View source for Playlist

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{short description|Curated list of video or audio files}}
{{for|the CBBC music entertainment TV series|The Playlist{{!}}''The Playlist''}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Refimprove|date=April 2011}}
[[File:Nulloy-player-screenshot-dark.png|thumb|A playlist in an [[Audio player (software)|audio player]]]]
A '''playlist''' is a list of [[digital video|video]] or [[digital audio|audio]] files that can be played back on a [[Media player software|media player]], either sequentially or in a [[Shuffle play|shuffled]] order.<ref>{{cite web |last=Knaster |first=Scott |date=February 15, 2005 |title=iPod shuffle Tips and Tricks |url=http://oreilly.com/pub/a/mac/2005/02/15/shuffle.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209184005/http://oreilly.com/pub/a/mac/2005/02/15/shuffle.html |archive-date=February 9, 2011 |access-date=April 11, 2011 |work=Mac OS X Excerpts |publisher=O'Reilly Media}}</ref> In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a [[loop (music)|loop]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/playlist/faq.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014120008/http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/playlist/faq.php|title=Frequently Asked Questions|publisher=Minnesota Public Radio|archive-date=October 14, 2012|url-status=dead|access-date=April 11, 2011}}</ref> The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of [[television|television broadcasting]], [[radio broadcasting]] and [[Personal computer|personal computers]]. 

A video playlist can also be a list of recorded titles on a [[digital video disk]] (DVD). On the internet, a playlist can be a list of chapters in a movie [[Serial TV|serial]]; for example, [[Flash Gordon]] in the [[Planet Mongo]] is available on [[YouTube]] as a playlist of thirteen consecutive video chapters.

==Radio==
The term originally came about in the early days of [[Top 40]] [[radio format]]s in the 1950s when stations would devise (and, eventually, publish) a limited list of songs to be played.{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} The term would go on to refer to the entire catalog of songs that a given radio station (of any format) would draw from.{{fact|date=November 2023}} Additionally, the term was used to refer to an ordered list of songs played during a given time period.<ref>{{citation |title=Collaborative Radio Community|author1=Paolo Avesani |author2=Paolo Massa |author3=Michele Nori |author4=Angelo Susi  |name-list-style=amp |publisher=ITC irst|location=Italy}}</ref> Playlists are often adjusted based on time of day, known as [[dayparting]].{{fact|date=November 2023}}

==Television==
Cable TV and broadcast TV news channels often use video playlists to rerun prerecorded news stories. A given news story might initially be shown live and then placed into a playlist to be shown over and over again at a later time. News channel broadcasting is a combination of live and pre-recorded programming. The prerecorded clips are usually run from a playlist.

==Computers and the Internet==
As music storage and playback using personal computers became common, the term "playlist" was adopted by various [[media player (application software)|media player]] software programs intended to organize and control music on a PC. Such playlists may be defined, stored, and selected to run either in sequence or if a random playlist function is selected, in a random order. Playlists' uses include allowing a particular desired musical atmosphere to be created and maintained without constant user interaction or allowing a variety of different styles of music to be played, again without maintenance.

Several computer playlist formats for multimedia players, such as [[PLS (file format)|PLS]], can pass a playlist or [[URL]] to the player. In the case of radio stations it can also link many audio players directly to the station's live streaming audio, bypassing any need for a web browser. (In that case, the playlist file is typically downloaded from the station's live streaming web page, if offered. The files are similar to [[Shortcut (computing)|Internet shortcut]] files in appearance and internal structure, except used by media players rather than web browsers.) 

Some [[Streaming media|Internet streaming services]], such as [[Spotify]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Leighton |first1=Mackenzie |title=What are the different types of playlists on Spotify? |url=https://blog.groover.co/en/tips/types-of-playlists-spotify-en/ |website=Groover Blog |date=September 12, 2023 |access-date=14 November 2023}}</ref> [[Amazon Music]], and the defunct [[8tracks]], [[Playlist.com]] and [[Webjay]], allow users to categorize, edit, and listen to playlists online. Other sites focus on playlist creation aided by personalized song recommendations, ratings, and reviews. On certain sites, users create and share annotated playlists, giving visitors the option to read contextual information or reviewer comments about each song while listening. Some sites only allow the sharing of the playlist data with the actual music being delivered by other channels (e.g., Plurn), others provide a closed catalog of content from which the playlists can be generated, and sites like [[imeem]] allow users to upload the music to central servers to be shared and accessed by any user of the site. [[iPod]]s can also be used to build playlists.

[[Pandora Radio|Pandora]] is another music streaming service that is available on the Internet. Pandora is one of the few music services that is free (no subscription required) to users. The user can select genres that are played back at random on Pandora's playlists.

==Celebrity playlists==
A celebrity playlist is a list of songs prepared by a celebrity and represented in popular publications and on the radio as such.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSTRE56J05R20090720|title=Equinox fitness chain pumps up celebrity playlists|work=Reuters|date=July 19, 2009|last=Nagy|first=Evie|access-date=April 11, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/apr/09/best-celebrity-spotify-playlists|title=The best celebrity Spotify playlists|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=April 11, 2011|location=London|first=Ruth|last=Jamieson|date=April 9, 2009}}</ref>

==Web video==
On [[video hosting service]] websites such as YouTube and [[Vimeo]], users can make playlists of select videos from themselves or other users for topical purposes;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2011/04/08/how-to-creating-a-compelling-youtube-channel-without-any-original-content/|publisher=TNW|title=How to create a compelling YouTube channel without your own original content|date=April 8, 2011|access-date=|first = Adam|last = Vicenzini}}</ref> paid accounts can upgrade playlists of their own videos to "shows".

