iTunes Playlist Exporter

A PowerShell 7 batch tool that exports iTunes playlists to MP3 files — with album-level ReplayGain baked in, EQ optimised for small Bluetooth speakers, and silence trimmed from each track.

What it does

1. Reads all .m3u8 and .xml (iTunes plist) files from a playlist folder
2. For each playlist, re-encodes every track to MP3 with:
   • Album-level ReplayGain measured and baked into the audio (not tag-only)
   • EQ optimised for small dual-40mm driver Bluetooth speakers
   • Silence trimmed from the start and end of each track
   • Peak limiter applied to prevent clipping after gain
   • Sequential number prefix prepended to each filename
3. M4A files are re-encoded to MP3 automatically
4. Writes a log file to each output folder

Requirements

• PowerShell 7 — install from https://aka.ms/powershell (verify with pwsh --version)
• ffmpeg — recommended: gyan.dev "essentials" build from https://ffmpeg.org/download

Files

File	Description
export-playlists.ps1	Main script (requires PS 7.0+)
export-playlists.ini	All user-editable configuration variables
export-playlists.bat	Double-click launcher

Setup

1. Install PowerShell 7 and ffmpeg (see requirements above)
2. Edit export-playlists.ini — set your paths and preferences
3. Double-click export-playlists.bat to run

Configuration

All settings are in export-playlists.ini:

[Paths]
PlaylistDir = C:\path\to\playlists
OutputDir = C:\path\to\output
FfmpegPath = C:\path\to\ffmpeg.exe

[Audio]
OutputBitrate = 192k
ChannelLayout = stereo
SilenceThresholdDB = -60

[ReplayGain]
ApplyReplayGain = true
TargetLUFS = -16.0
LimiterCeiling = 0.95
ParallelJobs = 0

[EQ]
ApplyEQ = true
EQ_HighpassHz = 80
EQ_LowMidBoostHz = 150
EQ_LowMidBoostDB = 3
EQ_PresenceHz = 3500
EQ_PresenceDB = 2
EQ_HiShelfHz = 12000
EQ_HiShelfDB = -2

Mono Variant (Storage Optimisation)

For storage-limited devices, you can export to mono with automatic pan filter downmixing:

[Audio]
OutputBitrate = 160k
ChannelLayout = mono

[EQ]
EQ_LowMidBoostDB = 3.5

How mono downmixing works:

• Standard stereo-to-mono loses 3-6 dB of width information (guitars, synth pads, backing vocals disappear)
• Script applies an intelligent pan filter that preserves width by using a hotter stereo sum: 0.6*L + 0.6*R
• Built-in EQ compensates for frequency imbalances: -1.5dB at 300Hz (removes mud), +2.5dB at 3kHz (restores presence)
• Your EQ_LowMidBoostDB is increased to 3.5dB to restore warmth/body lost in the downmix

Results:

• File size: ~50% smaller than stereo
• Quality: Imperceptible loss for small speakers; recommended for storage-limited devices

Playlist format support

• M3U8 — UTF-8 encoded, Windows absolute paths
• XML — iTunes plist format; one playlist per file; track order and paths read from the plist structure

Smart Playlist Updates

The script tracks which playlists have been encoded using a manifest file (.export-manifest.json):

• First run: All tracks encoded; manifest saved
• Unchanged playlist: Skipped instantly (no processing)
• Changed playlist: Script detects added/removed/reordered tracks and prompts:
  • (A)ll — Re-encode all tracks
  • (N)ew — Encode only new tracks; recalculate ReplayGain from all tracks
  • (D)elete — Delete folder and rebuild from scratch
  • (S)kip — Skip this playlist

This saves time when updating playlists frequently.

Sync to Removable Media (Phase 3)

After encoding all playlists, the script optionally syncs your music files to a USB drive or other removable media:

Options:

• (N) Don't sync — Exit without copying (default)
• (S) Sync changed files — Copy new/updated files to media; keep existing files untouched (safe, incremental)
• (M) Mirror with cleanup — Copy everything and delete old files from media (full sync, but dangerous — removes personal files)
• (D) Select drive — Choose a different removable drive first

How it works:

• Auto-detects removable drives (USB, memory cards, external drives)
• Shows source size, destination info, and available free space
• Uses robocopy for fast, reliable file sync
• Writes a log to the destination drive: robocopy.log
• Safe by default: option (S) never deletes; option (M) prompts for confirmation first

Example: Copy your encoded playlists to a USB drive for car stereo or portable device in one step.

Notes

• If an output folder already exists, the script will ask before overwriting
• Missing tracks are counted and logged but do not stop processing
• Filenames with special characters (brackets, apostrophes) are handled correctly
• Set ApplyReplayGain = false to skip loudness measurement and encode at unity gain
• Set ApplyEQ = false to bypass all EQ processing
• ParallelJobs = 0 in config enables auto-detect (cores - 1, minimum 4)

Changelog

v1.8 (Current)

Major stability and performance improvements:

• ✅ Real-time progress bars — Phase 1 & 2 now show live progress as tracks complete (previously froze during encoding)
• ✅ Robust path handling — All file system operations use -LiteralPath to safely handle bracket characters in filenames
• ✅ Safer robocopy sync — Phase 3 now uses & robocopy with array arguments instead of Invoke-Expression (prevents parsing errors with unusual paths)
• ✅ Silent track handling — LUFS measurement now gracefully handles -inf (pure silence) with fallback to -70.0 dB
• ✅ Folder name sanitization — Removes trailing spaces and periods to prevent "ghost directories"
• ✅ Performance optimization — INI parsing now uses [System.IO.File]::ReadAllLines() for faster startup

v1.7.1 (Hotfix)

• Fixed: -ThrottleLimit $using: variable scope error in Phase 2

v1.7

• Added Phase 3: optional robocopy sync to removable media with 3 modes (No sync / Sync / Mirror)
• Fixed mono downmix with intelligent pan filter (0.6*L + 0.6*R) instead of simple -ac 1
• Consolidated mono variant config into comments (no separate .ini file needed)

v1.6.1

• Fixed: "New only" encoding mode crashes (scalar unboxing + progress percentage overflow)
• Improved manifest-based change detection accuracy

v1.6

• Migrated config from .ps1 to .ini file format
• Added ChannelLayout option for stereo/mono export

v1.5+

• CPU core auto-scaling (ParallelJobs = 0 for auto-detect)
• TrackLUFS per-track manifest storage for consistent album gain on updates
• Phase 2 parallelization with ForEach-Object -Parallel

v1.4.1

• Fixed SHA256 hash computation (required ::Create() call)

v1.4

• Manifest-based change detection (.export-manifest.json)

v1.3

• Fixed corrupted artwork crash (added -map 0:a to ffmpeg)

v1.2

• Phase 2 parallelization with throttle limit

v1.1

• Fixed bracket wildcard crashes (added -LiteralPath)
• Fixed $ParallelJobs null crashes
• Fixed PowerShell 7 scriptblock serialization for parallel scope