XML Shareable Playlist Format

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XML Shareable Playlist Format (XSPF), pronounced spiff, is an XML-based playlist format for digital media, sponsored by the Xiph.Org Foundation. Lucas Gonze of Yahoo.com/Webjay.org originated the format in 2004.

XSPF is a data format for sharing the kind of playlist that can be played on a personal computer or portable device. In the same way that any user on any computer can open any web page, XSPF is intended to provide portability for playlists.

[edit] Features

• A playlist format like M3U or ASX
• MIME content-type of application/xspf+xml
• Patent-free (no patents by the primary authors)
• Specification under a Creative Commons license
• XML, like Atom
• Unicode support
• Cross-platform support

[edit] History

XSPF was created by an ad-hoc working group which kicked off in February 2004, achieved rough consensus on version 0 in April 2004, worked on implementations and fine tuning throughout summer and fall 2004, and declared the tuned version to be version 1 in January 2005.

XSPF is not yet an Internet standard, and is not a recommendation of any standards body besides Xiph. Org Foundation.

[edit] Specification

For detailed documentation, see the XSPF Version 1 specification.

[edit] Example of an XSPF 1.0 Playlist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<playlist version="1" xmlns="http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
  <trackList>
    <track>
      <title>Internal Example</title>
      <location>file:///C:/music/foo.mp3</location>
    </track>
    <track>
      <title>External Example</title>
      <location>http://www.example.com/music/bar.ogg</location>
    </track>
  </trackList>
</playlist>

[edit] Content Resolution

Traditionally playlists have been composed of file paths that pointed to individual titles. This allowed a playlist to be played locally on one machine or shared if the listed file paths were URLs accessible to more than one machine (i.e. on the web). XSPF's meta-data rich open format has permitted a new kind of playlist sharing called content resolution.

In the simplest terms, content resolution is the local recreation of a playlist based on meta-data. A content resolver will open XSPF playlists and search a catalog for every title with <creator>, <album> and <title> tags, then recreate the playlist with the available matching titles. A catalog may be a collection of media files on a local disk, a music subscription service like Yahoo! Music Unlimited or some other searchable archive. The end result are shareable playlists that are not tied to a specific collection or service.

Currently Mobster for iTunes (Windows and Mac) and Windows beta versions of MusicIP are the only functional content resolvers. Mobster is known to open XSPF files from amazingtunes, Musicmobs, Last.fm and Yahoo! Music Unlimited.

[edit] Software

• Amarok
• Audacious
• Herrie - reading/writing XSPF playlists. XSPF is also used to autosave the playlist on shutdown.
• Serpentine - GNOME application for writing audio CDs
• VLC (stand-alone player, available on every major platform)
• Visonair.tv Stream Directory (uses XSPF for server list download)
• libSpiff (C++ XSPF library)
• Visonair.tv Player (supports XSPF files)
• Clipland Playlists (onDemand video-playlists also in XSPF)
• PHP4XSPF - a set of PHP classes that aims to make it as simple as possible to create XSPF files using PHP.
• XSPF for Ruby - a pure-Ruby parser and generator library
• JointRadio - takes RSS feeds of MP3 files and creates XSPF files
• XSPF Web Music Player - Open Source XSPF player (in the web browser)

Many more applications are listed on the XSPF site below.

[edit] External links

Free software Portal

• XSPF home page
• Online XSPF Validator
• XSPF discussion interface
• MyPlayList First XSPF picture / music playlist compiler