==Playlist generation==

Most [[media player (software)|media player]]s, such as [[Winamp]], can easily create custom playlists from one's media library. For example, in a [[media player (software)|software MP3 player]] for [[Windows]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]], or [[macOS]], the desired tunes are typically dragged and dropped from the user's music library into the player's "edit or create playlist" window and saved.

The idea of automatically generating music playlists from annotated databases was pioneered by [[François Pachet]] and Pierre Roy.<ref>Pachet, F. and Roy, P., [http://www.csl.sony.fr/publications/item/?reference=pachet%3A99m Automatic Generation of Music Programs] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509141312/http://www.csl.sony.fr/publications/item/?reference=pachet%3A99m |date=May 9, 2012 }}. Proceedings of Constraint Programming Conference, CP 99, LNCS 1713/2004, pages 331–345, Washington, VA, 1999. Springer Verlag.</ref> [[Constraint satisfaction]] techniques were developed to create playlists that satisfy arbitrary "sequence constraints", such as continuity, diversity, similarity, etc. Since, many other techniques were proposed, such as [[case-based reasoning]].<ref name="ai">{{Cite book| last1 = Baccigalupo | first1 = Claudio| last2 = Plaza | first2 = Enric| chapter = Case-Based Sequential Ordering of Songs for Playlist Recommendation | chapter-url = http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/kuchmuch/casebased-sequential-ordering-of-songs-for-playlist-recommendation| doi = 10.1007/11805816_22 | title = Advances in Case-Based Reasoning | series = [[Lecture Notes in Computer Science|LNCS]] | volume = 4106 | pages = 286–300| year = 2006 | isbn = 978-3-540-36843-4 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.98.9829}}</ref>

==Other playlist methods==
* A CD player that holds multiple CDs with a programmable grid mapper.
* [[MP3 CD]]s
* Prerecording a [[mixtape]]; which is purely sequential.
* Active disc-jockeying where the user manually selects the next song one after another as opposed to a preprogrammed playlist (shuffled or not)
* Stacking records in a sequence on a [[Phonograph record|vinyl record]] [[Record changer|changer]]
* A jukebox with a programmable record changer

==Types of playlist files==
Notable file formats used for playlists include:<ref>{{Cite web | url = https://lizzy.sourceforge.net/docs/formats.html | title = Lizzy (an open source Java library to process multimedia playlists) | first = Christophe | last = Delory | year = 2008–2009 | access-date = January 21, 2021}}</ref>
* .asx, an [[XML]] style playlist containing more information about the items on the playlist<ref name="microsoft-formats"/>
* .fpl, is a format used by [[foobar2000]].
* .kpl, Kalliope PlayList, is a kind of XML playlist storing developed to speed up loading and managing playlists.
* [[M3U|.m3u/.m3u8]], a simple text-based list of the locations of the items, with each item on a new line. This is one of the most popular playlist types.
* .pla, Samsung format(?), binary, [[Winamp]] handles these
* .aimppl, .plc, file extensions for [[AIMP]].
* .mpcpl file extension for [[Media Player Classic]] playlist format and its derivatives (MPC-HC, MPC-BE etc)
* [[PLS (file format)|.pls]], a text playlist similar to [[.ini]] (program settings) files. It provides the same functionality as extended [[M3U]] playlists by default (title and length).
* [[Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language|.smil]] is an XML recommendation of the [[World Wide Web Consortium]] that includes playlist features. In addition to audio, it supports video and screen layout and is heavily used in [[Digital Signage]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/smil|publisher=FileInfo.com|title=.SMIL File Extension|access-date=April 11, 2011}}</ref>
* .vlc is a format used by [[VLC Media Player]] and is defined as a renamed [[M3U]] or [[PLS (file format)|PLS]] playlist.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.videolan.org/.VLC/|publisher=videolan.org|title=.vlc File Extension|access-date=May 16, 2014}}</ref>
* .wpl, is an XML format used in [[Microsoft]] [[Windows Media Player]] versions 9–12.<ref name="microsoft-formats">{{cite web|url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316992|work=Microsoft Knowledge Base|publisher=Microsoft|title=Information about the Multimedia file types that Windows Media Player supports|date=November 17, 2010|access-date=April 11, 2011}}</ref>
* [[XML Shareable Playlist Format|.xspf]], an XML format designed to enable playlist sharing<ref>{{cite web|url=http://xspf.org/xspf-v0.html|title=The XSPF Playlist Format, version 0|publisher=The Xiph Open-source Community|access-date=April 11, 2011}}</ref>
* .zpl is a format used by Zune Media Player, Zoom Player and Creative Zen Media Players.

==See also==
* [[Music scheduling system]]
* [[Shuffle play]]
* [[Playlist markup language]]
* [[Edit decision list]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://lizzy.sourceforge.net Lizzy, an open source Java library to process multimedia playlists] by Christophe Delory

{{Media player (application software)}}

[[Category:Broadcasting]]
[[Category:Playlist file formats| ]]
[[Category:Musical terminology]]