# Beet ls -a \[bitrate\]?

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/beet-ls-a-bitrate/363>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [May 28, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/beet-ls-a-bitrate/363 "2018-05-28T20:38:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@cla](https://discourse.beets.io/u/cla)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/beet-ls-a-bitrate/363/1 "2018-05-28T20:38:54Z")

</div>

hi folks, is there any way to run a “beet ls -a [bitrate]” to display what bitrate that particular album mp3 has? I know you can have the same album in different bitrates, so a list of files with format it’s OK to me.

I’ve been looking at the ‘inline’ plugin, but the documentation is not really clear regarding how to do it.

I want to use beets instead of the lame ‘ls -a /music/folder’.

This ‘beet -v ls -f ‘$bitrate’ [query]’ sort of works but it’s not what I’m looking for.

Any idea? Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/beet-ls-a-bitrate/363/2 "2018-05-28T23:13:05Z")

</div>

Hi! Can you please be a little more specific about what was confusing about the inline documentation? What didn’t work about following the directions on this page?  
[http://beets.readthedocs.io/en/v1.4.5/plugins/inline.html](http://beets.readthedocs.io/en/v1.4.5/plugins/inline.html)

And what do you mean by “sort of works” and “not what you’re looking for”?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@cla](https://discourse.beets.io/u/cla)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/beet-ls-a-bitrate/363/3 "2018-05-29T14:08:04Z")

</div>

Hi!

Sure. Of course I can! I’m sorry for not being completely clear.

- **What is confusing about the documentation** : the documentation is clear regarding how to install the inline plugin but not how to use it. There’s no example of how to use it on the CLI. It’s probably this is confusing _for me_, not for everyone.

- **Sort of works:** Well, that ‘beet -v ls -f ‘$bitrate’ [query]’ displays this:

So, the command _works_, but _sort of works_ because it doesn’t provide me any information about the tracks, just what is displayed above.

- **What am I looking for** : I’m looking for a beets command to know whether the files of a particular album are MP3 or FLAC files, instead of using the lame “ls -a /artist/album”. So, ideally I would like to have something like this (in case I have this album in FLAC and not in MP3):

Thanks, @adrian!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/beet-ls-a-bitrate/363/4 "2018-05-29T14:27:34Z")

</div>

> [@cla](#):
>
> $ beet -v ls -f FLAC -a coltrane love supreme

Hmm… but in this command, `-f FLAC` says “please print out the string “FLAC” for every track.” Did you mean `-f '$bitrate'`?

> [@cla](#):
>
> I’m looking for a beets command to know whether the files of a particular album are MP3 or FLAC files

From your example, it looks like you want to list out _only_ FLAC files or _only_ MP3 files. You can do that with queries: for example, `beet ls format:MP3` or `beet ls format:FLAC`. (Appending more query terms to that works too.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@cla](https://discourse.beets.io/u/cla)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/beet-ls-a-bitrate/363/5 "2018-05-29T14:59:34Z")

</div>

Yeah, I guess is easier if I do that. Thanks a lot, Adrian.