Filename extension .pls Type of format Playlist | Internet media type audio/x-scpls | |
PLS is a computer file format for a multimedia playlist. It was originally developed for use with the museArc audio player software by codeArts, and was later used by SHOUTcast and Icecast for streaming media over the Internet. PLS is a more expressive playlist format than basic M3U, as it can store (cache) information on the song title and length (this is supported in extended M3U only). With PLS version 2, playlists also include a PLS version declaration.
Contents
File format
The format is case-sensitive and essentially that of an INI file structured as follows:
Header
Track Entry
Assuming track entry #X
Footer
Examples
Example of a radio station streaming audio PLS file, complete:
Alternative Example containing local paths:
In Unix-like operating systems absolute and relative file paths differ from Windows, because there are no drive letters, Environment variables differ and [/] (forward slashes) are used as directory separators instead of [\] (backslashes). Therefore playlists pointing to absolute paths or media files outside of the folder containing the playlist will only work for one type of operating system - either Windows or Unix-like. URLs work the same for all types.
To make the second example from above work the 3rd and 4th path need to be changed to something like:
Software
iTunes, VLC media player, Totem, RealPlayer, Winamp, Yahoo! Music Jukebox, MediaMonkey, Windows Media Player, AIMP, Kodi, Rhythmbox, foobar2000, and more than 30 others are able to interpret (open) PLS files. Media Player Classic with the K-Lite codec installed does work with PLS format but still requires the appropriate MIME or file extension associations.