Kid3

Kid3 is an open source piece of software that provides users with a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tag editor for a wide range of audio file formats. It supports both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags, and features a batch processing functionality.

Features at a glance

Key features include the ability to edit ID3v1.1 tags, edit ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 frames, easily convert between ID3v1.1, ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 tags, generate tags from filenames, generate filenames from tags, generate playlists, create and rename folders from tags, as well as to generate tags from tag fields' content.

In addition, it allows users to import tags from various music services, such as MusicBrainz, Amazon, freedb2.org or Discogs, export tags to a wide range for file formats, including Kover XML, HTML, CSV or playlist, as well as to import and export LRC files.

Furthermore, the application can edit multiple files at once, as well as event timing codes and synchronized lyrics. Supported audio file types include MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP4/AAC, MPC, WAV, MP2, WMA, Speex, WavPack, TrueAudio, and AIFF.

Under the hood, availability and supported OSes

The program is written entirely in the C++ programming language and provides users with a graphical user interface designed with the Qt GUI toolkit, specifically for the KDE desktop environment. It is supported under GNU/Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Officially supported Linux distributions include Ubuntu, for which the Kid3 developers provide DEB packages that run on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms. In addition, a SRPM file is provided for RPM-based distros.

Bottom line

In conclusion, Kid3 is a great audio tag editor application for the GNU/Linux ecosystem, too bad it requires the KDE runtime libraries to work on any other open source desktop environment, such as GNOME, Xfce or LXDE. On GNOME we strongly suggest to use the EasyTAG application!

What is new in this release:

• Tagging of WAV files is improved by supporting ID3v2.3.0 tags on WAV files and better interoperability with RIFF INFO tags by configuring the track field to be "ITRK" and the RIFF chunk to use a lowercase "id3 " name. The latest iTunes tags for classical music are now supported. Bug fixes solve crashes with FLAC files and support for translated names and the 3rd tag in kid3-cli.

What is new in version 3.4.3:

• Tagging of WAV files is improved by supporting ID3v2.3.0 tags on WAV files and better interoperability with RIFF INFO tags by configuring the track field to be "ITRK" and the RIFF chunk to use a lowercase "id3 " name. The latest iTunes tags for classical music are now supported. Bug fixes solve crashes with FLAC files and support for translated names and the 3rd tag in kid3-cli.

What is new in version 3.4.1:

• Fixed:
• Avoid wrong marking of ID3v2 Date frames as modified.
• Enable setting M4A, Vorbis date with ISO date/time also when no tag exists.
• Windows: Fix separators and relative file names in playlists.
• Windows: Install missing SSL DLLs, needed for Discogs import.
• Windows: Fix temporary file creation in id3lib.

What is new in version 3.4.0:

• New:
• Support more than two tags for MP3 files with ID3v1, ID3v2 and APE tags, FLAC files with ID3v1, ID3v2 and Vorbis tags.
• Support RIFF INFO tags in WAV files.
• Filename to tag format can be defined as a regular expression with captures.
• Perl regular expressions with Qt 5.
• Improved:
• Import from tags is also available from CLI, QML and D-Bus.
• Help for editing synchronized lyrics.
• Handle redirects when downloading.
• Fixed:
• Windows: Saving files which are open in player, e.g. when editing synchronized lyrics.
• Windows: Timestamp preservation with non-ASCII file names.
• KDE 5: Jumping to a specific help topic.
• Enable setting ID3v2.4 date with ISO date/time also when no tag exists.
• Crash when writing to a FLAC file which cannot be opened.

What is new in version 3.3.2:

• New:
• Setting for text encoding used in playlists and exports.
• Improved:
• Support removing tags in MPC, WavPack with TagLib 1.11.
• Fixed:
• Windows: Fix plugin name in qmldir.
• Windows: Crash when adding large pictures to Ogg files.
• Windows: Go back to older Qt 5.4.2 to avoid random crashes.
• Stripping of ID3v2 tags from WAV files with TagLib 1.11.
• Adapted to Discogs server update.

What is new in version 3.3.1:

• Package for Android, support GEOB frames in CLI. Improvements for high pixel density displays and handling read-only files. Bug fixes include selection of text encoding in picture frames, higher resolution application icons and a workaround for cropped pictures on high pixel density displays.

What is new in version 3.3.0:

• New:
• Make order of quick access frames configurable.
• Support separators and submenus in user action context menu.
• Restore defaults button in settings dialog.
• CSV import from multiple directories.
• Support for lyrics.wikia.com in embed lyrics script.
• Support for chapter and table of contents audiobook frames.
• Mac, Windows: Support for podcast frames.
• Improved:
• Display user friendly names for all supported frames.
• Updated Czech translation.
• Change file permissions in the case of modified file names.
• Fixed:
• Wrong and missing translations.
• Removing ID3v1 genre with id3lib.
• KDE 5: Name filters used in file dialogs, blocking file dialogs.
• KDE 5: Invoking help in settings dialog.
• KDE 4: Build with kdelibs-4.14.11.
• Qt 5.5: Spurious popping up of download dialog.
• Do not abort build if qmlplugindump cannot be started.

What is new in version 3.2.1:

• New:
• Support APE cover art.
• Improved:
• Mac: Do not show empty menu icons for About, Find, Replace.
• Fixed:
• Wrong size of picture when switching from file with only IDv1 tag to file with picture.
• Mac: Empty root instead of file tree when opening file on network share.
• Allow escaping of single quotes in kid3-cli.
• Qt4: Do not run qmlplugindump when building, it needs an X11 connection.

