GoodCamel Blog

Recently, I wanted to convert all my MP3 music library to the more open Ogg Vorbis format. I also wanted to reduce the bitrate (from 320 kbps to 156 kbps) so I can stream my music over the internet even with a low speed connection. I know, I know, converting from a lossy format to another lossy format is not recommended and it decreases the audio quality. Anyway, it did a pretty good job and I am very pleased with the results.

So I searched the web and found a very useful script called mp32ogg. That script can convert a whole directory tree recursively. You can choose the desired quality and it will also transfer the meta information (artist, album, track, song title, etc). It even lets you change the file name according to the meta information and will also delete the old mp3 files if you want to. It is a simple Perl script and it is easy to modify to fit your needs if you need to. Here is how to do it in under Ubuntu.

First you need to install it

sudo apt-get install mp32ogg

Then just use the script on the directory containing files you want to convert. The following command will also delete old mp3 files:

mp32ogg --delete --quality=5 <path-to-mp3-directory>

That’s it, you are done. Just wait for the script to finish converting all your library. For more options, just type:

mp32ogg --help

Have fun!

Tags: audio, convert, Linux, mp3, mp32ogg, music, ogg vorbis, ubuntu