Batch convert MP3 bitrate on Windows using lame MP3 encoder

Sometimes you have to lower the bitrate of your MP3 files to save space (on your phone memory card) or bandwidth (when sending your lecture recording to a friend). There are numerous utilities to do it the click-click way but there is also the terminal option. With the power of Linux/Unix terminal and bash this is no challenge at all but MS Windows is quite a different story. Anyway, the solution that runs inside Windows command prompt (cmd) and changes the bitrate is:

forfiles /m *.mp3 /c "cmd /c c:\lame\lame.exe @file 128\\@file"

This command converts all mp3 files (/m *.mp3) in the current directory to 128kbit (Lame default bitrate) and places the new files inside "128" directory (that you have to create yourself before running the command). For conversion, the Lame MP3 encoder located in "c:\lame\" directory is used.

Feel free to explore further command line options of Lame MP3 Encoder.

P.S.: You can also raise the bitrate this way but I don't see any good reason for doing that. ;)