While most people associate the word “playlist” with a collection of Spotify songs, in the context of video streaming, a playlist is a file that represents a series of small video fragments that together form a complete video.

Unlike a single video file (like an mp4 asset), a playlist (like an m3u8 file) is a text file that contains references to multiple video fragments. The video player can download each fragment in sequence, allowing for faster start times and more efficient streaming. After all, the user does not have to wait for the whole file to download before it can start playback.

More technically speaking, a playlist in Motto typically follows the HLS, LL-HLS or Dash formats.

Simply put, a playlist is a technical term for a textual representation of a series of small video files that can be played by a video player.

For more technical information on videos in Motto, see the playlist API documentation.

See also