Universal Playlist Format (UPL)
Languages and libraries
playlist file format
SHOW HN2017
Universal Playlist Format (UPL)
Tired of the non-portability of my playlists, I wrote my own format
universalplaylist.stavros.io#playlist format#portable playlists#m3u alternative#playlist interoperability
How HN took it
6 positive, 60 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 21 critical, out of 88 comments about the project. Thread score -0.26.
Idea: 6 for, 15 againstDesign: 0 for, 4 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Good idea that could reduce duplicated effort for playlist transfer tools
From 1 comment
This is such a good idea. If nothing else, third party tools that people make to transfer playlists between platforms could standardize on this and, in doing so, would reduce…
ianwalter on HN
Useful for consolidating playlists across music services
From 1 comment
This is such a good idea. If nothing else, third party tools that people make to transfer playlists between platforms could standardize on this and, in doing so, would reduce…
ianwalter on HN
Objections
XKCD 927: yet another standard adds to the mess
From 3 comments
My own format = https://xkcd.com/927/
qntmfred on HNXKCD predicted this. https://xkcd.com/927/
partycoder on HNTitle: "Tired of the non-portability of my playlists, I wrote my own format." Subtitle: "The Universal Playlist Format" Analysis: https://xkcd.com/927/
lutusp on HN
XSPF already exists and could be extended instead
From 2 comments
What's wrong with xspf? Couldn't you just extend that with more attributes (which legacy apps could ignore)? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Shareable_Playlist_Format
discreditable on HNYes, please! We have enough playlists formats to support already (and most of them are half-baked/half-broken already). There is no good reason to not reuse and extend xspf.…
jbk on HN
YAML is too complex and causes interoperability problems
From 2 comments
> I don't think there are many languages that don't support YAML these days YAML is a big and complex format though, libyaml's header is bigger than the entirety of libtoml. I…
masklinn on HNAnother consideration is that yaml's sheer complexity creates more possibilities for interoperability issues. No two parsers for JSON behave identically, let alone for something…
TazeTSchnitzel on HN
Music players and services have no incentive to support it
From 1 comment
I'd love something like this, but I don't see any upside for iTunes or Spotify to support it. Anything that makes it easier for a customer to switch to a competitor is something…
a2tech on HN
Requests
Use JSON instead of YAML
From 2 comments
Are relative paths supported? Probably in this day and age it would have better chance at adoption if it would be a JSON file. It's just network effects.
hawski on HN> Probably in this day and age it would have better chance at adoption if it would be a JSON file. It's just network effects. And here I was feeling badly for thinking that it'd…
zeveb on HN
Support multiple tracks in one file such as DJ mixes
From 1 comment
One of the key things I've looked for in a playlist format for many years is the ability to handle files that contain multiple tracks. My main example of this is continuous DJ…
joshka on HN
Add converters from other playlist formats
From 1 comment
This looks interesting. Do you have any plans to create converters to convert to UPL from other formats?
supermdguy on HN
Support relative paths
From 1 comment
Are relative paths supported? Probably in this day and age it would have better chance at adoption if it would be a JSON file. It's just network effects.
hawski on HN
Questions
Why MD5 and SHA1 in the example
From 1 comment
why does the example have md5 and sha1?
enimodas on HN
Why not standardize on an audio fingerprint
From 2 comments
That sounds like a noble goal, but in a "modern" format designed for the same thing, I'd expect the role of the "identification key" for the files to be played by a…
derefr on HNI think a few people have open-sourced various audio fingerprinting algorithms. Perhaps we should standardize around one and enable real UUID for audio files? That seems to be…
TTPrograms on HN
Alternatives named
XSPF
From 2 comments
What's wrong with xspf? Couldn't you just extend that with more attributes (which legacy apps could ignore)? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Shareable_Playlist_Format
discreditable on HNNothing's wrong per se (and it has roughly the same goals as mine), it's just that it's pretty much the XML equivalent of M3U, and doesn't have any provisions for stronger…
StavrosK on HN
M3U
From 1 comment
Nothing's wrong per se (and it has roughly the same goals as mine), it's just that it's pretty much the XML equivalent of M3U, and doesn't have any provisions for stronger…
StavrosK on HN
Cue sheets
From 1 comment
One of the key things I've looked for in a playlist format for many years is the ability to handle files that contain multiple tracks. My main example of this is continuous DJ…
joshka on HN
m-Tags
From 1 comment
It's not trying to solve the exact same problem, but m-Tags is also using metatags stored in a seperate file. http://www.m-tags.org/
MobesMobes on HN
Magnet URI
From 1 comment
Do you know about magnet uri[1]? magnet:?dn=Anciients%2FFollowing%20the%20Voice&xt.1=urn:sha1:…
geocar on HN