Read ID3 tags without downloading the whole file

Is it possible to read ID3 tags (Duration, Artist, title...) of an MP3 file without having to download the whole file?

I did a few tests and I was able to get the Artist and title tags with only downloading a few bytes of the MP3 file.. but I'm not sure if it's possible for Duration and other tags..

Thanks.

Solution

I just find out that ffmpeg can read ID3 tags of a remote file without having to download the whole file:

root@local1:/# ffmpeg -i http://physics.ujep.cz/~mmaly/mp3/Mozart/Mass_in_C_Minor_New_by_Levin/sbory_vyssi_kvalita/01_Kyrie.mp3
FFmpeg version 0.6-4:0.6-2ubuntu6, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Oct  5 2010 22:36:53 with gcc 4.4.5
  configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6-2ubuntu6 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-vaapi --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil     50.15. 1 / 50.15. 1
  libavcodec    52.72. 2 / 52.72. 2
  libavformat   52.64. 2 / 52.64. 2
  libavdevice   52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
  libavfilter    1.19. 0 /  1.19. 0
  libswscale     0.11. 0 /  0.11. 0
  libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
[mp3 @ 0x7ae420]max_analyze_duration reached
[mp3 @ 0x7ae420]Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #0, mp3, from 'http://physics.ujep.cz/~mmaly/mp3/Mozart/Mass_in_C_Minor_New_by_Levin/sbory_vyssi_kvalita/01_Kyrie.mp3':
  Metadata:
    TLEN            : 431046
    TIT2            : Kyrie
    TRCK            : 1
    TPE1            : Mozart
    TCON            : Classical
    TALB            : Mass in C Minor New by Levin
  Duration: 00:07:11.18, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 128 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 128 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified