[Python] How to prevent [WinError 3] using shutil.move on .mp3 files whose artist tags contain...

I'm writing a Python script that:

1. Notes all files in the working directory
2. Reads the artist tag with the mutagen library
3. Uses regex to grab the first-mentioned artist as the 'main artist'
4. Creates a unique directory for that artist
5. Uses shutil to move the .mp3 to that directory

This works for most files, but I've noticed it gets a WinError 3 on any .mp3 whose mutagen artist tag contains ampersand or open-parenthesis. I've confirmed this by changing the tag and it gets moved without error.

This is particularly odd because nowhere in the file paths do I reference the artist tag directly. It's picked up and run through a regex to make sure it's a standardized upper-cased string fit for a file path name in Windows.

import mutagen
import os
import re
import shutil

current_dir = os.getcwd()
files = [f for f in os.listdir('.') if os.path.isfile(f)]

# for each file in the dir
for f in files:
#grab the artist (use first listed artist in the case of colabs) as a new directory name or UKNOWN if not listed
try:
audio = mutagen.File(f, easy=True)
if audio is not None and "artist" in audio:
artist = re.split(r";|,|&|\(|\/|\sfeat\.|\sFeat\.|\sft|\sFt|\sx\s",audio['artist'][0])[0].upper()
else:
artist = "UNKNOWN"
except Exception as e:
artist = "UNKNOWN"

artist_path = os.path.join(current_dir,artist)
item_path = os.path.join(current_dir,f)

#make sure all the artist paths are unique
os.makedirs(artist,exist_ok=True)

#don't move the actual python script...
if item_path[-2:] != 'py':
try:
shutil.move(item_path, artist_path)
print("moved ",item_path," to ",artist_path)
except Exception as e:
print("Error on: ",f," -> ",e)
print(item_path, os.path.exists(item_path))
print(artist_path, os.path.exists(artist_path))


Why would the metadata tag matter in this case?

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