Create, collect and curate your favourite playlists from around the web

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Brian Eno

Music from keygens, cracks, trainers, intros

Do Something When

Description: Every line in an M3U file is either a comment, a blank, or a resource to render. A comment line begins with the pound sign, #. Blanks are ignored. A resource is the address of a media file.
A resource address can be anything the M3U reader is capable of understanding. These include absolute filesystem paths, relative filesystem paths (with the base undefined by the file format), and URLs.

A resource can be anything the M3U reader is capable of rendering. To my knowledge these are always audio files, but there is no set reason for that to be true. However, it may not be wise to point to proprietary media formats like Real streaming audio in an M3U file, since many players will throw a user-visible error for media they cannot render.

The design philosophy of M3U is to let resource data types do the work. Players that don't understand an address or resource type usually skip the entry. The ability to reference URLs, in addition to filesystem paths, was added this way; some players (Winamp and XMMS, notably) simply added the ability to handle URLs to their M3U readers.

Support for M3U features varies wildly. iTunes, for example, will only render the first entry in an M3U file.

M3U is by far the most popular playlist format, probably due to its simplicity. It is an ad-hoc standard with no formal definition, no canonical source, and no owner.

Example:
# This is an absolute filesystem path
c:/music/foo.mp3

# This is a relative filesystem path
foo/fighters.mp3

# This is a URL
http://foofighters.com/somesong.mp3

Mime type:
audio/mpegurl (recommended)

audio/x-mpegurl
Distinguishing features: A simple list of files, one per line.
Definition URL: http://www.schworak.com/programming/music/playlist_m3u.asp
Originator: Winamp (?)
Implementations: Winamp, XMMS, many more
Metadata support: Before ID3 tags were widely supported by MP3 players, a flavor of M3U called Extended M3U was used to indicate audio metadata. Extended M3U is now obsolete. The following description of Extended M3U is copied in verbatim from Google's cache of the reverse-engineered documentation at http://hanna.pyxidis.org/tech/m3u.html, which is now a defunct URL.

This is a list of electronic music genres, subgenres and styles

If you use any of the big three online music stores (iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic), you may be aware that each of them has a section where they give away free music.

You may not be aware that that is the tip of the iceberg.

I download approximately 11,000 songs per year for free without infringing any copyrights (“pirating” music, as the RIAA would call it). I list each of these sources as free and legal on one or more of these grounds:

1. They explicitly say that the songs they give away or link to are free and legal. (Example: Largehearted Boy.)
2. They link directly to artist, label, promotion-company, or music-store websites (so you're really getting the MP3 directly from a person or company who certainly is authorized to give it away). (Example: Largehearted Boy.)
3. They are a music distribution service where artists and labels upload the music and set the price themselves. (Examples: Amie Street, Bandcamp, SoundCloud.)
4. They're high-enough profile that they would have gotten in legal and/or reputation trouble by now if they didn't have permission to give away some of the songs they give away, or if they didn't have permission to do so for free. (Examples: Pitchfork, Spinner.)

There are some sources that I know about but don't use for one reason or another. I have created a separate section for these below.

Many sources, and seemingly free music in general, skew towards indie rock. I like finding sources that don't; I would like to have more variety in my sources, as I have eclectic tastes.

I welcome suggestions for more sources of free and legal music. My email address is on the front page.

Online shopping for Free Songs from a great selection of MP3 Downloads; Music By Price & more at everyday low prices.