How to open M3U Playlist in Windows
A lot of music players let you open and listen to M3U playlists on Window 11/10. You can import, view, and play M3U playlists in Windows Media Player. Other than that, some other third-party media players also support M3U playlists to import and play. Some of these media players include VLC media player, GOM Player, Winamp, AIMP, and PotPlayer. Do note that the M3U playlists don’t contain the actual media content. These playlists are stored in text-based format and contain only the path to media files to play them in the added order. Let us now check out different methods to create M3U playlists on Windows 11/10.
How do I make an M3U playlist in Windows Media Player?
You can use the native media player application of Windows 10 i.e., Windows Media Player. You can create a new M3U playlist as well as play existing M3U files using WMP. Here are the steps to generate playlists in M3U file format in Windows Media Player: Firstly, launch the Windows Media Player application. Next, browse the media files and folder with which you want to create an M3U playlist file. Now, drag the media files onto the Playlist section.
Then, click on the List options drop-down option. After that, tap on the Save list as option from various options.
Finally, select the output playlist format as M3U and click the Save button to create an M3U playlist. If you want more options to create M3U playlists, we are going to list them in this post. Let us checkout!
How to create an M3U playlist in Windows 11/10
Here are some other methods to create an M3U playlist on your Windows 11/10 PC: Let us discuss the above methods in detail now!
1] Use a dedicated playlist creator to create an M3U playlist
There are some dedicated programs that allow you to create M3U playlists on Windows 11/10. Here, we are going to list down two free playlist creators. Let us checkout!
1) Playlist Creator For Mp3 Players
As the name gives away, Playlist Creator For Mp3 Players is a free software to generate M3U playlists. It is portable and lightweight playlist maker software. Here are the main steps to use this software in order to generate M3U playlists: It is an easy-to-use and simple M3U playlist maker that you can try.
2) sPlaylistMaker
Another dedicated software to create M3U playlists on Windows 11/10 is sPlaylistMaker. It is a portable software that allows you to create M3U and M3U8 playlists. Here are the steps to create an M3U playlist using sPlaylistMaker: The M3U playlist will be created as soon as you drop audio files onto its interface. To use this software, you can download it from here. See: How to merge multiple Playlists on Spotify and YouTube Music.
2] Create M3U playlists in the VLC media player
If you are an ardent user of the famous VLC media player, you can use it to create M3U playlists. It lets you generate M3U and other playlist files including M3U8, XSPF, and HTML playlists. Here are the main steps to create M3U playlists in the VLC media player: Firstly, download and install the VLC media player if you don’t already have it on your PC. Then, open the GUI of this software. Now, go to the View menu and click on the Playlist option to open up its Playlist Manager.
Next, right-click on the white blank area, and from the context menu, use Add File or Add Folder option to import the input media files to it.
After that, go to the File menu and tap on the Save Playlist to File option.
Finally, set the target format to M3U, enter the playlist filename, and then press the Save button. This will create an M3U playlist file that you can use in a supported application. Read: How to edit Audio or Video Metadata Tags in VLC media player.
3] Generate M3U playlists in Winamp
Winamp is one of the first audio players that supported M3U playlists. You can use it to play and create M3U, M3U8, and PLS playlists in Windows 11/10. To do so, here are the steps: This way you can create M3U8 and PLS playlists too. Read: How to use Mini Lyrics Plugin for Windows Media Player.
4] Create an M3U playlist in AIMP
AIMP is a good music player that can create an M3U playlist. It is a complete audio player with audio tagging and conversion functionalities. You can create M3U, M3U, (Unicode), and Winamp playlist files using this audio player software. Let us check out the steps to do so: It is quite easy and smooth to create M3U playlists with AIMP.
5] Use Audacious to create M3U playlists
Another software that you can use to generate M3U playlists is Audacious. It is a dedicated music player that can create M3U playlists. Follow the below steps to do so: Read: How to download YouTube playlist videos at once.
6] Create an M3U playlist in Notepad
Yes, you read that right! You can also create an M3U playlist in Notepad on Windows 11/10 PC. As an M3U playlist basically contains the location of media files and is a text-based file format, you can enter the path of media files in new lines and create an M3U playlist. Here are the exact steps to create an M3U playlist in Notepad: Using Notepad is the easiest way to create an M3U playlist on Windows 11/10 PC.
How do I make an m3u playlist in notepad?
You can create M3U playlists in Notepad by using the steps mentioned in method (6). Just enter the path of media files and save the file in M3U format.
How do I turn a folder into a playlist?
The above-listed methods can be used to turn a folder into a playlist. You can import a folder of media files VLC, AIMP, or any other software mentioned here and convert it to an M3U or some other supported playlist. That’s it! Now read: Cannot load M3U8, Cross Domain Access Denied, 404 not found, or No levels to play
