ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -metadata title="My Video Title" -metadata artist="John Doe" output.mp4
Metadata is additional information about the media such as title, artist, date, etc. that can be useful for organization, display in players, or automated processing.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
-metadata title="My Video Title" |
add metadata for title key |
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
title |
Title of the content |
artist |
Creator or performer |
album |
Album name (audio) |
genre |
Genre |
comment |
User comment or note |
track |
Track number (for albums) |
date |
Year of release |
language |
Language (especially for audio/subtitle streams) |
composer |
Composer (audio) |
publisher |
Publisher or distributor |
copyright |
Copyright notice |
encoder |
Name of encoder used |
ffprobe -i file.mp4 -show_format
ffmpeg -i docu.mkv -metadata copyright="© 2025 Documentary Films Ltd." -metadata language="eng" output.mkv
Required for airing content on TV or platforms
ffmpeg -i render.mov -metadata project="ClientX_Ad" -metadata version="v3.2" output.mov
For internal pipelines to track versions or projects
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i english.mp3 -i spanish.mp3 -c:v copy -c:a aac -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 -map 2:a:0 -metadata:s:a:0 language=eng -metadata:s:a:1 language=spa multi_language.mp4
Show language options as “English” and “Spanish” in the audio track menu by adding stream-specific metadata:
-metadata:s:a:0 language=eng tells the media player that the first audio stream is English
-metadata:s:a:1 language=spa tells it that the second audio stream is Spanish