pydub

What it is

PyDub is a powerful Python library for manipulating audio files. It provides an easy-to-use API to perform various operations on audio, such as cutting, concatenating, and applying effects, making it ideal for developers working with audio in their projects.

PyDub stands out as an easy-to-use, high-level interface for manipulating audio files in Python, making it ideal for developers who need to integrate audio processing into their projects without dealing with the complexities of lower-level APIs.

When it fits — and when it doesn’t

Known weaknesses

Each one links to the public issue, changelog or docs page it came from, where we have one.

1. 01

   Pydub is broken on Python 3.13 due to the removal of the audioop module.

   The library fails to import on Python 3.13 because it relies on the deprecated audioop module, which has been removed, and no pip package replacement is available.

   Source: GitHub issue #863 ↗
2. 02

   Pydub cannot handle audio files larger than 2GB without manual chunking.

   A long-standing open issue indicates that support for large audio files (>2GB) is missing, forcing users to manually break audio into chunks to avoid memory issues.

   Source: GitHub issue #135 ↗
3. 03

   The project lacks active maintenance and has a backlog of unmerged pull requests.

   Users report that the repository is effectively dead with no activity from the author and many pending pull requests, hindering the integration of fixes and features.

   Source: GitHub issue #827 ↗
4. 04

   Pydub does not support on-the-fly audio conversion for streaming without exporting to a file.

   Users attempting to stream converted audio (e.g., to MP3) over HTTP cannot find a way to get pydub to return converted raw frames without first exporting to a file.

   Source: GitHub issue #408 ↗
5. 05

   Pydub requires external ffmpeg/ffprobe binaries which are not bundled.

   The library fails with 'No such file or directory' errors if ffmpeg or ffprobe are not installed and correctly configured in the system path, a common source of user issues.

   Source: GitHub issue #576 ↗

What it does well

• Easy-to-use API for audio manipulation

• Supports various audio formats and operations

• Integration with other Python libraries like NumPy

Pricing

Free tier

YesOpen source — free to use

Paid from

$0

Model

Flat rate

Enterprise plan

No

Pricing not independently confirmed — check the vendor’s page.