iTunes is the best interface for managing large MP3 databases and playlists that I've used, so it has become my primary organizer of media files. However, I sometimes want to share playlists with friends on Windows, or listen to playlists on the Windows PC in my living room, which is connected to my stereo. Here's what I do:
[robg adds: I tested this, and it worked mostly as expected -- I couldn't get the options display to show up (playlist -?), but other than that, it did what it claims to do -- it creates a .m3u playlist from every playlist in your iTunes collection. I've received more than a few emails asking how this could be done, so I figured this hint might help a few people out. Make sure you look at the command-line switches for things like the output path, verbose mode, etc.]
- Copy the MP3 music directory (ususally ~/Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Music/) to the Windows box. That way, I don't have to worry about my laptop being on the LAN. If you're feeling advanced, set up rsync to keep the Windows box up-to-date with any new music you add to your iTunes database.
- Output my playlists to the Windows machine. This is harder, since there isn't any built-in support. I wrote an open-source application to do just that, which I suppose is the meat of this hint. The application reads in your music library XML file and parses out your playlists, writing them out in WinAmp style m3u lists to the directory of your choosing. It can also prepend a new file path (such as Windows D:MP3) instead of the file path on your Mac (such as /Users -> you -> Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Music/). Some other tricks are performed as well, such as replacing extra-ASCII characters which WinAmp doesn't like, etc.
[robg adds: I tested this, and it worked mostly as expected -- I couldn't get the options display to show up (playlist -?), but other than that, it did what it claims to do -- it creates a .m3u playlist from every playlist in your iTunes collection. I've received more than a few emails asking how this could be done, so I figured this hint might help a few people out. Make sure you look at the command-line switches for things like the output path, verbose mode, etc.]
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