Playlist distribution

I made a playlist of MP3s for a friend in Winamp. Winamp can only burn audio, not data, CDs, so I used the gen_yar plugin to copy all the files in the playlist into a new folder, then burned this folder to a CD using Nero. I saved the playlist as an M3U file, and used CD Cover Editor (make sure to uninstall the adware - still have no idea why people bundle this crap with their decent software) to automatically print the CD cover from the playlist and some images (the software that comes with Avery sticky CD labels can't read playlists, but CD Cover Editor doesn't have Avery templates, so it has to be on plain paper).

Now I have an MP3 CD, or 3 audio CDs (burned directly from M3Us using Nero). I also have the MP3s and a playlist, but it's impossible to put them online. I made a Kazaa playlist, but as it has to include the file hash there's no chance of anyone finding sources for the tracks - I've changed the ID3 tags, which changes the hashes. Magnet URIs don't require the hash, they can just search for the filename, so I could make a HTML page of magnet links. You'd have to click on each of the 60 tracks in turn to download them though, and they wouldn't be played in the right order. There are no players that read M3U or RSS files and use magnet URIs (or just artist/track details) to fetch and play tracks in the right order. I could put the tracks online and pay the streaming license fees, but this is prohibitively expensive (and awkward) when I'd have to cover the bandwidth charges as well. If there was a central site that would cover a streaming license and host MP3s for a small bandwidth charge that would be ideal. There's FTP of course, and NNTP, and Waste/WINW and all the rest, but the best I can do at the moment is just use MPEG Audio Collection to print the tracks and let you work the rest out for yourself. If you want to hear them, try getting me on IM - the details should be on the right of this page.

See also: discussion of a related problem by Kevin Marks and Lucas Gonze.