iTunes XML Playlist to m3u Converter

using this javacli app, I'm able to convert playlists living in the iTunes Library.xml file into separate *.m3u playlist files

New Apple Music App

for those using the new Music app, check out Apple Music Batch Playlist Export. But you can still follow this method, but it assumes you export your library via "File -> Library -> Export Library" to generate the XML file

Convert playlist file types

this is just a shell wrapper that runs the itunesexport.jar file downloaded from Eric's website

javacommand.sh

#! /bin/bash

java -jar itunesexport.jar \
  -fileTypes=ALL -library="/mnt/octo8/jellyfin/media/iMusicLibrary/Library.xml" \
  -outputDir="/mnt/octo8/jellyfin/media/iMusicLibrary/playlists"  \
  -includePlaylist="\
    000_School_House_rock,\
	WERK_MUSIC,\
	white_kid_music,\
	shyGarage,\
	Nerd_Alert,\
  "

if coming from iTunes your file will be iTunes Library.xml. The default XML export from Apple Music is Library.xml

Absolute to Relative Paths

The file paths to each song will be an absolute path from the host computer. Unless your 2nd machine's directories are set up exactly like the 1st, you'll want to edit the file paths so your new media machine can find the files

m3u-relativepaths.sh

#! /bin/bash 

PLAYLIST_DIR="/Users/USERNAME/Downloads/playlists"
ABSOLUTE_PATH="file:///Volumes/DRIVE/MUSIC_DIRECTORY"

cd "${PLAYLIST_DIR}"
PLAYLISTS=(*.m3u)

for ((i=0; i<${#PLAYLISTS[@]}; i++))
  do
	echo "------- ${PLAYLISTS[$i]} ---------" 
  
	### s| LOOK FOR | REPLACE WITH | g=find all instances
	LC_ALL=C  sed -i    "s|${ABSOLUTE_PATH}|..|g" "${PLAYLIST_DIR}/${PLAYLISTS[$i]}"

	echo " SUCCESS! "
done

you'll want to edit 2 things on this file

  1. Two spots where you target your directory /mnt/octo8/jellyfin/media/iMusicLibrary/playlists-m3u
  2. Absolute path of 1st computer directory file:///Volumes/DRIVE/MUSIC_DIRECTORY is what is being replaced with .. to be a relative path. If your coming from Windows, it may look like E:/MUSICLIBRARY

Your iTunes folder will look like this

attachments/iTunes-Directory-Tree.png|iTunes-Directory-Tree

I created another folder playlists that will house all my new .m3u files. And that relative path ../ will start looking for songs one directory above the playlists folder

Replace USERNAME & DRIVE with paths that are unique to your machine. Also, this assumes /Volumes/DRIVE won't clash with any of your music's file structure i.e. artist, album or filename that may have /Volumes/DRIVE. If in your library the rock band Volumesmay have an album titled the same as your drive's name. Very unlikely, but if it did happen, it would replace that text and break the path.

Notice how I replace the absolute path with a ... This is because I nest the .m3u files in it's own playlist folder. Think of it as, the path to where the .m3u lives, it must go up one directory so it can see the ./iTunes Media/Music/... library.

Import to Jellyfin

I use Jellyfin as my online music manager. Note that this is a one way sync. All songs and playlists must be added and edited with iTunes and then updated to Jellyfin.

Cool thing about Jellyfin is that plopping .m3u files into the imported library will auto find and add those playlists to the frontend. Just make sure those relative paths are GOOD

Phone

I use Symfoniumas my phone's dedicated music player. It cost $5, and that's fine because it is very feature rich (Android Auto, auto sync, Offline downloads, etc). If you're looking for something light weight (and FOSS) check out jmshrv/finamp: A Jellyfin music client for mobile (github.com)

Improvements

With the new Apple Music app, you still have to manually go through and "File -> Library -> Export Library" anytime you make changes. I'm sure I could run an .applescript to do this regularly, but for now I'll do a few clicks

How do I get my music files from laptop to server? With FreeFileSync. Maybe in the future I'll just use rsync.

Ignore Folders

Don't forget to ignore the */playlists folder during this sync as you don't want to overwrite those .m3u files

Credits

index