Pandora is one of the few music services that is free (no subscription required) to users. Pandora is another music streaming service that is available on the Internet. iPods can also be used to build playlists.
Some sites only allow the sharing of the playlist data with the actual music being delivered by other channels, e.g., Plurn, others provide a closed catalog of content from which the playlists can be generated while sites like imeem allow users to upload the music to central servers to be shared and accessed by any user of the site.
On certain sites, users create and share annotated playlists, giving visitors the option to read contextual information or reviewer comments about each song while listening.
Other sites focus on playlist creation aided by personalized song recommendations, ratings, and reviews. Some Internet streaming services, such as Spotify, Amazon Music, 8tracks, and the defunct and Webjay, allow users to categorize, edit, and listen to playlists online. The files are similar to Internet shortcut files in appearance and internal structure, except used by media players rather than web browsers.) (In that case the playlist file is typically downloaded from the station's live streaming web page, if offered. In the case of radio stations it can also link many audio players directly to the station's live streaming audio, bypassing any need for a web browser. Several computer playlist formats for multimedia players, such as PLS, can pass a playlist or URL to the player. Playlists' uses include allowing a particular desired musical atmosphere to be created and maintained without constant user interaction, or to allow a variety of different styles of music be played, again without maintenance. Such playlists may be defined, stored, and selected to run either in sequence or, if a random playlist function is selected, in a random order.
The pre-recorded clips are usually run from a playlistĪs music storage and playback using personal computers became common, the term playlist was adopted by various media player software programs intended to organize and control music on a PC. News channel broadcasting is a combination of live and pre-recorded programming. A given news story might initially be shown live and then placed into a playlist to be shown over and over again at a later time.
Playlists are often adjusted based on time of day, known as dayparting.Ĭable TV and broadcast TV news channels often use video playlists to re-run pre-recorded news stories. Additionally, the term was used to refer to an ordered list of songs played during a given time period. The term would go on to refer to the entire catalog of songs that a given radio station (of any format) would draw from. The term originally came about in the early days of top 40 radio formats when stations would devise (and, eventually, publish) a limited list of songs to be played.