What is new in version 3.2.0:

• Script interface to write extensions and automate tasks using QML/JavaScript. Example scripts to embed, export and resize album art, export tags and fetch lyrics from a web service. Support for building with KDE 5 and tagging DSF and Ogg/FLAC files. More options to number tracks and marking oversized embedded album art.

What is new in version 3.1.2:

• New:
• Allow user to change the file permissions of read-only files.
• Improved:
• Updated Simplified Chinese translation.
• Reduce number of open file descriptors with TagLib >= 1.8.
• Fixed:
• Adapted to Discogs server update.
• Correctly add missing frames when editing multiple files.
• The value of an existing frame on multiple files can be set
• via D-Bus.
• File names with special characters in Mp4V2Metadata on Windows.
• Appdata passes appdata-validate check.

What is new in version 3.1.1:

• New:
• Validation for date/time, track and disc number frames.
• Mac OS X: Drop on dock icon.
• Timeout command in kid3-cli to overwrite command timeout.
• Build option WITH_NO_MANCOMPRESS to disable gzipped manpages.
• Improved:
• Updated Czech translation.
• Support drag'n'drop from https, ftp.
• Show picture type in frame table.
• Allow import from file/clipboard with empty date fields.
• Mac OS X: Placement of Preferences, Quit, About in application menu.
• Add AppData and comment in desktop file for GNOME Software.
• Handling of RPATH to private libraries.
• Fixed:
• Setting of POPM frames using kid3-cli.
• Removing of COMM, PRIV, TXXX, free form frames.
• Windows: kid3-cli output redirection.
• Mac OS X: Support case-sensitive filesystems.
• Mac OS X: Fix drag'n'drop on OS X 10.10 Yosemite Preview.
• Restore Ogg files if writing fails.
• Format while editing for tag 2.
• Support composer when importing from MusicBrainz.
• Opening external links from handbook.

What is new in version 3.1:

• New:
• Support for synchronized lyrics and event timing codes.
• Import and export of LRC (synchronized lyrics/Karaoke) files.
• Find and replace strings in tags and file names.
• Display details and sort columns in file list.
• Open and Open Containing Folder file list actions.
• Support Ogg and Opus cover art.
• Export format CDRDAO TOC for CDs with CD-text from WAV tags.
• D-Bus command expandFileList() to expand the whole file list.
• Improved:
• Updated Czech, Finnish, Estonian translations.
• GUI and usability, keyboard navigation.
• Fixed:
• Restore Quick Access Tags settings properly.
• Support tags from file name with 2 character extensions (e.g. ".wv").
• Keyboard shortcuts settings with Mac OS X 10.9.
• Build without Phonon.
• Fingerprint decoding and resampling with libav.
• D-Bus command expandDirectory().

What is new in version 3.0.2:

• Fixed:
• Translations and handbook are not found on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
• Application termination when main window is closed while handbook is open.
• Tag 1 genre combobox is empty if "show only custom genres" is set.
• Session restoration.
• Detection of installed Qt 5.
• KDE application does not find libraries if prefix is not /usr.
• Build if all translations are disabled.
• Improved:
• Added new genres introduced in Winamp 5.6.

What is new in version 3.0.1:

• This release fixes the incorrect configuration conversion and toolbar configuration in the KDE version, the filename format configuration, bugs in the fingerprint import, and several build issues for different Linux distributions.

What is new in version 3.0:

• New:
• Command-line interface kid3-cli.
• Use common shared libraries for KDE, Qt-only and CLI versions.
• Plugins for metadata libraries and importers.
• Support Opus files with TagLib 1.9.
• Support GStreamer 1.0.
• Support libavresample 0.0.3.
• Improved:
• Editing without leaving the keyboard.
• When saving a file fails, tell user if it is not writable.
• Escape metacharacters in HTML export.
• Updated Czech translation.
• Updated Finnish translation.
• Cleaned up configuration option sections.
• Fixed:
• Crash when saving non-FLAC file with flac extension.
• Support minimum Mac OS X version 10.5.
• Load Qt libraries only from bundle on Mac OS X.

What is new in version 2.2:

• New:
• Option to load last opened file on startup.
• Option to use locale for character conversion.
• Support new features of TagLib 1.8: More ID3 frames, ID3v2.3, tracker modules (MOD, S3M, IT, XM).
• Support use of GStreamer instead of FFmpeg for Chromaprint decoding. + Support building with latest libav/FFmpeg libraries.
• Improved:
• Extract year from "YYYY-MM.." date frame for %{year} format code.
• Character conversion for roman numbers.
• Dutch translation.
• Finnish translation.
• Fixed:
• Avoid crash when exporting album cover while editing multiple files.
• Check if file format supported before converting to ID3v2.3.0.
• Rewritten Discogs import to use Discogs API v2.0.

What is new in version 2.1:

• Chromaprint Acoustid fingerprint import, keyboard shortcuts, improved iTunes support, icons, bug fixes.

What is new in version 2.0.1:

• Prevent cursor from jumping to end in format line edits.
• Correctly update file selection after add, edit or delete frame.
• Build system finds DocBook XSL on various Linux distributions, finds Phonon on Ubuntu 11.10, can build with shared libraries.
• Correctly set bundle version on Mac OS X.
• Czech translation.

Requirements:

• Qt
• id3lib