Using Hazel to remove ID3 tags

I have been trying to get Hazel to remove ID3 tags (specifically the 'Genre' tag) on downloaded audio/mp3 files.

I've tried a few approaches, including AppleScripts and Automator, but haven't yet found a working solution.

First off, I noticed that there is a "Remove tags" action in Hazel. If I select it, and select "Dynamic Tag", there is in fact a "Music Genre" attribute under "Other". I've tried it, and I'm assuming it's really just for macOS tags and not ID3 tags – correct?

Secondly, when looking for AppleScripts to achieve removal of ID3 tags, I have been unable to find anything that manages to do this without having to open iTunes, select the song, and remove the tag there via automated actions. This seems very complex and I'm not sure if it's possible to make it work via Hazel. I may be missing something here - is there a way to do it "natively" in macOS via AppleScript without the involvement of iTunes?

Lastly, I've tried to do this in Hazel via an Automator workflow. However, I haven't been able to figure out how to pass Hazel's processed files over to "Get Specified iTunes items" which I'm assuming is needed as a prerequisite before the song can be edited:

The way I understand it, the equivalent to pass Hazel's files to Automator would be the function "Get Specified Finder Items", but I'm not sure if Finder items can be "passed" to iTunes.

Appreciate any help!

The various tags functions in Hazel have nothing to do with id3 tags so those won't help you here.

Using either AppleScript or Automator to interface with iTunes will bring up iTunes to do the work. If you don't want that, then you need to look for a commandline program which will edit the tags in the file directly.

The Commandline Utility you probably need is 'id3edcmd'

It's part of the software 'ID3 Editor' by pa-software

Code: Select all: ID3 Editor version: 1.23.34 (1.15.68.298) Usage: id3edcmd [options] file [file]... Version 2 tag information: -tr number Set the track number -ts number Set the number of tracks -ti utext Set the title/songname/content description -ar utext Set the lead artist(s)/performer(s)/soloist(s) -al utext Set the album/movie/show title -yr text Set the year of the recording -gn utext Set the genre or content type -co utext Set the comments (use \\ for a backslash, \t for a tab and \r \n for a line break) -cf file Set the comments using a text file (can be UTF-8 and UTF-16) -cm utext Set the name of the composer(s) -cp utext Set a copyright message -oa utext Set the original artist(s)/performer(s) -en text Set the name of the person or organisation that encoded the track -ur text Set a URL link concerning the track -cl Add the compilation flag (iTunes use only) -im file Add a picture file directly related to the track (only JPEG/TIFF/PNG/GIF formats are supported) -ir file Replace the current images with the picture file (only JPEG/TIFF/PNG/GIF formats are supported) -ls utext Set the lyrics or text transcription -ly file Set the lyrics or text transcription using a text file (can be UTF-8 and UTF-16) -cn utext Set the name of the conductor -lr utext Set the writer(s) of the text or lyrics -pb utext Set the name of the label or publisher -or utext Set the band/orchestra/accompaniment (this is shown as 'Album Artist' in iTunes) -ct utext Set the content group description -sb utext Set the subtitle/Description refinement -es utext Set the software/Hardware and settings used for encoding -sn number Set the set number -ss number Set the number of sets (this is shown as 'Disk Number' in iTunes) -is text International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) -rc text Timestamp describing when the audio was first recorded (e.g. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss) -rl text Timestamp describing when the audio was first released (e.g. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss) -ik text Initial musical key in which the sound starts -bm number Beats per minute in the main part of the audio -uf owner id Set the unique file identifier using an owner string such as a URL and an id (up to 64 characters) -vn version Set the version number to use (2.3 or 2.4) Note: Auto is used without this option -au text Set the artist URL link -ad number Advisory setting 0 = none, 1 = explicit, 2 = clean -mo text Mood e.g. 'Romantic' or 'Sad' -pn text Produced notice (Performing Rights Organization) -iw text ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) Version 1 tag information: -n number Set the track number (0-255) -t text Set the track title -a text Set the artist -b text Set the album -y number Set the year of the recording (as a four digit number) -c text Set a short comment -g number Set the genre ID (as a two digit number) Podcast information: -pcon Marks the track as a podcast -pcof Removes the podcast mark from the track -pcid utext Set the podcast ID -pcfd text Set the podcast feed -pcds utext Set the podcast description MPEG information: -mlen Show the length of the track in seconds -mbtr Show the bit rate in bps -mfrq Show the frequency in Hz -mchn Show the number of channels 1=Mono, 2=Stereo, 3=Multi, 4=Unknown Miscellaneous: -out file Instead of updating the input file, save to file -d Display the tracks tags details -m [novbr] Display the track information (ignoring VBR if novbr is also added and speed is required) -imd Display tag images type and size -import file Load tag data from a file (.mp3 or .tdf) into the tracks -export file Save tag data from a track to a file -csv file [v] Save tag data as a CSV file -xml file [noimg] [v] Save tag data as an XML file (ignoring images if noimg is also added) Note: If v is set to 1 the CSV or XML will be retricted to a previous version for compatability -imex file [all] Save the first tag image to file (if all is added save all images present using file with added numbers) Note: If 'file' is a folder the image(s) will be exported using the default name e.g. Picture.jpg -folder Create a track folder based on the album and artist and move the file into the folder -rename [utf8] [format] Rename the updated track using the title and track (using UTF-8 if utf8 is added) If format is used it must only use the options: %A artist, %L album, %T title, %N track and %Y year -rmape Remove an APE tag -rm1 Remove V1 tags -rm2 Remove V2 tags -rim Remove any existing images -rly Remove any existing lyrics -check [fix] Check a track for errors and inconsistencies in the MPEG stream (and attempt to fix) Note: Fixing errors may remove the ID3v2 tag -e Do not process the next track if an error occurs -trash When updating, the original track is moved to the trash (even if it is across a network) -v1v2 Copy the V1 tag to V2 -v2v1 Copy the V2 tag to V1 -kd Keep the file dates the same after updating -trim Remove whitespace from the beginning and end of the text fields -tagtype number Set the way tag fields are replaced, 0 = Replace existing fields (default if not used), 1 = supported fields only, 2 = all valid fields -pref file Load preferences from this file including the license (Mac only) -v Verbose mode -ver Display the product version -h Display Help / Usage Where text can be in 8 bit ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1) format or 7 bit ASCII and utext can also be in UTF-8 for Unicode support. File names can also be in UTF-8 format if supported by the operating system. Note: The ID3 V1 standard does not support Unicode. To delete a tag field add an extra '-' to the argument, for example '-ti "A title"' would add the title and '--ti' would delete the title. Note: The delete option is only available for V1, V2 and Podcast fields and does not include cf, cl, im, ir, ly, es, vn, pcon or pcof.