Although I didn’t know it, m3u
files are simply text files…no audio inside of them! So, when you
download an m3u file, you are downloading a playlist for music that
could be stored on the Web. Here’s an actual
list from music by Suzanne Teng, a flutist (She is awesome and I’m
going to be making the investment in her music soon. In the meantime,
you can listen to her online
at Magnatunes.com).

Sample m3u file contents:
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/01-Medicine%20Wheel-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/02-Sierra-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/03-Babylonians-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/04-Sitara-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/05-Motherland-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/06-Suling-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/07-Chicoy-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/08-Miles%20Beyond-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3
http://he3.magnatune.com/all/09-Tien’s%20Lullaby-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3

Places like Magnatunes.com–as well as others–use m3u files. Media
players (e.g. XMMS on Linux, VLC Media Player on all platforms, and
Quintiessential on Windows) play them easily. These sites make artists’
music available online for preview prior to purchase.

I had not really explored them but decided to recently and found a
wealth of fantastic music. However, there’s not enough time in the
evenings to get a real feel for music. I like to carry it around on my iRiver
T10 (buy
iAudio U3 instead) and settle in with the music, let it become a
part of me so that I can anticipate the next song, feel the beat…well,
you get the idea. Only then if the music resonates like that, do I want
to own it forever.

But, how do you download the list of music in m3u files as MP3 files, or
OGG, for that matter? Well, one way was to use VLC Media Player’s
built-in wizard. The process is laborious when you’re doing it for
several songs. A shorter process for Linux users appears below and I
invite comments from Windows and Mac users to share how they might
accomplish this.

Here are the steps since VLC Media Player works on all platforms
(Mac, Win, Linux):

1) Run VLC Media Player
2) Go to FILE: WIZARD
3) Choose
Transcode/Save to File
4) Click NEXT
5) Click Choose
6) Flip to
the NETWORK tab and then choose HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS and paste in the
address, for example,
"http://he3.magnatune.com/all/01-Medicine%20Wheel-Suzanne%20Teng.mp3"
7)
Click OK then NEXT
8) Choose TRANSCODE AUDIO then choose your
preferred output format (e.g. VORBIS for OGG files or MP3)
9) Choose
Bitrate desired (64 works fine)
10) Click NEXT then NEXT again at the
Encapsulation Format window
11) Type in the path to save the file to
and the filename (you can browse to the desired directory if you like)
12)
Click FINISH

THE EASY WAY
On Linux, right-click and save the m3u file to a
directory. Then, drop to the command line, change to the directory (for
example, cd /home/mg/Desktop/m3u) and type in

wget -i filename.m3u

This will automatically download every MP3 file in the m3u text file to
the directory you’re in. You can then, after installing mp32ogg program
(see below) , convert the file with this command (and it will do
directories of them):

wget -i filename.m3u && mp32ogg *.mp3

I’m grateful to the WFT-LUG
list folks for this help, especially Peter G. and Troy C. Be aware
that for the second command, you have to first install mp32ogg program
using the command below:

sudo apt-get install mp32ogg

Of course, I asked how to do this on Windows and Mac…and, amidst their
smiles, grins, and laughter, I was told to load UbuntuLinux on those
machines so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it!! Ahh, so, there’s a
simple solution for you!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure