Enabling efficient navigation of a playlist of media files stored on a
computer-readable medium. Aspects of the invention define a playlist
structure to have one or more playlist units. Each playlist unit
identifies one or more media files in the playlist and includes metadata
for the media files. A consumer electronic device retrieves the playlist
units and displays the metadata contained therein to a user to enable
navigation of the playlist. Aspects of the invention reduce the memory
requirements of the consumer electronic devices and reduce the quantity
of disk seek operations needed for playlist navigation.