# Generate M3U Playlist with PowerShell

**Date:** 2014-02-01  
**Author:** Kees C. Bakker  
**Categories:** PowerShell  
**Original:** https://keestalkstech.com/create-mp3-playlist-with-powershell/

![Woman with headphones in a train station.](https://keestalkstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/daniela-mota-TxZXttbojmA-unsplash-scaled-scaled.jpg)

---

MP3s are everywhere and back in 2014 I finally had a phone with enough storage to store a decent amount of them. I use [MediaMonkey](https://www.mediamonkey.com/) to add high resolution album covers and to rename the files in a predictable format: `Artist - Album - # - Title`. The only thing I was missing was a simple way of creating a [M3U playlist](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/M3U): PowerShell to the rescue!

## Generate M3U function

Let's create a function that takes a directory and generates an M3U playlist file:

```powershell
function GenerateM3U {
    param(
        [System.IO.DirectoryInfo] $directory,
        [string] $playlistFileName = "",
        [string] $pattern = "*.mp3"
    )

    # make sure we add m3u as an extension
    if ( "$playlistFileName" -eq "" ) {
        $playlistFileName = $directory.Name + ".m3u"
    }
    elseif ( ! $playlistFileName.EndsWith("m3u") ) {
        $playlistFileName = "$playlistFileName.m3u"
    }

    # store relative paths in the same directory
    if ( ! [System.IO.Path]::IsPathRooted($playlistFileName) ) {
        $playlistFileName = Join-Path -Path $directory -ChildPath $playlistFileName
    }

    # remove old file
    if ( Test-Path $playlistFileName -PathType Leaf ) {
        Remove-Item $playlistFileName
    }

    # only read mp3 files
    if ( ! $pattern.EndsWith(".mp3") ) {
        $pattern = "$pattern*.mp3"
    }

    # write m3u
    $directory.GetFiles($pattern) |
        ForEach-Object { $_.Name } | 
        Sort-Object |
        Out-File -Encoding UTF8 -FilePath $playlistFileName
}
```

Now we can call the function in a few different ways to create an M3u playlist:

```powershell
# generate based on a directory:
GenerateM3U "./Gavin James - For You"

# generate named m3u:
GenerateM3U "./Gavin James - For You" "kees.m3u"

# generate named m3u of certain mp3 files:
GenerateM3U "./Gavin James - For You" "kees2.m3u" "Gavin*.mp3"

# generate m3u in a different directory:
GenerateM3U "./Gavin James - For You" "c:\temp\" "Gavin*.mp3"
```

## Caveat: Out-File encoding

While working on this code I initially *omitted* the encoding. This led to an MRL exception in VLC:

![VLC player showing an MRL exception for an M3U playlist with the wrong encoding.](https://keestalkstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-06-08_2124.png)
*VLC initially did not like the file we generated.*

When inspecting the file in an [online HEX editor](https://hexed.it/), we see some weird characters:

![Screenshot of the HEX editor showing the M3U file that was written WITHOUT the endoding.](https://keestalkstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-06-08_2129.png)
*The HEX editor shows which characters are actually used in the M3U file.*

This is a [UTF-16, little endian, byte order mark](https://www.wikiwand.com/simple/Byte_order_mark) -- which is not interpreted correctly by the VLC player. That is why we need to add `-Encoding utf8` to the `Out-File` statement. This will add an `EF BB EF` to the beginning of the file, which means the file is UTF-8 and something VLC understands.

In the comments it is pointed out that `-Encoding default` works better for Windows Media Player. It will work for VLC as well, but if your file names contain UTF-8 characters, it will not work anymore.

## Final thoughts

Because of the default PowerShell `Out-File` encoding, generation of an M3U playlist is less straightforward as I thought. A HEX editor is a great way of debugging these encoding problems.

## Improvements

2021-07-09: Added comment about `-Encoding default` and Windows Media Player.
2020-12-31: Images are now zoomable.
2020-08-06: Rewrote the article. Created a simple function instead of a script. Added an analysis of the encoding problem VLC was facing.
2014-02-01: Initial article