How Can I Display MP3 ID3 Tags in Mac OS X's Finder?

Question

Is there any way to get Finder to show mp3 fields? (artist, title, etc.)

Answer 1

I had the exact same problem then i started using AudioFinder

AudioFinder invented the genre of sound browsers, by being the first dedicated sound browser on any platform. With a long history of inovation, AudioFinder has consistently broke new ground and with free updates you can expect to always get more value added.

Answer 2

After struggling with this for years, I finally came up with a hack that works to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, it only gives you access to one tag. In my case the desired meta is "bitrate".

To begin, I created a script with the eyeD3 Python library that grabs an mp3's bitrate, writes it to the "comment" tag and returns it:

import eyed3
import sys

filename = sys.argv[1]

from eyed3 import mp3
f = mp3.Mp3AudioFile(filename)

bitrate = f.info.bit_rate[1]
str_bitrate = str(bitrate).encode("utf-8").decode("utf-8")
f.tag.comments.set(str_bitrate)

f.tag.save()
exit(str_bitrate)

Next, I created a bash script that takes a folder, runs the python script on it, and sets the Mac OS "comment" field to the bitrate:

for f in "$1"*.mp3;
do
    echo "$f";
    updated=$(python bitrate.py "$f" 2>&1);

    comment=$(mdls -r -nullMarker "" -n kMDItemFinderComment "$f")

    printf "%s ( comment ): %s\n" "${1##*/}" "$comment"

    /usr/bin/osascript -e "set filepath to POSIX file \"$f\"" \
    -e "set the_File to filepath as alias" \
    -e "tell application \"Finder\" to set the comment of the_File to \"$updated\""

done

Finally, I created an Automator script that takes a folder as its input and passes it to the bash script:

This gives you a context menu item which, when clicked,

and the comment column is enabled,

Gives you a finder column with your meta value in it: