M3U
Encyclopedia
M3U is a computer file format that stores multimedia playlist
s. It is supported by many applications.
An M3U file is a plain text
file that specifies the locations of one or more media files. Each line carries one specification. The specification can be any one of the following:
The M3U file can also include comments, prefaced by the "#" character. In extended M3U, "#" also introduces extended M3U directives.
One common use of the M3U file format is creating a single-entry playlist file pointing to a stream
on the Internet. The created file provides easy access to that stream and is often used in downloads from a website, for emailing, and for listening to Internet radio
.
The file is saved with the "M3U" or "m3u" filename extension
, and - if edited in a text editor - must be encoded in the Windows-1252
format in order to be understood by media players.
"m3u" files properly use the Latin-1 charset. The Unicode
version of "m3u" is "m3u8", which uses UTF-8
Unicode characters.
#EXTINF - extra info - length (seconds), title
It is a common convention to include the name of the artist in the title, separated by a dash, e.g.:
#EXTINF - extra info - length (seconds), artist '-' title
and Linux
platforms, Unix paths are used.
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:123, Sample artist - Sample title
C:\Documents and Settings\I\My Music\Sample.mp3
#EXTINF:321,Example Artist - Example title
C:\Documents and Settings\I\My Music\Greatest Hits\Example.ogg
This example shows how to create an m3u file linking to a specified directory (for example, a flash drive, or CD-ROM). The m3u file should contain only one string: the path to the directory. After starting, the media player will play all contents of the directory:
C:\Music
Here is another example, using relative format. The M3U file is placed in the same directory as the music, and directories must be preserved when moving the playlist to another device if subdirectories are used. This method is more flexible, as it does not rely on the file path staying the same.
This is the same file as above, saved as sample.m3u in C:\Documents and Settings\I\My Music\
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:123, Sample artist - Sample title
Sample.mp3
#EXTINF:321,Example Artist - Example title
Greatest Hits\Example.ogg
This format in an M3U allows copying to another device for playback. All files and directories referred to must also be copied.
Here is a mixed example.
Alternative\Band - Song.mp3
Classical\Other Band - New Song.mp3
Stuff.mp3
D:\More Music\Foo.mp3
..\Other Music\Bar.mp3
http://emp.cx:8000/Listen.pls
http://www.example.com/~user/Mine.mp3
- Alternative and Classical are sub-directories of the directory that this playlist is stored in.
- "Song" and "New Song" are in sub-directories that this playlist is stored in.
- "Stuff" is in the same directory that the playlist is stored in.
- "Foo" is in the specified (Windows) volume and directory, which may or may not be the same directory the playlist is in.
- "Bar" is in a different directory at the same level as the playlist directory. The double-dots reference the parent directory of the playlist directory, then into the sub-directory "Other Music" to reach "Bar".
- "Listen" is a Shoutcast stream.
- "Mine" is an MP3 stored on a web server.
References to other M3U playlists, for example,
AnotherPlayList.m3u
are generally not well-supported.
Playlist
In its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. They can be played in sequential or shuffled order. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.-In radio:...
s. It is supported by many applications.
An M3U file is a plain text
Plain text
In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text....
file that specifies the locations of one or more media files. Each line carries one specification. The specification can be any one of the following:
- an absolute local pathname; e.g., C:\My Music\Heavysets.mp3
- a local pathname relative to the M3U file location; e.g. Heavysets.mp3
- a URL.
The M3U file can also include comments, prefaced by the "#" character. In extended M3U, "#" also introduces extended M3U directives.
One common use of the M3U file format is creating a single-entry playlist file pointing to a stream
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
on the Internet. The created file provides easy access to that stream and is often used in downloads from a website, for emailing, and for listening to Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
.
The file is saved with the "M3U" or "m3u" filename extension
Filename extension
A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....
, and - if edited in a text editor - must be encoded in the Windows-1252
Windows-1252
Windows-1252 or CP-1252 is a character encoding of the Latin alphabet, used by default in the legacy components of Microsoft Windows in English and some other Western languages. It is one version within the group of Windows code pages...
format in order to be understood by media players.
