How to make M3U playlist

M3u files to queue files for playback in Multimedia players

Index

1. About .M3U
2. Uses of .M3U
3. How to make .M3U playlist
4. Sample playlist

About .M3U

M3U or Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3

M3U is a de facto standard with extension .m3u.

M3U file is a plain text file that specifies the path of one or more media files.

Each entry carries one media path. The media path can be referred by the following ways:

• localpath
  • e.g., C:\My Music\Heavysets.mp3 (External Folder)
  • e.g. Heavysets.mp3 (Internal Folder)
• URL
  • e.g., http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/ElephantsDream.mp4

Uses of .M3U

M3U file format is used to creating a single-entry playlist file pointing to a stream on the Internet or local files.

It is used to make playlist tracks.

It implementation is very easy.

How to make .M3U playlist

The M3U files is use # character for include extension.

It uses two extension for create playlist. They are listed out in the following,

1. #EXTM3U
2. #EXTINF

#EXTM3U

It is file header. It is a default one for creating M3U playlist.

The playlist is start from this line. Without this we cannot start playlist.

Example:

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF

This is used to Add file path to the playlist.

This is also used tracking all information about the playlist like filename, duration and title.

Example:

#EXTINF:191,Artist Name - Track Title

Sample playlist

Sample 1

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:123, BigBuckBunny - BigBuckBunny
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4

#EXTINF:321,ElephantsDream - ElephantsDream
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/ElephantsDream.mp4

Sample 2

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:123, BigBuckBunny - BigBuckBunny
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/images/BigBuckBunny.jpg

#EXTINF:321,ElephantsDream - ElephantsDream
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/images/ElephantsDream.jpg