Question

I am attempting to edit certain MP3 files ID3 tags through Python. I have done some research, and found the mutagen, and eyeD3 libraries. However, I have run into similar issues with both of these libraries. Both implementations complain that the file I’m providing either does not exist, or is not an .mp3 file.

I have downloaded Mp3tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html) and confirmed that the file I am providing is Tagged as ID3v2.3(ID3v1 ID3v2.3) and that is an .mp3 file.

Below is the mutagen code, followed by the error I receive:

from mutagen.mp3 import MP3

audio = MP3("C:\Users\557319\Music\Trance\Paul van Dyk - We Come Together (Arty Remix)")
print audio.info.length, audio.info.bitrate

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#14>", line 1, in <module>
    audio = MP3("C:\Users\557319\Music\Trance\Paul van Dyk - We Come Together (Arty Remix)  www.freshnewtracks.com.mp3")
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\mutagen\__init__.py", line 75, in __init__
    self.load(filename, *args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\mutagen\id3.py", line 1995, in load
    try: self.tags = ID3(filename, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\mutagen\id3.py", line 74, in __init__
super(ID3, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\mutagen\_util.py", line 105, in __init__
    super(DictProxy, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\mutagen\__init__.py", line 39, in __init__
    self.load(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\mutagen\id3.py", line 109, in load
    self.__fileobj = file(filename, 'rb')
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\\Userso319\\Music\\Trance\\Paul van Dyk - We Come Together (Arty Remix) www.freshnewtracks.com.mp3'

Now when I try to view the ID3 data using eyeD3, I experience the following:

import eyeD3

trackInfo = eyeD3.Mp3AudioFile("C:\Users\557319\Music\Trance\Paul van Dyk - We Come Together (Arty Remix) www.freshnewtracks.com")

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#12>", line 1, in <module>
trackInfo = eyeD3.Mp3AudioFile("C:\Users\557319\Music\Trance\Paul van Dyk - We Come Together (Arty Remix) www.freshnewtracks.com")
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\eyeD3\tag.py", line 1618, in __init__
    raise InvalidAudioFormatException("File is not mp3");
InvalidAudioFormatException: File is not mp3

My guess is that I am not viewing the file properly? Do I need to use some type of os library to properly view these files ID3 data for Windows 7? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

When you deal with Windows paths in Python, you have three options:

• escape all backslashes with an additional one ("C:\\mydir\\myfile.mp3")
• specify it as a “raw” string (r'C:\mydir\myfile.mp3' — note the initial “r”)
• use forward-slashes. Some libs might not like it.

Whenever you manipulate paths, you should always use the functions in the os.path module, e.g. os.path.join(r'C:\mydir','myfile.mp3')

(as an aside, note that ID3 libs like mutagen are known for being buggy and temperamental, so expect breakages or weird behaviour; this is unfortunately due to ID3 being a poorly-specified non-standard full of corner cases and strange implementations.)