XSPF - What is that?
- XSPF is the XML format for sharing playlists.
- The XSPF data file acts as an intermediate format for playlist exchange.
Local Media Player - Which players support XSPF?
- XSPF support is available for a lot of local media players.
- Eg. Amarok, Banshee, VLC media player, MusicIP, Foobar2000, ...
- If your media player has the facility to write or read XSPF playlists, you are able to exchange them with iTunes.
- For iTunes (Macintosh) XSPF support is given by this utility set.
Run the XSPF AppleScripts in iTunes (Macintosh):
- For a single user:
Create a "Scripts" folder in the [username]/Library/iTunes/ folder.
- For all users:
Create a "Scripts" folder it in the Library/iTunes/ folder of your startup drive.
You may have to create the "iTunes" folder.
- Put the xspf scripts in the "Scripts" folder and they will appear in the iTunes toolbar.
iTunesMac2xspf:
This utility exports a selected iTunes playlist to a XSPF playlist file.
Usage: Select a playlist within iTunes - this playlist will then be saved as XSPF playlist file.
xspf2iTunesMac:
This utility imports the contents of a XSPF playlist file into a new iTunes playlist (in other words: it acts as a track resolver).
Usage: Load a XSPF playlist file and choose a name for a new iTunes playlist. Each XSPF playlist entry, which already exists in your iTunes library, will then be duplicated into the new created iTunes playlist.
Limits:
Currently there are no limits concerning the selected playlist or the number of tracks for processing. A non-exsistent iTunes track location (missing value) will also be omitted in the resulting XSPF playlist file. Both utilities are very fast if they are started from the iTunes toolbar.
Example workflow - Create a XSPF playlist and play it with VLC media player:
- call iTunesMac2xspf (from the iTunes toolbar)
- eg. double-click the XSPF file to play the list or load the XSPF from VLC
Example workflow - Create a new iTunes playlist based on a XSPF file:
- call xspf2iTunesMac (from the iTunes toolbar)
Download: iTunes-XSPF-Utils-V03.zip
Technical aspect (for AppleScripters):
The "XML Suite" of "System Events" isn't well documented and good examples are hard to find. If you are an AppleScripter and if you are interested in the subject "XML and AppleScript" - "xspf2iTunesMac" is an easy to understand example - feel free and have a look at it.