music-metadata

Stream and file based music metadata parser for node.js. Supports any common audio and tagging format. TypeScript definitions are included.

Features

Support for audio file types

Audio format	Description	Wiki
AIFF / AIFF-C	Audio Interchange File Format	🔗
AAC	ADTS / Advanced Audio Coding	🔗
APE	Monkey's Audio	🔗
ASF	Advanced Systems Format	🔗
BWF	Broadcast Wave Format	🔗
DSDIFF	Philips DSDIFF	🔗
DSF	Sony's DSD Stream File	🔗
FLAC	Free Lossless Audio Codec	🔗
MP2	MPEG-1 Audio Layer II	🔗
Matroska	Matroska (EBML), mka, mkv	🔗
MP3	MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 Audio Layer III	🔗
MPC	Musepack SV7	🔗
MPEG 4	mp4, m4a, m4v	🔗
Ogg	Open container format	🔗
Opus		🔗
Speex		🔗
Theora		🔗
Vorbis	Vorbis audio compression	🔗
WAV	RIFF WAVE	🔗
WebM	webm	🔗
WV	WavPack	🔗
WMA	Windows Media Audio	🔗

Supported tag headers

Following tag header formats are supported:

APE
ASF
EXIF 2.3
ID3: ID3v1, ID3v1.1, ID3v2.2, ID3v2.3 & ID3v2.4
iTunes
RIFF/INFO
Vorbis comment
AIFF

It allows many tags to be accessed in audio format, and tag format independent way.

Support for MusicBrainz tags as written by Picard. ReplayGain tags are supported.

Audio format & encoding details

Support for encoding / format details:

Bit rate
Audio bit depth
Duration
Encoding profile (e.g. CBR, V0, V2)

Online demo's

Compatibility

Module: version 8 migrated from CommonJS to pure ECMAScript Module (ESM). JavaScript is compliant with ECMAScript 2019 (ES10). Requires Node.js ≥ 14.13.1 engine.

Browser Support

Although music-metadata is designed to run the node.js. music-metadata-browser can be used on the browser side.

To avoid Node fs dependency inclusion, you may use a sub-module inclusion:

import * as mm from 'music-metadata/lib/core';

function	`music-metadata`	`music-metadata/lib/core`
`parseBuffer`	✓	✓
`parseStream` *	✓	✓
`parseFromTokenizer`	✓	✓
`parseFile`	✓

Sponsor

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Dependencies

Dependency diagram:

graph TD;
    MM(music-metadata)-->S(strtok3)
    MM-->TY(token-types)
    MM-->FT(file-type)
    S(strtok3)-->P(peek-readable)
    S-->TO("@tokenizer/token")
    TY-->TO
    TY-->IE("ieee754")
    FT-->RWNS(readable-web-to-node-stream)
    FT-->S
    FT-->TY
    TY-->NB(node:buffer)
    RWNS-->RS(readable-stream)
    RS-->SD(string_decoder)
    SD-->SB(safe-buffer)
    RS-->UD(util-deprecate)
    RS-->I(inherits)
    style NB fill:#F88,stroke:#A44
    style SB fill:#F88,stroke:#A44
    style SD fill:#CCC,stroke:#888
    style IE fill:#CCC,stroke:#888
    style UD fill:#CCC,stroke:#888
    style I fill:#CCC,stroke:#888

Dependency list:

Usage

Installation

Install using npm:

npm install music-metadata

or using yarn:

yarn add music-metadata

Import music-metadata

Import music-metadata:

import { parseFile } from 'music-metadata';

Import the methods you need, like parseFile in this example.

Module Functions

There are two ways to parse (read) audio tracks:

Audio (music) files can be parsed using direct file access using the parseFile function
Using Node.js streams using the parseStream function.

