Playlist

In its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.

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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. The term would go on to refer to the entire catalog of songs that a given radio station (of any format) would draw from. Additionally, the term was used to refer to an ordered list of songs played during a given time period. Playlists are often adjusted based on time of day, known as dayparting.

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As 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. Such playlists may be defined, stored, and selected to either run in sequence, or if a random playlist function is selected, in a random order. 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.

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Some websites allow categorization, editing, and listening of playlists online, such as Plurn. Others such as Soundflavor focus on playlist creation aided by personalized song recommendations, ratings and reviews.

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See also:

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• mixtape
• music scheduling system

List: :This article is about the word list as used in computer science. For other uses, see list (disambiguation)....

Song: :For other senses of this word, see song (disambiguation)....

Radio: Radio is the wireless transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light....

Playlist related Images and Photos (experimental)

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (Blu-ray)

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist