Use of a metadata presort file to sort compressed audio files

摘要

A media system is disclosed which presorts media files thereby alleviating a media player from having to actively sort the files in real time. The system creates and uses presort information with the media files. The presort information contains one or more lists of the media files previously presorted according to different sorting criteria. The presort information permits a user the ability to play the media files according to one or more of the presorted lists without the player itself having to include logic to sort the files. Broadly, the user selects one of the presorted list of media files and the player plays the files in the specified order. In one embodiment, the media files contain audio data and the player comprises an audio CD player such as an MP3-compliant device.