Direct file access tends to be a little faster, because it can 'jump' to various parts in the file without being obliged to read intermediate data.

parseFile function

Parses the specified file (filePath) and returns a promise with the metadata result (IAudioMetadata).

parseFile(filePath: string, opts: IOptions = {}): Promise<IAudioMetadata>`

Example:

import { parseFile } from 'music-metadata';
import { inspect } from 'util';

(async () => {
  try {
    const metadata = await parseFile('../music-metadata/test/samples/MusicBrainz - Beth Hart - Sinner\'s Prayer [id3v2.3].V2.mp3');
    console.log(inspect(metadata, { showHidden: false, depth: null }));
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error.message);
  }
})();

parseStream function

Parses the provided audio stream for metadata. It is recommended to provide the corresponding MIME-type. An extension (e.g.: .mp3), filename or path will also work. If the MIME-type or filename (via fileInfo.path) is not provided, or not understood, music-metadata will try to derive the type from the content.

parseStream(stream: Stream.Readable, fileInfo?: IFileInfo | string, opts?: IOptions = {}): Promise<IAudioMetadata>`

Example:

import { parseStream } from 'music-metadata';

(async () => {
  try {
    const metadata = await parseStream(someReadStream, {mimeType: 'audio/mpeg', size: 26838});
    console.log(metadata);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error.message);
  }
})();

parseBuffer function

Parse metadata from an audio file, where the audio file is held in a Buffer.

parseBuffer(buffer: Buffer, fileInfo?: IFileInfo | string, opts?: IOptions = {}): Promise<IAudioMetadata>

Example:

import { parseBuffer } from 'music-metadata';

(async () => {
  try {
    const metadata = await parseBuffer(someBuffer, 'audio/mpeg');
    console.log(metadata);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error.message);
  }
})();

parseFromTokenizer function

This is a low level function, reading from a strtok3 ITokenizer interface. music-metadata-browser is depended on this function.

This also enables special read modules like:

streaming-http-token-reader for chunked HTTP(S) reading, using HTTP range requests.

orderTags function

Utility to Converts the native tags to a dictionary index on the tag identifier

orderTags(nativeTags: ITag[]): [tagId: string]: any[]

import { parseFile, orderTags } from 'music-metadata';
import { inspect } from 'util';

(async () => {
  try {
    const metadata = await parseFile('../test/samples/MusicBrainz - Beth Hart - Sinner\'s Prayer [id3v2.3].V2.mp3');
    const orderedTags = orderTags(metadata.native['ID3v2.3']);
    console.log(inspect(orderedTags, { showHidden: false, depth: null }));
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error.message);
  }
})();

ratingToStars function

Can be used to convert the normalized rating value to the 0..5 stars, where 0 an undefined rating, 1 the star the lowest rating and 5 the highest rating.

ratingToStars(rating: number): number

selectCover function

Select cover image based on image type field, otherwise the first picture in file.

export function selectCover(pictures?: IPicture[]): IPicture | null

import { parseFile, selectCover } from 'music-metadata';

(async () => {
  const {common} = await parseFile(filePath);
  const cover = selectCover(common.picture); // pick the cover image
}
)();

Options

duration: default: false, if set to true, it will parse the whole media file if required to determine the duration.
observer: (update: MetadataEvent) => void;: Will be called after each change to common (generic) tag, or format properties.
skipCovers: default: false, if set to true, it will not return embedded cover-art (images).
skipPostHeaders? boolean default: false, if set to true, it will not search all the entire track for additional headers. Only recommenced to use in combination with streams.
includeChapters default: false, if set to true, it will parse chapters (currently only MP4 files). experimental functionality

Although in most cases duration is included, in some cases it requires music-metadata parsing the entire file. To enforce parsing the entire file if needed you should set duration to true.

Metadata result

If the returned promise resolves, the metadata (TypeScript IAudioMetadata interface) contains:

metadata.format Audio format information
metadata.common Is a generic (abstract) way of reading metadata information.
metadata.trackInfo Is a generic (abstract) way of reading metadata information.
metadata.native List of native (original) tags found in the parsed audio file.

`metadata.format`

The questionmark ? indicates the property is optional.