"m3u" files properly use the Latin-1 charset. The Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
version of "m3u" is "m3u8", which uses UTF-8
UTF-8
UTF-8 is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. Like UTF-16 and UTF-32, UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. Unlike them, it is backward-compatible with ASCII and avoids the complications of endianness and byte order marks...
Unicode characters.
Extended M3U directives
#EXTM3U - header - must be first line of file#EXTINF - extra info - length (seconds), title
It is a common convention to include the name of the artist in the title, separated by a dash, e.g.:
#EXTINF - extra info - length (seconds), artist '-' title
Example
This is an example of an extended M3U file on the Windows platform. Sample.mp3 and Example.ogg are the media files. 123 and 321 are the lengths in seconds. A length of -1 may be used when the media file is a streaming file, as there is no actual, predefined length value. The value after the length is the title to be shown, which is generally the same as the location of the file which is on the second line. On the Mac OS XMac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
platforms, Unix paths are used.
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:123, Sample artist - Sample title
C:\Documents and Settings\I\My Music\Sample.mp3
#EXTINF:321,Example Artist - Example title
C:\Documents and Settings\I\My Music\Greatest Hits\Example.ogg
This example shows how to create an m3u file linking to a specified directory (for example, a flash drive, or CD-ROM). The m3u file should contain only one string: the path to the directory. After starting, the media player will play all contents of the directory:
C:\Music
Here is another example, using relative format. The M3U file is placed in the same directory as the music, and directories must be preserved when moving the playlist to another device if subdirectories are used. This method is more flexible, as it does not rely on the file path staying the same.
This is the same file as above, saved as sample.m3u in C:\Documents and Settings\I\My Music\
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:123, Sample artist - Sample title
Sample.mp3
#EXTINF:321,Example Artist - Example title
Greatest Hits\Example.ogg
This format in an M3U allows copying to another device for playback. All files and directories referred to must also be copied.
Here is a mixed example.
Alternative\Band - Song.mp3
Classical\Other Band - New Song.mp3
Stuff.mp3
D:\More Music\Foo.mp3
..\Other Music\Bar.mp3
- Alternative and Classical are sub-directories of the directory that this playlist is stored in.
- "Song" and "New Song" are in sub-directories that this playlist is stored in.
- "Stuff" is in the same directory that the playlist is stored in.
- "Foo" is in the specified (Windows) volume and directory, which may or may not be the same directory the playlist is in.
- "Bar" is in a different directory at the same level as the playlist directory. The double-dots reference the parent directory of the playlist directory, then into the sub-directory "Other Music" to reach "Bar".
- "Listen" is a Shoutcast stream.
- "Mine" is an MP3 stored on a web server.
References to other M3U playlists, for example,
AnotherPlayList.m3u
are generally not well-supported.
See also
- mp3tagMp3tagMp3tag is a freeware metadata editor for many audio file formats. It runs on Microsoft Windows.It includes support for the following audio formats: AAC, FLAC, APE, MP3, MPEG-4 , MPC, OGG, OptimFROG OFR, OFS, SPX, TAK, TTA, WMA, WV-Features:*Batch Tag Editing...
(M3U, EXTM3U) - Advanced Stream RedirectorAdvanced Stream RedirectorThe Advanced Stream Redirector format is a type of XML metafile designed to store a list of Windows Media files to play during a multimedia presentation....
(ASX) - PLSPLS (file format)PLS is a computer file format that stores multimedia playlists. It is a more expressive format than basic M3U, as it can store information on the song title and length...
- XSPFXSPFXML Shareable Playlist Format , pronounced spiff, is an XML-based playlist format for digital media, sponsored by the Xiph.Org Foundation....
- B4S - Winamp3 XML based playlist format
- Windows Media Player Playlist (WPL)
External links
- A survey of playlist formats (Lucas Gonze, November 17, 2003)
- M3U (WinAmp) Play List Specification
- HTTP Live Streaming (M3U extension)