audiofile
Fast reading of all kind of audio files
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. audiofile is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive MIT license, and offers low install friction. It solves a real problem—unified, fast audio I/O across formats—with a simple API. Install it if you work with audio files in multiple formats and want to avoid format-specific code.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires ffmpeg, sox, or mediainfo installed on the system for format conversion and metadata extraction of non-WAV formats.
- Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel and four runtime dependencies.
- Active maintenance with a recent commit on 2026-08-05 and stable production status.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; attribution required.
last release 2026-05-20 (86 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-05 · 39 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 90,602 downloads/mo, #13,573 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install audiofile
import audiofile
signal, sampling_rate = audiofile.read("signal.wav")- Whether the package handles edge cases like corrupted or truncated audio files gracefully.
- Performance benchmarks comparing reading speed across different audio formats and file sizes.
- Exact behavior when writing formats (WAV, FLAC, MP3, OGG) with various codec options or quality settings.
What it is and what it does
audiofile is a Python library for reading and writing audio files with a focus on reading speed. It abstracts away the complexity of working with multiple audio formats by leveraging ffmpeg, sox, and mediainfo for format conversion and metadata extraction, while using soundfile as its core reader. The package provides a simple API to extract signal data and metadata (channels, duration, samples, sampling rate) from any format those tools support, and can write to WAV, FLAC, MP3, and OGG.
The main use case is audio processing pipelines where you need to work with heterogeneous audio sources without worrying about format-specific handling. It automatically converts unsupported formats to WAV before reading, ensuring consistent behavior across your codebase. The dependency stack includes audeer, audmath, numpy, and soundfile, making it suitable for scientific and research applications that need reliable, fast audio I/O.
Use it for
- Extract audio signals and metadata from mixed audio formats in a batch processing pipeline.
- Build audio feature extraction workflows that accept files in any format ffmpeg or sox supports.
- Convert and standardize audio files to WAV, FLAC, MP3, or OGG in a research or production system.
- Read audio duration and sample counts reliably across formats without manual format detection.
- Integrate audio file handling into machine learning preprocessing steps with minimal boilerplate.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
audiofile is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive MIT license, and offers low install friction. It solves a real problem—unified, fast audio I/O across formats—with a simple API. Install it if you work with audio files in multiple formats and want to avoid format-specific code.
Install
audiofile on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel and four runtime dependencies. Active maintenance with a recent commit on 2026-08-05 and stable production status.
Requires ffmpeg, sox, or mediainfo installed on the system for format conversion and metadata extraction of non-WAV formats.
License in practice
MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; attribution required.
Quickstart
pip install audiofile
import audiofile
signal, sampling_rate = audiofile.read("signal.wav")Verify before relying
- Whether the package handles edge cases like corrupted or truncated audio files gracefully.
- Performance benchmarks comparing reading speed across different audio formats and file sizes.
- Exact behavior when writing formats (WAV, FLAC, MP3, OGG) with various codec options or quality settings.
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 4 packagesaudeeraudmathnumpysoundfile |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 86 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 90,602 / month, #13,573 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: Science/ResearchOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Multimedia :: Sound/AudioTopic :: Scientific/Engineering |
Evidence: audiofile-1.6.1-py3-none-any.whl
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See also audiolab · audioread · SigMF · soundfile · tinytag · miniaudio · mutagen · knowit · sox · mediafile