M3U

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M3U
Filename extensionsTemplate:Monodiv
Internet media typevarious; Page Template:Crossreference/styles.css has no content.Page Module:Hatnote/styles.css has no content.see § Internet media types
Initial releasec. 1996
Type of formatPlaylist
Extended toHLS playlist

M3U (MP3 URL[1][2]) 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 stream on the Internet. The created file provides easy access to that stream and is often used in downloads from a website, for emailing, and for listening to Internet radio.

Although originally designed for audio files, such as MP3, it is commonly used to point media players to audio and video sources, including online sources. M3U was originally developed by Fraunhofer for use with their WinPlay3 software,[1][3] but numerous media players and software applications now support the format.

Careless handling of M3U playlists has been the cause of vulnerabilities in many music players such as VLC media player,[4] iTunes,[5] Winamp,[6] and many others.[7]

File format

There is no formal specification for the M3U format; it is a de facto standard.

An M3U file is a plain text file that specifies the locations of one or more media files. The file is saved with the "m3u" filename extension if the text is encoded in the local system's default non-Unicode encoding (e.g., a Windows codepage), or with the "m3u8" extension if the text is UTF-8 encoded.[8] The "mp3url" extension originally supported by Winplay3 fell out of use.[1]

Each entry carries one specification. The specification can be any one of the following:

  • an absolute local pathname; e.g., C:\My Music\Heavysets.mp3
  • a local pathname relative to the M3U file location; e.g. Heavysets.mp3
  • a URL

Each entry ends with a line break which separates it from the following one. Furthermore, some devices only accept line breaks represented as CR LF, but do not recognize a single LF.

Extended M3U

The M3U file can also include comments, prefaced by the "#" character. In extended M3U, "#" also introduces extended M3U directives which are terminated by a colon ":" if they support parameters.

M3U extensions
Directive Description Example Required Standard
#EXTM3U file header, must be the first line of the file #EXTM3U 1× Yes
#EXTINF: track information: runtime in seconds, then optional display title of the following resource.
For runtime, a length of -1 or 0 may be used when media is a streaming file with no predefined length.		 #EXTINF:123,Artist Name – Track Title␤
artist - title.mp3		 No Yes
additional properties as key-value pairs #EXTINF:123 logo="cover.jpg",Stream Title␤
http://example.org/live.strm		 No IPTV
#PLAYLIST: playlist display title #PLAYLIST:Music TV 1× IPTV
#EXTGRP: begin named grouping #EXTGRP:Foreign Channels No IPTV
#EXTALB: album information, title in particular #EXTALB:Album Title (2009) 1× AL,[9] M3A[10]
#EXTART: album artist #EXTART:Various 1× AL,[9] M3A[10]
#EXTGENRE: album genre #EXTGENRE:Jazz Fusion 1× AL[9]
#EXTM3A playlist for tracks or chapters of an album in a single file #EXTM3A 1× M3A[10]
#EXTBYT: file size in bytes #EXTBYT:34124 No M3A[10]
#EXTBIN: binary data follows, usually concatenated MP3s #EXTBIN: No M3A[10]
#EXTALBUMARTURL: url of album art image #EXTALBUMARTURL:https://example.com/a1b2c3d4.jpg No Jamendo/VLC[11]

M3U8

The use of UTF-8 encoding is mandatory in M3U playlists with the M3U8 file extension. The system codepage is usually assumed for ".m3u" but this is often UTF-8 as well nowadays so the distinction has mostly been lost in practice.

HLS

Apple used the extended M3U format, UTF-8 encoded, as a base for their HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)[12] which was documented in an Independent Submission Stream RFC in 2017 as RFC 8216.[13] Therein, a master playlist references segment playlists which usually contain URLs for short parts of the media stream. Some tags only apply to the former type and some only to the latter type of playlist, but they all begin with #EXT-X-.

HLS M3U extensions
Directive Example Description
#EXT-X-START: TIME-OFFSET=0
#EXT-X-INDEPENDENT-SEGMENTS Toggle without parameters
#EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE: VOD or EVENT
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION: 10 The maximum Media Segment duration in seconds
#EXT-X-VERSION: 4
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE: 0 The Media Sequence Number of the first Media Segment appearing in the playlist file
#EXT-X-MEDIA: NAME="English", TYPE=AUDIO, GROUP-ID="audio-stereo-64", LANGUAGE="en", DEFAULT=YES, AUTOSELECT=YES, URI="english.m3u8"
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF: BANDWIDTH=1123000, CODECS="avc1.64001f,mp4a.40.2" Parameters have either one combined value or one per stream, separated by commas
#EXT-X-BYTERANGE: 1024@256000
#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY toggle without parameters The segment represents the start of a new period
#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY-SEQUENCE: 2 Indicates start of numbering of periods
#EXT-X-GAP toggle without parameters The segment represents a "spacer" before a new period
#EXT-X-KEY: METHOD=NONE Indicates encryption method used and decryption key
#EXT-X-MAP: URI=MediaInitializationSection
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME: 2010-02-19T14:54:23.031+08:00 ISO 8601 format
#EXT-X-DATERANGE: ID=foo
#EXT-X-I-FRAMES-ONLY i-frame Toggle without parameters
#EXT-X-SESSION-DATA: DATA-ID=com.example.movie.title
#EXT-X-SESSION-KEY:
#EXT-X-ENDLIST End-of-list signal without parameters

IPTV

With television broadcasting via the internet protocol (IPTV), M3U playlists are frequently used to store the (start) URLs of the streams, so each entry represents a channel. As usual for continuous streams, the length info directly after #EXTINF: is set to -1. Unlike HLS, other structured information is not provided in separate info lines but with a key–value syntax before the mandatory comma following the length. 