Audio format information. Defined in the TypeScript IFormat interface:

format.container?: string Audio encoding format. e.g.: 'flac'
format.codec? Name of the codec (algorithm used for the audio compression)
format.codecProfile?: string Codec profile / settings
format.tagTypes?: TagType[] List of tagging formats found in parsed audio file
format.duration?: number Duration in seconds
format.bitrate?: number Number bits per second of encoded audio file
format.sampleRate?: number Sampling rate in Samples per second (S/s)
format.bitsPerSample?: number Audio bit depth
format.lossless?: boolean True if lossless, false for lossy encoding
format.numberOfChannels?: number Number of audio channels
format.creationTime?: Date Track creation time
format.modificationTime?: Date Track modification / tag update time
format.trackGain?: number Track gain in dB
format.albumGain?: number Album gain in dB

`metadata.trackInfo`

To support advanced containers like Matroska or MPEG-4, which may contain multiple audio and video tracks, the experimental metadata.trackInfo has been added,

metadata.trackInfo is either undefined or has an array of trackInfo

trackInfo

Audio format information. Defined in the TypeScript IFormat interface:

trackInfo.type?: TrackType Track type
trackInfo.codecName?: string Codec name
trackInfo.codecSettings?: string Codec settings
trackInfo.flagEnabled?: boolean Set if the track is usable, default: true
trackInfo.flagDefault?: boolean Set if that track (audio, video or subs) SHOULD be active if no language found matches the user preference.
trackInfo.flagLacing?: boolean Set if the track may contain blocks using lacing
trackInfo.name?: string A human-readable track name.
trackInfo.language?: string Specifies the language of the track
trackInfo.audio?: IAudioTrack, see trackInfo.audioTrack
trackInfo.video?: IVideoTrack, see trackInfo.videoTrack

`trackInfo.audioTrack`

audioTrack.samplingFrequency?: number
audioTrack.outputSamplingFrequency?: number
audioTrack.channels?: number
audioTrack.channelPositions?: Buffer
audioTrack.bitDepth?: number

`trackInfo.videoTrack`

videoTrack.flagInterlaced?: boolean
videoTrack.stereoMode?: number
videoTrack.pixelWidth?: number
videoTrack.pixelHeight?: number
videoTrack.displayWidth?: number
videoTrack.displayHeight?: number
videoTrack.displayUnit?: number
videoTrack.aspectRatioType?: number
videoTrack.colourSpace?: Buffer
videoTrack.gammaValue?: number

`metadata.common`

Common tag documentation is automatically generated.

Examples

In order to read the duration of a stream (with the exception of file streams), in some cases you should pass the size of the file in bytes.

import { parseStream } from 'music-metadata';
import { inspect } from 'util';

(async () => {
    const metadata = await parseStream(someReadStream, {mimeType: 'audio/mpeg', size: 26838}, {duration: true});
    console.log(inspect(metadata, {showHidden: false, depth: null}));
    someReadStream.close();
  }
)();

Access cover art

Via metadata.common.picture you can access an array of cover art if present. Each picture has this interface:

/**
 * Attached picture, typically used for cover art
 */
export interface IPicture {
  /**
   * Image mime type
   */
  format: string;
  /**
   * Image data
   */
  data: Buffer;
  /**
   * Optional description
   */
  description?: string;
  /**
   * Picture type
   */
  type?: string;
}

To assign img HTML-object you can do something like:

img.src = `data:${picture.format};base64,${picture.data.toString('base64')}`;

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I traverse (a long) list of files?

What is important that file parsing should be done in a sequential manner. In a plain loop, due to the asynchronous character (like most JavaScript functions), it would cause all the files to run in parallel which is will cause your application to hang in no time. There are multiple ways of achieving this:

Using recursion

import { parseFile } from 'music-metadata';

function parseFiles(audioFiles) {
  
  const audioFile = audioFiles.shift();
  
  if (audioFile) {
    return parseFile(audioFile).then(metadata => {
      // Do great things with the metadata
      return parseFiles(audioFiles); // process rest of the files AFTER we are finished
    })
  }
}

Use async/await

import { parseFile } from 'music-metadata';

// it is required to declare the function 'async' to allow the use of await
async function parseFiles(audioFiles) {

    for (const audioFile of audioFiles) {
    
        // await will ensure the metadata parsing is completed before we move on to the next file
        const metadata = await parseFile(audioFile);
        // Do great things with the metadata
    }
}

Use a specialized module to traverse files

There are specialized modules to traversing (walking) files and directory, like walk.

Licence

The MIT License (MIT)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.