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convert encoding of id3 tags of mp3 file

Unix & Linux Asked by bejo on December 28, 2020

My mp3 file has id3 tags which can be displayed in a terminal on my debian buster linux for example by using the program id3tool or id3.
If my shell (xfce4-terminal) has a set default character encoding to UTF-8, the output of id3tool looks like this:

Filename: test.mp3
Song Title: Qu�l Dich Fit
Artist:     Wise Guys
Album:      Frei!
Track:      16
Year:       2008
Genre:      Rock (0x11)

By choosing a default character encoding for the terminal to ISO-8859-1, the output of id3tool is:

Filename: test.mp3
Song Title: Quäl Dich Fit
Artist:     Wise Guys
Album:      Frei!
Track:      16
Year:       2008
Genre:      Rock (0x11)

The invalid character of the title name is gone and replaced with the correct one.
I want to be able to see the correct song title without having to switch the terminal encoding.

The mp3 file is not a text file. It is a binary with id3 tags, which apparently are encoded in ISO-8859-1.
The command

file -bi test.mp3 

yields

audio/mpeg; charset=binary

Can I transform the encoding of this file to UTF-8? "iconv" works only for text files.

What else should I do to be able to work with the id3 tags of my mp3 files without invalid characters?

One Answer

extract metadata to txt file with ffmpeg, convert it with iconv, then re-add.

Correct answer by Ipor Sircer on December 28, 2020

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