Home » Questions » Computers [ Ask a new question ]

Want to delete MP3 files where artist name has some substring

Want to delete MP3 files where artist name has some substring

I have folders with 1000's of mp3 files. I want to delete some files for certain artists. I am using File Explorer in Windows and it's very slow. Every time I scroll the screen, it refreshes slowly. Is there a tool where I can tell it to delete all mp3's where artist name in the ID tag contains some string?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 315
Total answers/comments: 2
Guest [Entry]

"You can use a combination of MP3Tag and the command line for this.

Main features:

Batch Tag Editing Write ID3v1.1,
ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4, MP4, WMA, APEv2 Tags
and Vorbis Comments to multiple files
at once.

Support for Cover Art Download and add
album covers to your files and make
your library even more shiny.

Import from Amazon, discogs, freedb,
MusicBrainz Save typing and import
tags from online databases like
Amazon, discogs, freedb, MusicBrainz,
and more.

Replace characters or words Replace
strings in tags and filenames (with
support for Regular Expressions).

Create Playlists automatically Create
and manage playlists automatically
while editing.

Rename files from tags - Rename files
based on the tag information and
import tags from filenames.

Export to HTML, RTF, CSV Generate nice
reports and lists of your collection
based on user-defined templates.

Full Unicode Support User-interface
and tagging are fully Unicode
compliant.

with that in mind, rename all files with the specified artist to something like DELETEME+Old_file_name (Where Old_file_name is the original file name, in case that wasn't apparent). Then in command prompt:

del DELETEME*

although you could just load the files into any mp3 player such as Foobar2000, sort by artist, then select all by that artist and delete."
Guest [Entry]

"It's possible with Total Commander and the Anytag plug-in.

Once the plug-in is installed (open the zip containing the plug-in with Total Commander, it will recognize it's a plug-in and ask to install it), go to the directory containing the MP3 files.

Press the ""+"" key on the numeric keypad to enter the ""Expand selection"" window
Click on ""Define""
In the ""Define Selection"" windows, go to the General tab
Type ""*.mp3"" in the ""Search for"" field
Go to the Plugins tab
Check ""search in plugins""
Select ""anytag"" as the plugin, ""Artist"" as property and ""contains"" as OP. Put the string you want to search in ""Value""
Click on ""Save"", enter a template name and, back in the ""Define selection"", click on OK

It will search all files and select the ones whose artist contains the required string. Press ""Delete"" (F8) to delete them."