How to add ID3 "cover art" by command line?
An excellent Python application that I routinely use to add cover art to mp3 files is the command line applicationeyeD3
. This can be installed from a Terminal as follows:
sudo apt-get install eyed3
Here is an example of a command to add a cover image named cover.jpg
to an mp3 file named test.mp3
:
eyeD3 --add-image "cover.jpg:FRONT_COVER" test.mp3
See an example below of this at work on my own computer, adding a cover image to an mp3 otherwise empty of meta tags:
andrew@ilium~$ eyeD3 --add-image "cover.jpg:FRONT_COVER" test.mp3
test.mp3 [ 946.12 KB ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adding image cover.jpg
Time: 01:00 MPEG1, Layer III [ 128 kb/s @ 44100 Hz - Joint stereo ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ID3 v2.4:
title:
artist:
album:
album artist: None
track:
FRONT_COVER Image: [Size: 95788 bytes] [Type: image/jpeg]
Description:
Writing ID3 version v2.4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
andrew@ilium~$
There are many other options for adding images although I have given the basic syntax above. Below are these other options:
--add-image IMG_PATH:TYPE[:DESCRIPTION]
Add or replace an image. There may be more than one
image in a tag, as long as the DESCRIPTION values are
unique. The default DESCRIPTION is ''. If PATH begins
with 'http[s]://' then it is interpreted as a URL
instead of a file containing image data. The TYPE must
be one of the following: OTHER, ICON, OTHER_ICON,
FRONT_COVER, BACK_COVER, LEAFLET, MEDIA, LEAD_ARTIST,
ARTIST, CONDUCTOR, BAND, COMPOSER, LYRICIST,
RECORDING_LOCATION, DURING_RECORDING,
DURING_PERFORMANCE, VIDEO, BRIGHT_COLORED_FISH,
ILLUSTRATION, BAND_LOGO, PUBLISHER_LOGO.
References:
- eyeD3: Complex Options (Images)
Here is a Python script that works for me. Run it with python script.py audiofile.mp3
.
You will need mutagen
; install it with sudo -H pip install mutagen
.
from mutagen.mp3 import MP3
from mutagen.id3 import ID3, APIC, error
import sys
mp3file=sys.argv[1]
audio = MP3(mp3file, ID3=ID3)
try:
audio.add_tags()
except error:
pass
audio.tags.add(
APIC(
encoding=1,
mime='image/png',
type=3,
desc=u'Cover',
data=open('/path/to/artwork.png').read()
)
)
audio.save()