One of XML’s original goals was to allow industries to create their own markup languages to exchange data. Because anyone can create their own elements and schemas, as long as people agreed on a format, XML can be used as the universal data transmission language for that industry. One of the earliest XML-based languages was ChemXML, a language used to transmit data within the chemical industry. Since then, many others have popped up.
XSPF was a complete grassroots project to create an open, non-proprietary music playlist format based on XML. Historically, playlists for software media players and music devices were designed to be used only on the machine or device, and schemas were designed by the vendor themselves. XSPF’s goal was to create a format that could be used in software, devices, and across networks.
XSPF is a very simple format, and is easy to understand. The project home page is at http://www.xspf.org. There, you will find a quick start guide which outlines a simple playlist...