the p2r playlister

Some brief notes about an evolving hobby product. This page provides an overview, whereas technical details are shipped with each version. In time, there will hopefully be proper documentation with each release.

So ... since you navigated to this page, you're probably looking for some answers? Hopefully, these will match your questions.

What is it?

p2rplaylister is a program to produce playlists for MP3 files in the file system. It is intended to run automatically on a regular schedule to make sure that playlists are always up to date, independent of MP3 players or human intervention.

But ... there are at least a zillion playlist generators out there? How does it differ from ...

Why would I want to use it?

What kind of question is that, how would I know? :-) All I can do is describe my own situation, and the reasons for me building this thingie. If you share some or all of these, you may find it useful. If not, it's probably not for you.

  1. ID3 Tags
    My music collection is properly tagged with ID3 tags. This thing doesn't do much unless you have meaningful ID3 tags.

  2. Hierarchy - not
    My music collection is not stored in a single hierarchy. Music by a specific artist or in a specific genre is not stored in the same place, I organize my collection based on source (rip or download) and quality (lo, medium, hi). Selecting music (all Beatles, or all 60s, or all ambient) by browsing the file system is awkward, and I cannot simply generate playlists for each folder.

  3. Lots of songs
    My music collection is large (I've got more songs, albums and artists than I can remember - well above 30,000 songs). With a small collection, you'd probably select the CD(s) you want directly (that's what the rest of my family does). With a large collection, I want them grouped in interesting combinations. The playlister can combine multiple genres to form aggregates (all blues and rock songs, except instrumental or Christmas songs).

  4. Automation
    I want to maintain selective playlists automatically. Whenever I add a new album, I want it automatically added to several playlists. For instance, when I add a new Beatles album, I want it added to "Beatles.m3u", "British.m3u" and "60s.m3u" (or "70s.m3u", or whatever year it was recorded). I might also want to organize songs based on tempo; with proper tagging, I could generate playlists for songs in 120 BPM, or slow and fast songs, or ...?

  5. Hardware Media Streamers
    I run hardware media streamers that don't do it all for me.
    The Turtle Beach Audiotron does not read multiple genres, but can read playlists for all discrete and aggregate genres. This is why I originally wrote this software.
    The SqueezeBox Classic handles most of the stuff, but cannot (easily) combine genres and artists the way I want.
    The TViX HD-5000A does not read ID3 tags at all, but can present playlists in the root folder and thus offer browsing thru albums, genres, etc.

  6. Server
    I have a file server that is happy to manage the playlists while I sleep. I could of course run it from any regular PC, but the playlister is intended to be run by a server. Some features (or lack of them) may come to its best if run by a head-less server. If you prefer to maintain your music collection manually, there are probably many better suited alternatives.

How can I use it?

Pretty much as you like. It is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License, LGPL. The important thing is that I don't take any responsibility for whatever it might do to your file system, and that I don't want to be blamed by mishaps caused by modifications or extensions done by others. If all you want to do is to download it and run it for your own pleasure, you're ok. If you intend to modify and/or redistribute it, you're still ok, but you should read (and comply with) the license.

Yes, but how do I use it?

Check the project summary for news and links. Distribution packages are available at the file download area. Installation and configuration instructions (if you can call it that) can be found in the downloaded package. At the time of writing, it is a question of unzipping the downloaded archive into the desired directory.

As for the user guide ... well, that's why I still label this "alpha status". There is just the installation instructions distribution package, and some comments in the default configuration files. Still, it's not all that complicated. Just unzipping it into the root of your music collection and running it with the default setup should produce some results. If you dump the default setup, you should be able to tweak it by reading the comments and modifying the examples. This said, the setup is an area I hope to enhance and (eventually) document.

What do I need to run it?

What else do I need?

These are my favorite tools for the tasks the playlister won't do:

I also use these sites frequently:

And I could no longer live without my media streamers (I don't even remember when I last loaded a CD, except for ripping it):

What/Who is p2r?

It's me.
Peer is p + 2 letters + r. Like I18N or L12N.
Yes, I am a geek.

Have fun. I do.

-- Peer