DOWNLOAD M3U FILE WINDOWS
Stupid, in my opinion, when every file contains metadata to do this, but then even Windows gives you a way to sort your files before importing into iTunes.
Might as well just copy and paste the text directly from the iTunes view window if you want to just email someone track information in a particular order, no need for an m3u file there either.įinally, if you are dealing with people who have a really archaic mindset, you can set iTunes to automatically rename your music files with track number prefix. I propose that it is BAD form to rely on separate text files to tell someone how a playlist should go. Any decent non-Apple players can do the same. Every iPod can reads your predefined playlist without resorting to separate text files. But if the metadata of your audio tracks is complete and correct, then the m3u file is redundant, no matter whether your tunes are local or not. Sure, i suppose it’s possible that one would need to export a specific playlist order to a non-Apple user. But I still see the m3u as no more than a txt file that doesn’t leverage the metadata that your music files all should have.Īn m3u file is a static list of file order. I applaud the use of Excel for comprehensive data reporting. Under simple usage though, this may not be a problem. TL DR: If you toss out the m3u (or other metafile) you’re tossing out the meta-information the creator of the playlist generated with the media files and possibly even access to those media files, if they’re not local. There are a lot of extremely powerful things you can do with metafiles and iTunes that shouldn’t be dismissed as “metafiles are just those stupid m3u files that live in the same folder as MP3s that I downloaded and resulted in weird duplicate playlists when I dragged the folder into iTunes”.Įven taking your example… if I created a playlist of music and put those files all in a folder to send to you along with an m3u, and you deleted the m3u, and dragged the files into a new iTunes playlist, they would likely end up in a different order based on Finder settings than the order the playlist was created and generated in the m3u. That’s usually correct for simple usage, but m3u files aren’t entirely useless which is why iTunes can not only read them, but can write them as well (along with a variety of other metafile formats).įor example, an m3u file can be used to import/export a playlist that is not local, whether that’s for streaming media or for transferring playlists (and their media files) to another iTunes library.