Linux: How to view bit-rate and compress MP3 files

بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following guide assumes the reader is comfortable with using a terminal editor (otherwise known as the command-line or command-prompt).

Two command-line tools are also required:

• exiftool
• lame

Depending on your Linux distribution, they should already be installed or available via the package manager.

Viewing the bit-rate

Viewing the bit-rate of an MP3 file helps to determine whether the file should be compressed and what the current quality of the audio is.

To view the bit-rate, navigate to the folder where the MP3 file is stored via the command-line.

Enter the following command:

exiftool -AudioBitrate myfilename.mp3

The expected output should be:

Audio Bitrate : 128 kbps

Compressing the MP3 file

According to this source, the lowest acceptable quality bit-rate for MP3 files is "32 kbit/s".

After choosing your preferred bit-rate, run the following command:

lame -b 64 myfilename.mp3 myfilename-64.mp3

The compression may take some time depending on the size of the file. once completed, a new file should exist called myfilename-64.mp3 and the file size should be smaller than the original.