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="123" tvg-name="Channel Name" tvg-logo="http://example.com/logo.png" group-title="Examples", Channel Name
rtsp://example.com/stream
IPTV #EXTINF length value extensions
Attribute Example Description
Group group-title="News" named (thematic) group of channels, i.e. a genre
tvg-group="Music/Rock" named group of channels, some players support a hierarchical separator within the value
Logo tvg-logo="/logos/channel.png" URL to channel logo image file
Name tvg-name="Channel TV" usually the same name repeated after the comma, but can differ to match display-name in XMLTV
Number tvg-chno="12" channel number
CUID tvg-id="1234" unique identifier to link EPG info with (e.g. using channel-id in XMLTV)
Country tvg-country="NZ" origin country of the channel, possibly using ISO 3166 codes
Language tvg-language="English" main audio language of the channel, possibly using ISO 639 codes
Radio radio=true boolean value to mark audio-only channels

Internet media types

The only Internet media type registered for M3U and M3U8 is application/vnd.apple.mpegurl, registered in 2009 and only referring to the playlist format as used in HLS applications.[14][15]

The current[when?] proposal for the HLS playlist format acknowledges two media types which it treats as equivalent: application/vnd.apple.mpegurl and audio/mpegurl.[12] Likewise, these are the two types recommended for HLS use by Microsoft.[16]

For non-HLS applications, no media types were standardized or registered with the IANA, but a number of media types are nonetheless associated with the historical and ongoing use of the M3U and M3U8 formats for general playlists:

  • application/mpegurl
  • application/x-mpegurl
  • audio/mpegurl
  • audio/x-mpegurl[1][2]

These types, plus application/vnd.apple.mpegurl and application/vnd.apple.mpegurl.audio, are supported for HLS applications by (for example) Microsoft's Windows 10[16] and Internet Explorer 9,[17] and LG's WebOS.[18]

Example

The following is an example of an M3U playlist file for "Jar of Flies" album by "Alice in Chains" that was created by Mp3tag with the following custom option settings:[19][20][21]

  • playlist extended info format = "%artist% - %title%"
  • playlist filename format = "%artist%_%album%_00_Playlist.m3u"
  • tag to filename conversion format = "%artist%_%album%_$num(%track%,2)_%title%"
 #EXTM3U
 #EXTINF:419,Alice in Chains - Rotten Apple
 Alice in Chains_Jar of Flies_01_Rotten Apple.mp3
 #EXTINF:260,Alice in Chains - Nutshell
 Alice in Chains_Jar of Flies_02_Nutshell.mp3
 #EXTINF:255,Alice in Chains - I Stay Away
 Alice in Chains_Jar of Flies_03_I Stay Away.mp3
 #EXTINF:256,Alice in Chains - No Excuses
 Alice in Chains_Jar of Flies_04_No Excuses.mp3
 #EXTINF:157,Alice in Chains - Whale And Wasp
 Alice in Chains_Jar of Flies_05_Whale And Wasp.mp3
 #EXTINF:263,Alice in Chains - Don't Follow
 Alice in Chains_Jar of Flies_06_Don't Follow.mp3
 #EXTINF:245,Alice in Chains - Swing On This
 Alice in Chains_Jar of Flies_07_Swing On This.mp3

Software

Tag editors

Script error: No such module "Category see also".Template:Category see also/Category pair check The following tag editor software allows users to edit the ID3 tags in MP3 files, and has support for creating M3U files.

Linux
Windows
macOS

Media players

Script error: No such module "Category see also".Template:Category see also/Category pair check The following media player software supports playing M3U files.

Multi-platform
Programs Platforms
Windows macOS Linux Android Other
Amarok Yes No Yes No No
Audacious Yes No Yes No No
Banshee Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Clementine Yes Yes Yes No Yes
foobar2000 Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Kodi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MOC (Music on Console) No No Yes No Yes
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
mpv Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VLC media player Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
iTunes Yes Yes No No No
make_playlist (mkpl) Yes Yes Yes No No
Android
macOS
Nintendo
Windows

See also

Other playlist file formats
  • PLS - SHOUTcast

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Fraunhofer Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen-A (1996-10-30). "WinPlay3 - Windows real-time ISO/MPEG Audio Layer 3 Player". Archived from the original on 1997-06-06. Retrieved 2018-01-21.
  2. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gruett, Matt. "M3U FILES AND STREAMING". LockerGnome. Archived from the original on 2001-04-26.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."WINAMP.COM | Winamp Documentation". June 6, 2002. Archived from the original on 2002-06-06.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."VideoLAN-SA-0804 (CVE-2007-6683)". 2008. Arbitrary file overwrite and other abuses through M3U parser and browsers plugins.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."CVE-2012-0677: Heap-based buffer overflow in Apple iTunes before 10.6.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands". cve.circl.lu.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."CVE-2000-0624: Buffer overflow in Winamp 2.64 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a long #EXTINF: ext". www.cvedetails.com.
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  10. ^ a b c d e Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."M3A (M3U Album) Format". birdcagesoft. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."m3u: use the album art provided by jamendo along with the m3u files". 21 July 2010.
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