Next track or shuffle in M3U playlist?

Question

I have a M3U playlist that has URLs for some MP3s around the web. It's on a server so I can open it on other computers and my iPhone.

Unfortunately, all the players I've tried don't let me hit the "next" button to go to the next song in the playlist. Is there a way to specify that ability in the M3U file? Or, if not that, can I make a media player automatically shuffle the playlist?

I could always make a script to shuffle it myself, but I'd like to use something built into M3U if it exists.

Answer 1

if you don't already have the length of the track in your M3U, try including it, in this format:

#EXTINF:180,Unknown Artist - Unknown Track
/tmp/musicfile.mp3

(where 180 is the length of the track in seconds)

Alternatively, have you seen this article on creating iPhone-and-desktop-friendly embedded-audio web pages?