XML Shareable Playlist Format

XSPF

Filename extension	.xspf
Internet media type	application/xspf+xml
Developed by	Xiph.Org Foundation
Type of format	Playlist
Extended from	XML

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

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

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 or ASX
• MIME 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
• Unicode support
• Cross-platform support

Software and web playlist converters

See also the categories Media players and Tag editors

• Amarok
• Audacious
• Banshee
• Clementine
• Tomahawk Music Player
• VLC media player (stand-alone player, available on every major platform)
• XMMS2 (has a plugin to parse XSPF)
• Last.fm (export of playlists and personal tag radios in XSPF)
• Soundiiz (playlist converter for several streaming sites) -Soundiiz

See also

Other playlist file formats

• ASX - Windows media
• M3U - The most common playlist format
• PLS - SHOUTcast
• WPL - Windows Media Player

External links

• Official website
• Online XSPF Validator
• XSPF Version 1 specification.