Tech Blog

[#1]

On my personal blog I've written a couple of times about Songbird. I've been using it as an iTunes alternative since it was in beta, and have been seriously impressed.

The main reason I 'switched' was because, for me, the iTunes interface wasn't intuitive. iTunes didn't want to let me manage my library -- iTunes knew best.

As well, the Songbird application seemed to 'care' more about the media I already owned, rather than trying to get me to buy / download new media -- if I may anthropomorphize a piece of code for a moment

But ultimately it was the way Songbird worked -- the way I expected it to, like WinAmp did (my previous music player). Now that's  not really surprising as previous members of WinAmp's development team were involved with Songbird development too.

If I had a small media library on a single computer, iTunes wouldn't be a problem. But in my world, I access my media through a few computers (Mac, PC, Linux), as well as a couple of iPods, an Xbox Media Center, and Nintendo DS. Having iTunes re-org my library to suit it's taste wasn't an option.

This is when a Songbird came in.
I found Songbird when looking for a Linux / Mac version of WinAmp. Songbird worked as I expected. Drag and drop adding of media, MP3 tag editing, and compatibility with all my devices (including my iPods). As well, songbird had a whole host of additional features and themes that allowed me to customize my experience with the software. I like customization.

When is a browser not a browser...
Songbird is based on Mozilla browser components, and I like to think of as a Music Browser, moreso than a Music Player. But until two versions ago, Songbird was missing THE big feature that iTunes had -- a watched music folder. But, as I said, that was fixed two versions ago, so what's cool about this new version? To quote from the Songbird development blog:

Automatically Organize Library Files
Songbird can now automatically organize the files that are contained in your library. Once enabled, it will consolidate your media in one location. You can customize the structure of the folder and file names based on metadata contained in every track.

2-way Sync with iTunes
If you’re using iTunes Music Store to purchase content, you can now automatically expose iTunes library tracks and playlists into Songbird. You can also export tracks and playlists added to Songbird back into iTunes, so that they can easily be synced to your iPhone or iPod touch.

Last.fm Radio
Last.fm Radio supports artist, tag, and user stations, mapping station links on the Last.fm website to play internally in Songbird. It includes the Radio Directory allowing you to conveniently browse and explore the tag and artist relationships on Last.fm. Additionally, the Radio directory includes quick links for playing stations based on your Last.fm library, your Songbird library, and friends/neighbors’ libraries.

10-band Equalizer
Now you can tweak the frequency response of the audio playback to match your room’s acoustics or your personal preferences.

Performance Enhancements

• Faster search
• Deleting many tracks at once is faster
• Selecting a large amount of tracks from the library is no longer slow
• Reduced the amount of threads required to be running at all times by 50%
• Fewer Crashes: We’ve worked hard to identify and fix some of the most common crashes in Songbird.

Now, Songbird may not be for everyone, but if you're looking for a very versatile and cool replacement / alternative to iTunes, then check it out. And let me know what you think in the comments, or tell me about your favorite media player...now I'm off to check out some more tunes...

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 07-28-2009 12:49 AM

Message Edited by Laura on 08-21-2009 04:59 PM

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 09-10-2009 07:57 PM

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 09-10-2009 08:41 PM

[#2]

And here I was all ready to disregard your post after reading your topic title, and simply say that, "Winamp would like to have a word with you." Then you mentioned that this replaced your copy of Winamp.

Though I love Winamp and it's tiny memory footprint (not to mention tiny visual footprint; I've got it set to just display a single band of text above my taskbar) it's a real hassle to try and manage ID3 tags. Will have to check out Songbird tomorrow and see how it fares.

[#3]

Hey Tanarus, thanks for not dismissing the post outright! If there's one downside to Songbird, it's the running memory footprint. Currently it sits around 92meg on my system...it's not a lightweight player for sure.

And do check out some of Songbird's 'feathers'...you can get them with a very tiny visual footprint too

Do let me know what you think...Songbird may not be everyone's 'best ever', but it's mine.

[#4]

Songbird is great!  I use it on my mac all the time. I think the last.fm integration is outstanding and .flac support is a huge plus for me as well.

[#5]

@joelthetroll: Thanks for that addition...Agreed, the file formats, last.fm, shoutcast and the ability to check out local concerts and have current artist info streamed into the interface are also other cool features I enjoy.

Being based on a browser makes it very powerful indeed.