as csv files. You can then manipulate the data using Excel or PowerQuery.
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Thanks. I looked at Tag&Rename but it does not fit my requirements.
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thank you, works like a charm, but do you know what the right name is for album artist?
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I realize this is thread is old thus I may not get any response from the participants, but here goes:
I am mainly interested in the TrackPosition tag for my project, and by using the posted code I can read that tag and get the same result as what Windows File Explorer or a tag editing utility shows. However, I cannot seem to edit the tag value using that code, which does not raise an error when I try. I can verify this by looking at the # column in FE and by using a tag editor utility afterwards and the tag remains the same before and after the code runs. Tag editing programs do edit the tag though.
I may get asked why I need to do this, and the answer is, I intend to create an Access db to capture my mp3 titles and will use a tag editing app to fix the song titles. However, I want to use vba to modify the TrackPosition tag to match the first 2 characters of the song titles (e.g. "03") because my car can present song lists by artist, folder or alpha titles. I want those lists to all be the same wrt position. A tag app will set the track position according to its position on an album, but some folders contain songs from different albums. Thus I will end up with mp3 files having the same track position, which will then sort by alpha, not by the position I want.
I suspect the problem with the code is that ID3 tags these days may have a version which has changed since that code was posted and may not gel with the posted code. Hoping someone can help.
I am mainly interested in the TrackPosition tag for my project, and by using the posted code I can read that tag and get the same result as what Windows File Explorer or a tag editing utility shows. However, I cannot seem to edit the tag value using that code, which does not raise an error when I try. I can verify this by looking at the # column in FE and by using a tag editor utility afterwards and the tag remains the same before and after the code runs. Tag editing programs do edit the tag though.
I may get asked why I need to do this, and the answer is, I intend to create an Access db to capture my mp3 titles and will use a tag editing app to fix the song titles. However, I want to use vba to modify the TrackPosition tag to match the first 2 characters of the song titles (e.g. "03") because my car can present song lists by artist, folder or alpha titles. I want those lists to all be the same wrt position. A tag app will set the track position according to its position on an album, but some folders contain songs from different albums. Thus I will end up with mp3 files having the same track position, which will then sort by alpha, not by the position I want.
I suspect the problem with the code is that ID3 tags these days may have a version which has changed since that code was posted and may not gel with the posted code. Hoping someone can help.
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Jaafar Tribak
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Yes. That is how it shows in File Explorer. The ID3 tag property is called TrackPosition. If I could figure out why I can read that property (using the posted code) but can't edit it that would be great. There are other threads where using CddbControlRoxio.dll was a solution so I tried to download and register that file but it seems it is dependent upon another dll. Windows regsvr32 doesn't reveal dependencies when it fails . There are utilities you can install to determine dependencies but I don't want to go down that road. I think that the problem with most of these tag editing threads is that they're so old. I figure that has something to do with the fact that many codes don't work anymore.
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