There are plenty of applications that you can use to create a playlist on Linux, but Clementine is a longstanding favourite media player that plenty of Linux users already rely on to play their music libraries.
Clementine makes constructing a new playlist very simple and exporting it for use on another device even easier.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to Install Clementine
- How to Import Your Music Library
- How to Create a Playlist
- How to Export a Playlist
Software Requirements and Conventions Used
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Arch Linux |
| Software | Clementine |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to Install Clementine
To start, you’re going to need to install Clementine. It’s open source, and you can find it in nearly any distribution’s repositories. Go ahead and install it however you’re most comfortable.
Ubuntu/Debian
$ sudo apt install clementine
Fedora
For one reason or another, the Fedora developers have chosen not to package Clementine. It was also left out of the RPMFusion repository. That leaves only the Snap package. Begin by installing the Snap system.
$ sudo dnf install snapd
Then, link the new Smap directory to the traditional location to use it normally.
$ sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
Finally, install the Clementine Snap.
$ sudo snap install clementine
OpenSUSE
$ sudo zypper install clementine-qt5
Arch Linux
# pacman -S clementine
How to Import Your Music Library
Open up Clementine. When you first start you may or may not see it importing your music library. That will be largely dependent on where you actually store your music. In case Clementine isn’t loading your music automatically, select Tools. Then, choose Preferences from the menu.
A new window will pop open. Select Music Library from the menu on the left. The body of the window will shift to show the available options for your music library. Near the top, you’ll see the folders of your library listed out. Press Add new folder…. Navigate to the folder with your music library, and open it.
You can press OK at the bottom of the window to apply the change. Then, wait for Clementine to import your music library.
How to Create a Playlist
Now that your library is imported, locate a song or album that you’d like to add to your playlist in the library listing to the left of the Clementine window. Right click the item you want to add to your playlist. A long menu will open up. Choose Append to current playlist.
Notice that the song or album is now listed in the main body of the window to the right. Keep going that way to build out your playlist.
How to Export a Playlist
When you have your playlist set up, press the floppy disk save icon just above your playlist.
A new browse window will open up, letting you choose a place to save your playlist. Give you playlist a name at the top of the window. Then, locate the drop-down menu in the lower right. By default, it’s set to XSPF playlists. The most common playlist format is M3U. So, for best portability, use the menu to select M3U playlists. You also may want to append the m3u extension on your file name. When you’re ready press Save.
Conclusion
You now have a portable playlist that you can load on nearly any device. As long as the songs included in the playlist are available on that device, your playlist will work just as you’d expect.
You can always make changes to your playlist in Clementine later on and save it again to keep it updated.
