Extract text from M3U files
To convert your M3U file to another format, you need VLC media player or other Audio software.
To convert other file formats to the "Multimedia Playlist" file type, you need software like VLC media player or a similar tool.
The .M3U (MP3 URL) file is a plain text playlist format that stores a list of file paths or URLs pointing to audio and video files. It was originally designed for Winamp but is now a universal standard for organizing music albums and IPTV streams. However, users frequently encounter a critical limitation: the .M3U file contains no actual audio or video data - it is merely a map. If you send this file to a friend without the referenced media files, or if you move the music files on your computer, the playlist will break and fail to play. Additionally, standard M3U files often use older text encodings (like Windows-1252), which causes song titles with non-English characters to display as garbled text (Mojibake) on modern devices.
To ensure your playlist works across different systems and languages, the best solution is converting to M3U8, which enforces UTF-8 encoding and is the standard for modern streaming and HLS (HTTP Live Streaming). For compatibility with specific hardware players or internet radio stations, converting to PLS or WPL (Windows Media Player) is recommended. If you need to manually repair broken file paths or audit the playlist's contents, converting to TXT allows you to open and edit the file in any text editor.
Convert.Guru analyzes your M3U file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted M3U8, MP3, TXT, CSV, M4A, MP4, XSPF, PLAYLIST, MAC, MPU, XML, W3U and PLS files.
If you want to convert M3U file to MP3, MP4, M3U8, XML, CSV, TEXT, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA or M4A, you can use VLC media player or similar software from the "Multimedia Playlist Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MIDI, AAC, TTA, AU, WV, DTS, MID, FLAC, RA, MP3, PCM or WAV files to M3U, try VLC media player or another comparable tool in the "Multimedia Playlist Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our M3U converter.