The XSPF playlist format evolved from Webjay in the following way. Webjay predated the common practice (in 2008) of having a web playlist be edited and managed by a single site, then exported to other sites with a Flash widget that can play the playlist. Playlists on Webjay were played by generating a
text file in one of a variety of common playlist formats, including ASX, SMIL, and
M3U. The playlist file contained a list of URLs of multimedia files from different third party sites. The playlists were downloaded to a client-side media player like Windows Media Player, RealAudio, QuickTime, or
Winamp. The client-side media player would play the URLs one after another, giving the cumulative impression of a single continuous stream. After the XSPF playlist format came into existence and before any media players could render an XSPF playlist, Webjay added the ability to generate an XSPF file for any playlists on the site. It did not provide a player, only playlists, so at first the files could not be played. An independent developer created an XSPF player known as
XSPF Musicplayer. It did not provide playlists. Webjay and XSPF Musicplayer were independent products that were only useful as a pair. Another independent developer created a web site to put Webjay and XSPF Musicplayer together. This site was called "Webjay Wizard". Because XSPF Musicplayer is written in Flash it can be used in the browser without launching a client-side multimedia player like Windows Media Player. As a result, it was used to embed music in pages on social networking sites such as Myspace, as a
Web widget. This created popular demand for XSPF. Other XSPF players came into being to compete with XSPF Musicplayer. When Webjay was closed down by Yahoo!, other XSPF editing and generation tools took its place. XSPF continued to exist. == References ==