To play numerous streams in a particular order, use a playlist. When the first stream in a playlist ends, the player then moves on to the next one, and so on, until the list is completely traversed. Playlist support for RealMedia, Windows Media, and MP3 is handled by the player application. QuickTime handles playlists differently, implementing this feature within the server. RealMedia, Windows Media, and MP3 use metafiles to define their playlists. QuickTime requires configuration through the QTSS or DSS server administrator program. RealMedia, Windows Media, and MP3 (but not QuickTime) make it easy for playlists to contain streams from disparate servers and also can include live streams in a playlist. Occasionally, a playlist is used when placing a brief audio clip as a station ID before a live stream begins. Playlists are most commonly used, however, for on-demand (as opposed to live) streaming audio. Sometimes playback of a live stream may become disconnected because of temporary network congestion. Using a playlist allows you to list the same live stream multiple times so that the player will immediately attempt to reconnect to the next entry. If you have a Web site with lots of streaming audio, you can provide a simple way for listeners to easily access a playlist or even create their own. As the Web master of your site, you can choose a predetermined, a randomly generated, or a user-selected playlist (or a combination of all three) based on any criteria you can imagine. If you're streaming files for which you don't own the rights, then provisions of the DMCA will limit you (see the Appendix). To create playlists for RealMedia, Windows Media, and MP3, refer to the section on metafiles in Chapter 7. Follow the details to include multiple entries in a single metafile. Technically, any metafile is a playlist, whether it contains a single URL or a hundred URLs. To create playlists for QuickTime, choose Playlist Settings within the Streaming Server Administrator and follow the intuitive selection process from on-demand files you've already uploaded. You can get creative with playlists. Following are some ideas:
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