Is there an easy way to split mp3 files?

windows command-line mp3

54,016

Solution 1

There are two ways to split an MP3:

Decoding into a wave, splitting, and re-encoding. This is the method Audacity uses and results in lost audio quality.
Splitting the MP3 directly. You have a lower resolution for where to split, but the result is no loss in audio quality. I've used MP3DirectCut with relatively good success.

Usually you will want to use the 2nd method since it is lossless, unless you really don't care about your audio quality.

Solution 2

I regularly use mp3splt. It is an open source program for Windows and Linux, and includes a gui (which I don't use, so I can't comment on it).

This is the commandline I usually use to split a podcast into 6 minute segments:

mp3splt podcast.mp3 -g %[@N=0,@o] -o "@n @f" -t 6.0

-t 6.0: split every 6 minutes
-g %[@N=0,@o]: for every section use the original tags, but update the track number starting from 0.
-o "@n @f": The output file name should be the original filename with the track number tacked on in front.

Solution 3

It's not as easy as the command you mention in your question. With that being said there are easy ways to do it.

Audacity is one free program that allows you to split mp3s. It's relatively easy to use once you get a hang of the interface.

Solution 4

Try MP3DirectCut. It's free and works for me.

Solution 5

Excellent online tool: http://magicode.me/mp3-cut

Advantages:

Extremely Fast!
Splitting the original MP3 directly (Not Decoding & re-encoding) - so any los quality.
All processing is in client-side.

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmb6BNg6IhM

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54,016

sf.

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

sf. almost 2 years
I recently learned a neat trick. To join mp3 files together, you simply use the command (in Windows)
```
copy /b *.mp3 joined.mp3
```
and voila, you have one large mp3 file.

My question: is there a method of doing the opposite, i.e. splitting an mp3 file, this easily?
- Admin almost 15 years
  
  You should tag this for Windows
- Admin almost 15 years
  
  Not necessarily... the command-line join example I gave should work just as well in other systems. Plus, the question is for a command-line splitter for any OS.
- Admin almost 15 years
  
  Yuval, the answer you accepted will cause your MP3 to be decoded and reencoded. This will really reduce your audio quality. Check out my answer on MP3DirectCut.
- Admin almost 15 years
  
  Also, your joining method will result in a bad frame in the middle of the audio from the header and tail (where the tags are) remaining. It would be better to use a joining tool that removes these bad frames.
- Admin almost 15 years
  
  Jim, I thank you for the concern about the audio quality, but I mainly use splitting and joining MP3s for listening to audiobooks more conveniently, and these are hardly high-quality to begin with...
- Admin about 6 years
  
  Using FFMPEG as I added below
sf. almost 15 years

Is there one you can recommend? Do you know one that is free?
Drake almost 15 years

Audacity is good and the Beta version 1.3.x even easier to use. I suggest to start directly with that version
Jim McKeeth almost 15 years

FYI, while Audacity is a great tool, splitting MP3's this way involves decoding and re-encoding the MP3. This degrades the audio quality.
Michael Kohne almost 15 years

I'm very fond of mp3DirectCut. All it does is split up mp3 files, and it's pretty good at it.
sf. almost 15 years

I wasn't aware of this... 10x for the info!
Nathan Fellman almost 15 years

Back in the day I used to use arj (arjsoftware.com) to split files to chunks of 1.44MB to fit on floppies. I see it's still around. WinRAR (rarlab.com) can do the same. Heck, even good ole' pkzip 2.04g (pkware.com) added support for that, though it was a lot less convenient than arj
Kanini over 14 years

Thanks Jim. I was not aware of this as well. I had been using Audacity for a while now, it is now going to be MP3Direct from now on.
brack about 14 years

this tool was perfect for cutting MP3's for use in HTTP streaming. quicktime wasn't liking the m3u8's populated by mp3's cut by ffmpeg, but mp3splt worked perfectly. It cut up each part automatically too! Command line is a bonus win. Thanks for posting this!!
Admin over 11 years

Tags in the middle of a file are likely to be ignored. Also, since most MP3s utilize the bit reservoir, frame boundaries don't line up with audio data start points. So if you split on frame boundaries, as all specialized MP3 splitters do, you may make some frames adjacent to the split point unplayable, same as if you cut in the middle of a frame. Probably not noticeable if the cut is made in the middle of silence, but if there's continuous sound across the edit point, the seam may audible.
Scott Anderson over 10 years

crashes in windows 8.1
Nathan Fellman over 10 years

@ScottAnderson: May I recommend filing a bug on their website? sourceforge.net/p/mp3splt/bugs
Nathan Fellman over 10 years

This is very interesting, but it doesn't answer the question. It might be more relevant here: superuser.com/questions/202809/join-multiple-mp3-files-lossl‌ess
Mr Lister over 10 years

If the tags are a concern, you can remove all tags first, but then you'll have to add them back in afterwards.
peter over 9 years

i am using the same for my audiobooks on car radios that dont remember position very well. i recommend using "-f" which they say is necessary for vbr and i experienced as more error tolerant. also i add "-O 0.3" for a 3 second overlap in case the split happens in the middle of a word.
Shai Alon about 6 years

Nice, but the question was not about merge, but about split.
Daniel Mošmondor almost 6 years

Very smart explanation, and technical. Nice!
ImtiazeA almost 6 years

Great, fastest way I could find!
Mark Cramer almost 4 years

this solution is ezpz!
itaych over 3 years

On a current version of FFMPEG this creates files 10 seconds long. For 10 minutes I used 10:00 and that seemed to work well.