M3U File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
File Extension .m3u
Full Name Media Playlist File
MIME Type audio/x-mpegurl
Alternative MIME Type application/x-mpegURL
File Format Type Text
Internet Media Type Playlist
Developed by Nullsoft
Initial Release 1999
UTF-8 Encoding Support Yes (as M3U8)
File Creation Manually with Text Editor or Automatically by Media Players
Contents File paths, URLs, Multimedia content details
Main Purpose Create playlists for media players
Supports Streaming Yes
Compatibility Widely supported by media players
Used for Audio and Video Playlists
Characteristics Simple, text-based format
Advantages Easy to edit, Compatible with many players
Limitations No metadata support in the classic version, Absolute paths can cause issues across different systems
File Naming Conventions Usually named with the .m3u extension, but .m3u8 for UTF-8 variant
Security Considerations May reference malicious content if not properly vetted