Playlistparser

Tool for parsing DJ software playlists. Currently supports Engine DJ, Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, and VirtualDJ. Part of Slipmat.io music tools.

Free hosted version of this tool: https://slipmat.io/tools/playlistconverter/

Installing

uv add playlistparser

Command line

uvx playlistparser parse myplaylist.nml

1. Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam (Edit)
2. Guru Josh - Infinity (1990s... Time for the Guru 12" Mix)

Rekordbox · 2 tracks

--json gives every field of every track:

{
  "tracks": [
    {
      "title": "Pump Up The Jam (Edit)",
      "artist": "Technotronic",
      "album": "",
      "key": "",
      "duration": 216,
      "year": 1989,
      "bpm": 124.0,
      "file_path": "",
      "vendor_id": ""
    }
  ],
  "summary": { "playlist_type": "REKORDBOX", "track_count": 1 }
}

Exit code is 1 if the file can't be parsed.

Usage

import logging

from playlistparser import (
    MalformedPlaylistError,
    MissingFieldError,
    PlaylistParser,
    PlaylistParserError,
    PlaylistType,
    UnknownFormatError,
)

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)

try:
    # Every keyword argument is optional.
    #
    #   require        — raise MissingFieldError when a listed field is missing from a
    #                    row. Fields the format cannot expose at all (Serato has no bpm)
    #                    raise before parsing starts; CSV detection reads the header first.
    #   as_type        — bypass detection, which otherwise uses the file extension and,
    #                    for .csv, the header row.
    #   default_artist — substituted for a missing artist, unless "artist" is in require.
    #
    # Recoverable per-row warnings go to the `playlistparser.parsers.*` stdlib loggers
    # (route through structlog with `structlog.stdlib.LoggerFactory()`).
    pl = PlaylistParser(
        "history.csv",
        require=["title", "artist"],
        default_artist="Unknown Artist",
        # as_type=PlaylistType.ENGINE,
    )

    # ENGINE, REKORDBOX, SERATO, TRAKTOR or VIRTUALDJ. For .csv, a one-time header sniff.
    print(f"Format: {pl.playlist_type.name}")

    # Lazy — every pass re-reads the file.
    for track in pl:
        print(track)  # "Artist - Title"

        # Frozen dataclass; every field is always present, missing values are 0 or "".
        #   title, artist, album, key, file_path, vendor_id: str
        #   duration: int (seconds), year: int, bpm: float
        print(track.bpm, track.year, track.duration_str())  # "128.0 2024 6:42"

        payload = track.as_dict()  # no_meta=True keeps only title and artist

    # Materialise once; cached for the parser's lifetime.
    print(f"{pl.track_count} tracks, {pl.total_duration}s total")
    tracks = pl.to_list()

except UnknownFormatError as e:
    # Extension unrecognised, or a CSV header matching no known format. Override with as_type.
    print(f"Unsupported file: {e}")

except MissingFieldError as e:
    print(f"Missing '{e.field}' on line {e.line}: {e.track_title!r}")

except MalformedPlaylistError as e:
    # Bad XML, truncated row. e.path and e.line locate it.
    print(f"Corrupt playlist: {e}")

except PlaylistParserError as e:
    # Base class for all of the above.
    print(f"Could not parse playlist: {e}")

except FileNotFoundError:
    # Nothing is opened until the first iteration or aggregate access.
    print("Playlist file does not exist")

Parsing progress

Pass a callback to stream():

def report_progress(tracks_done, total_tracks, bytes_read, bytes_total):
    byte_percent = bytes_read / bytes_total if bytes_total else 1
    print(tracks_done, total_tracks, byte_percent)


for track in PlaylistParser("set.nml").stream(on_progress=report_progress):
    save(track)

Byte progress is monotonic and completes even when malformed source records are skipped. Track totals count source records, so tracks_done can finish below total_tracks. Traktor totals come from the PLAYLIST entry counts, falling back to COLLECTION for files with no playlist node; delimited formats count logical records in a pre-pass. total_tracks is None when the source exposes no valid count.

Supported formats and fields

Format	PlaylistType	Extension
Engine DJ	ENGINE	.csv
Rekordbox	REKORDBOX	.txt
Serato	SERATO	.csv
Traktor	TRAKTOR	.nml
VirtualDJ	VIRTUALDJ	.csv

CSV formats are detected by sniffing the header row.

Tracks are yielded in playlist order. For Traktor that is the PLAYLIST node's PRIMARYKEY order, not the unordered COLLECTION; an .nml with no PLAYLIST node falls back to collection order.

BPM is a float rounded to one decimal place. Traktor's vendor_id is its ENTRY.AUDIO_ID.

Format	title	artist	album	key	duration	year	bpm	file_path	vendor_id
Engine DJ	x	x	x		x	x	x	x
Rekordbox	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Serato	x	x				x
Traktor	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
VirtualDJ	x	x		x	x	x	x

Developing

• uv run ruff format - format
• uv run ruff check --fix --extend-fixable F401 - lint
• uv run ty check - typecheck
• uv run pytest - run test suite

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow the code of conduct when interacting with others.

Elsewhere

• Follow @uninen.net on Bluesky
• Read my continuously updating learnings from Python / TypeScript and other Web development topics from my Today I Learned site

Licence

Copyright © 2022, Ville Säävuori. Released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.

Commercial licenses are also available.