One of my favorite software applications is VLC Media Player. I love the way it reproduces whatever you throw at it and I especially love its playlist features.
If you’re in the process, there is nothing worse than constantly stopping to start a new MP3 album or one new song. It’s much nicer to be able to preload multiple albums in VLC Player at the same time and let it do its thing.
Today we will look at how to create and manage these playlists.
Open VLC Player
When you first open VLC Player, you will see an empty playlist like this.
Otherwise, go to View and select Playlist or Attached Playlist . You should now see a playlist.
As the main window says, the first option is to drag a media file or folder into the window. This will download media files in sequential order.
Yes, I like the Backstreet Boys. Do not judge me.
Alternatively, you can look at the options on the left to find media to play. Either media on your computer or internet media such as podcasts and radio.
There is actually a third way to download tracks (but only on Windows). When you install VLC Player, you get two new options in the context menu as shown below.
Pick one and your highlighted tracks will automatically be added to the VLC playlist.
The difference between the two is that “ Add to VLC Media Player Playlist †will add tracks to the end of the playlist and will play when the previous tracks are finished. “ Play with VLC Media Player “, on the other hand, overwrites the rest of the playlist and immediately plays the selected tracks.
Save playlists
Sometimes you may need to save playlists if you have everything well set up and don’t want to recreate the same playlists over and over again.
To save the current playlist, simply select Media–> Save Playlist to File.
By default, VLC Player will try to save playlists in XSPF format. But I would suggest using the M3U format instead.
After you have given a name to your M3U playlist and saved it to your computer, double click on the playlist and it will automatically download to VLC player and start playing.
But the saved playlists also record the location of these media files on your computer as they are mostly text files with the location of each media file. Therefore, you cannot change the location of these files on your computer or expect a saved playlist to work on another computer. Otherwise, you will receive error messages.
If you MUST move the music to a different location, you will need to re-create a new saved playlist pointing to the new folder.
Confusion and Repetition
Once you’ve set up your playlists, there is nothing to stop you from shaking it up a bit and injecting some randomness into your life.
First, the last three controls at the bottom of the media player are related to playlists.
From left to right:
- The first is to turn the playlist on and off.
- The second is to loop the playlist, so when it ends it will start over.
- The third is for VLC Player to randomly select the next song from the playlist.
If you right-click a song, the context menu will also give you sorting options.
Conclusion
In many media players, playlists are an often overlooked feature. People like to download one song or one album at a time when there is no need to do it piece by piece.
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