How to compare mp3 programmatically

Question

I like to be able to compare mp3’s programmatically. The problem I don’t know by what. Header? Histogram? channels? Does anyone have experience with this subject?

Answer 1

It looks like Chromaprint would do what you're looking for. It transforms PCM data in audio fingerprints which you can then use to compare.

They have a C API library (it's actually written in C++, though), a python front end, and also some utilities to convert the results in JSON which means you could use another language to manipulate the data. I don't think that they provide the compare function itself, though.

Also if you're using a Linux system, it's likely that you will find a package for it.