Zipped Album format (zlbm)

A suggestion for an open single-file music album format

Specification

A simple ZIP file (not necessarily compressed; .zlbm extension recommended), with properly tagged (title, albumartist/artist, tracknumber, date) audio files in lossy (Ogg Opus; 96 - 128 Kb/s recommended) or lossles (FLAC; 44.1/48 Khz, 16 bit recommended) format, and an optional digital booklet (PDF; square paper size) of which the first page is the album cover. For compatility with current players, additional (cover) images (JPEG, PNG; square format) can be included. For creating custom compilation albums/mixtapes without changing the tags of the included audio files, an optional playlist (XSPF) might specify any of the following: title, creator, date and track order.

├── *.zlbm|*.zip|*
│   ├── *.opus|flac
│   ├── ...
│   ├── [*.pdf]
│   ├── [*.jpeg|png]
│   ├── ...
|   ├── [*.xspf]

Examples

The following ZIP files would each be recognized as a Zipped Album.

Simplest form with a PDF booklet:

├── Artist-Album_Title.zlbm
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-01-First_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-02-Second_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-03-Third_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-04-Fourth_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title.pdf

Two variants with additional images:

├── Artist-Album_Title.zip
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-01-First_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-02-Second_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-03-Third_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title-04-Fourth_Song.opus
│   ├── Artist-Album_Title_booklet.pdf
│   ├── back.jpeg
│   ├── front.jpeg

├── Artist-Album_Title.zip
│   ├── 01.opus
│   ├── 02.opus
│   ├── 03.opus
│   ├── 04.opus
│   ├── booklet.pdf
│   ├── folder.jpeg

The format of an album downloaded from Bandcamp, inlcuding only a cover image:

├── Artist - Album Title.zip
│   ├── Artist - Album Title - 01 First Song.flac
│   ├── Artist - Album Title - 02 Second Song.flac
│   ├── Artist - Album Title - 03 Third Song.flac
│   ├── Artist - Album Title - 04 Fourth Song.flac
│   ├── cover.png

A custom made mixtape that includes neither a PDF booklet nor any images, but a playlist:

├── fladdsAwesomeMixtape.zip
│   ├── ArtistA_TitleW.opus
│   ├── ArtistB_TitleX.opus
│   ├── ArtistC_TitleY.opus
│   ├── ArtistD_TitleZ.opus
│   ├── playlist.xspf

Contents of playlist.xspf:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<playlist version="1" xmlns="http://xspf.org/ns/0/">

    <title>Awesome Mixtape</title>
    <creator>fladd</creator>
    <date>2021-04-29T01:40:09.330469+02:00</date>

    <trackList>
        <track>
            <location>ArtistB_TitleX.opus</location>
        </track>
        <track>
            <location>ArtistD_TitleZ.opus</location>
        </track>
        <track>
            <location>ArtistC_TitleY.opus</location>
        </track>
        <track>
            <location>ArtistA_TitleW.opus</location>
        </track>
    </trackList>

</playlist>

FAQ

• Why?

  Before music was entirely digital, albums came as a single entity, in a nice package with a dedicated booklet full of information. An album was a product as a whole. Digital music has lost this. You get individual music files, no package and ususually a cover image at best, but no booklet. Zipped Album is an attempt to regain some of that in a digital format.

  I am getting old.

• How do I play a Zipped Album?

  I created Zipped Album Player (ZAP) as cross-platform player with full Zipped Album support. However, some other players are capable of at least playing the audio part of a Zipped Album (i.e. they won't show the booklet). These include Foobar2000 and DeaDBeeF.

• Where do I get music in Zipped Album format?

  Albums downloaded from Bandcamp in FLAC format, for instance, are compatible, but you can also easily create them yourself from your existing music.