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How can I change artist of multiple selected mp3 files in finder?

Like in windows we can select multiple mp3 files and can change the artist of all selected file in properties.

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you might want to upvote the answer you accepted. – Rabarberski Aug 10 '11 at 18:36

5 Answers

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I am 99% sure that Finder cannot change tags. Check here for free ID3 editors.

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This is correct (I'll vouch for the last 1% chance) - the mp3 file format embeds the artist information and although finder uses quicklook to show you that information - it's as unwilling to edit inside an mp3 as it is to edit inside an excel spreadsheet. You'll need a tool that can read/write those files and luckily for you there are thousands. – bmike♦ Aug 9 '11 at 15:23
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I was thinking so...Thanks for vouching!! :-) – daviesgeek Aug 9 '11 at 16:17
you should link to what you announced "a free ID3 editor" rather than linking to a confusing listing of various applications – kraymer Aug 9 '11 at 16:57
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I fixed it..... – daviesgeek Aug 9 '11 at 17:31
up vote 5 down vote

Finder doesn't have the smarts to change this - but finder does have a services menu that will allow you to craft a custom automator service that would help automate the process.

You can pop up a dialog to get the artist name, store it, import the songs to iTunes and set the Artist (and/or many of the other tags)

This is a nice way to learn automator if you care, but Finder won't be doing the writing of the mp3 tags. iTunes will launch and do the writing once finder hands off the file(s) and the variable name storing the artist string to iTunes.

enter image description here

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Your script uses an import in iTunes step. Won't this give rise to any unwanted side-effects if e.g. iTunes is set to auto manage the library? – Rabarberski Aug 10 '11 at 8:07
Yes indeed - this implies the songs get imported and you will have to manage / delete these songs. That is a big down side of using the tools provided and a nice benefit of the tools intended to just edit the tags in place. – bmike♦ Aug 10 '11 at 15:49
up vote 3 down vote

iTunes can do this for you easily. You cannot do it in the Finder, so do it in iTunes instead. You do not need any third-party program. This method works for iTunes on Macintosh as well as iTunes on Windows.

1) Select multiple files

enter image description here

2) Right-click or control-click and select "Get Info"

enter image description here

3) Read the dialog box and click "Yes". enter image description here

4) In this dialog, any change you make will impact all the multiple files you selected. Click OK when you are done. enter image description here

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Very nice explaination but I wanted to do it through Finder. Thank you. – Bharat Patil Aug 9 '11 at 16:26
The definitive answer, then, is: No. The Apple Macintosh Finder does not provide any means to edit ID3 tags. Therefore, you need to find another way to do this. – Wheat Williams Aug 9 '11 at 19:01
My point, cloudlight, is that the Apple Mac OS X Finder does not provide exactly the same features as the Explorer in Windows Vista. For some things on the Mac, you need other apps or utilities. There are also some things that are built-in to the Mac that cannot be done by Microsoft Windows by itself as well. – Wheat Williams Aug 9 '11 at 19:37
up vote 2 down vote

In iTunes you can change a field (artist, album, ...) of multiple mp3 files at once.

If you don't want to use iTunes (what's the alternative on OSX?), I'll think you'll have to use a special editor (like ID3 editor) to do so.

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up vote 0 down vote

As Wheat said it before, it's not possible to do it directly in the Finder.
The closer (UX wise) you can get is doing it via a Finder plugin such as MP3-Info freeware (see screencast).

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