XML Shareable Playlist Format (XSPF), pronounced ''spiff'', is an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

-based playlist format for digital media, sponsored by the Xiph.Org Foundation. XSPF is a file 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.

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 (e.g., on the Web). XSPF's meta-data rich open format has permitted a new kind of playlist sharing called ''content resolution''. A simple form of content resolution is the localisation of a playlist based on metadata. An XSPF-compliant content resolver will open XSPF playlists and search a catalog for every title with <creator>, <album> and <title> tags, then localise the playlist to reference the available matching tracks. A catalog may reference 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 is shareable playlists that are not tied to a specific collection or service.

Example of an XSPF 1.0 playlist

Windows Path file://C:\music\foo.mp3 Linux Path file:///media/music/foo.mp3 Relative Path music/foo.mp3 External Example http://www.example.com/music/bar.ogg

History

XSPF was created by an ''ad hoc'' working group that commenced activities 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 a recommendation of any standards body besides the Xiph.Org Foundation.

Features

* A playlist format like

M3U M3U (''MP3 URL'' or Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3 Uniform Resource Locator in full) is a computer file format for a multimedia playlist. One common use of the M3U file format is creating a single-entry playlist file pointing to a st ...

or ASX *

MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...

content-type of application/xspf+xml * Patent-free (no patents by the primary authors) * Specification under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 license * XML, like

Atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, ...

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

support *

Cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software ...

support

Software and web playlist converters

* Amarok * Foobar2000 (with appropriate plugin) * Audacious *

Banshee A banshee ( ; Modern Irish , from sga, ben síde , "woman of the fairy mound" or "fairy woman") is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening. Her name i ...

Clementine A clementine (''Citrus × clementina'') is a tangor, a citrus fruit hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange ( ''C.'' × ''deliciosa'') and a sweet orange (''C. × sinensis''), named in honor of Clément Rodier, a French missionary who fir ...

Tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Eur ...

VLC media player VLC media player (previously the VideoLAN Client and commonly known as simply VLC) is a free and open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for desk ...

(stand-alone player, available on every major platform) * XMMS2 (has a plugin to parse XSPF) *

Last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...

(export of playlists and personal tag radios in XSPF) * Soundiiz (playlist converter for several streaming sites) * youtube-dl (downloader)

References

External links

*
Online XSPF Validator

XSPF Version 1 specification
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xml Shareable Playlist Format Open formats Playlist file formats Playlist markup languages Xiph.Org projects XML-based standards