In Linux, there is very powerful tool to rename files based on pattern we specify. The pattern follows Perl-like regular expression.
For example, if I have files as follow:
01_-_bohemian_rhapsody_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
05_-_bicycle_race_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
"07_-_it's_a_hard_life_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3"
09_-_who_wants_to_live_forever_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
11_-_the_miracle_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
15_-_friends_will_be_friends_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
16_-_the_show_must_go_on_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3
16_-_we_will_rock_you_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
17_-_we_are_the_champions_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3
and I want to rename them by replacing the "_-_" part to be just "-". The single command to do that is:
$ rename -n -v 's/_-_/-/g' *
rename(01_-_bohemian_rhapsody_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 01-bohemian_rhapsody-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)
rename(05_-_bicycle_race_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 05-bicycle_race-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)
rename(07_-_it's_a_hard_life_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 07-it's_a_hard_life-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)
rename(09_-_who_wants_to_live_forever_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 09-who_wants_to_live_forever-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)
rename(11_-_the_miracle_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 11-the_miracle-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)
rename(15_-_friends_will_be_friends_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 15-friends_will_be_friends-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)
rename(16_-_the_show_must_go_on_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 16-the_show_must_go_on-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)
rename(16_-_we_will_rock_you_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 16-we_will_rock_you-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)
rename(17_-_we_are_the_champions_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 17-we_are_the_champions-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)
(the argument "-n" above is to tell rename not to actually perform renaming, but just to display what it would do). I use "/g" in the regular expression to tell it to rename all occurrences of "_-_" throughout the file name, not just for the first time it encounters it.