# Does every hard drive mp3 player have its own unique playlist format?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-hard-drive-mp3-player-have-its-own-unique-playlist-format/211663>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 6, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-hard-drive-mp3-player-have-its-own-unique-playlist-format/211663 "2003-11-06T06:18:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ready29003](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@ready29003](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ready29003)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-hard-drive-mp3-player-have-its-own-unique-playlist-format/211663/1 "2003-11-06T06:18:23Z")

</div>

Does every hard drive mp3 player have its own unique playlist format?

Once you have 10 gb of music organized into folders…it would be nice to be able to construct playlists that will last forever and be compatible with any hard drive mp3 player.

Does such a thing exist? Or once I make a playlist for my archos jukebox…is it only going to work on that mp3 player…and not a future archos or other product?

I don’t want to have to recreate my playlists every time I buy an mp3 player!

Any help?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ravage2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@ravage2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ravage2)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-hard-drive-mp3-player-have-its-own-unique-playlist-format/211663/2 "2003-11-06T07:12:50Z")

</div>

i don’t think playlists are in a standardised format. You _might_ be able to move playlists that are from the same manufacturer, but I’m not sure if many mp3 players even allow playlists to be exported.