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If Firefox and iTunes hooked up, their hatchling could very well be Songbird. Although it's in beta and plenty buggy, it's also a very fun app that's part music player, part Web browser, and all about music discovery, management, and playback.
During installation, it'll ask if you want to load your iTunes music directory or another media directory, or perform the task later. Processing 5,000 songs took about 3 minutes, not a bad pace. It then asks you which of the pre-installed Songbird extensions you want to load. Most of these, like the iPod and USB device manager, only make the app stronger.
The left sidebar provides quick links to bookmarks, downloads, your music library in an iTunes-style interface, and several music discovery Web sites to get your started. When you're looking at any Web site with MP3s available for download, Songbird will open a new window at the bottom main browsing pane. Double-click on a song to play it, while links on the right let you purchase the track from Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, and Amie St. They also tell you the format of the track--MP3 or AAC, for example, and provide a blog link for more info.
Songbird has a growing library of extensions, and support is slowly growing for those written originally for Firefox. Many of the improvements from the last version make for a dramatic change, but Songbird is definitely a beta: caveat emptor. Still, it could really take flight for the music-loving, Web-surfing fanatic in all of us.
Publisher's Description
From Pioneers of the Inevitable:
Note: Beta or prerelease software is not intended for inexperienced users, as the software may contain bugs or may potentially damage your system. We strongly recommend that users exercise caution and save all mission-critical data before installing or using this software.
Songbird is a media browser and Web player built from Firefox, VLC Player, and SQLite. Songbird is open source and supports user contributed, cross-platform extensions. Version 0.5 includes new device API with initial MTP device support add-on, improved shuffle algorithm, extensible Library Views, more Mac menu/key command support, improved RSS playlists support, and other bug-fixes.
What's new in this version: New device API with initial MTP device support add-on, improved shuffle algorithm, extensible Library Views, more Mac menu/key command support, improved RSS playlists support, and other bug-fixes.
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All versions:
2.8 starsout of 15 votes
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Current version:
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"Won't Download!"
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.10.2
Pros
Cant assess because I can't get it to download.
Cons
Can't download it!! I keep getting the same error message 'forbidden' but have NO idea why. Very frustrating!
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"I Give Up Trying To Talk To The Developer"
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.10.2
Pros
It's a nifty kewl open source alternative to iTunes with bells and whistles.
Cons
It is impossible to download the program due to problems at their server that they are unwilling to repair. The developer's help via their chat forum is useless. If you can't download the program, isn't that called a "DEAD END"?
Summary
I have spent the last 24 hours attempting to talk to the developers about repairing their broken URL. I can't download the software. I've extremely clearly described the problem to them and received back only WRONG information. The problem is at their end. It throws those attempting to download the software, via their OWN 'Free Download' link on their website, to an XML error page. This occurs on ALL BROWSERS (meaning the everything except Opera and obscure browsers rarely used by anyone).
I'm FED UP trying to help them and GIVE UP trying to make sense to them. I am deleting this software from my Macs. I don't respond well to talking to a wall. I tried! -
"Slow and Force Quit Necessary"
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.10.1
Pros
Similar to iTunes in look, easy to leap in to.
Cons
Speed, frustrating when using browser or any menu command.
Summary
So far I have found Songbird extremely slow, and most of the time, I have to use Force Quit to exit the program.
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"Great when it runs, but that isn't often"
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.10.1
Pros
- great feature set
- great song organization
- good pluginsCons
- crashes very often on my Lion system
Summary
If it worked all the time, this app would be wonderful. But it doesn't.
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"Unfortunately, quite pointless"
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.10.0b2
Pros
Nice enough sort of app.
Cons
... but just plain limited.
Summary
It's a nice enough sort of app, but the problem is that it's just limited in what it can do and what it can interface with. It's hooked up with Zune now, so iPod support was dropped (the very definition of pointless, choosing a dying platform over the world's most popular). Regardless, it just doesn't do that much, or do what it does do in any kind of stand-out fashion. Which makes it nice as an academic experiment or project, but not really worthwhile as a consumer product. While Firefox (and more recently, Thunderbird) has managed to establish itself with some platform friendliness, Songbird still suffers from its open-source platform-agnosticism. That is, in order to be a good citizen on all platforms, it's also compromised on all platforms, and isn't particularly good or at home on any of them (see also: Mozilla 1.x, Firefox 1.x-2.x).
There are other, better apps out there. This is not the one you're looking for. -
"Crashed my Macbook"
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.9.3
Pros
none if it always crashes
Cons
noticed many many others complained of crashes
Summary
never trust cnet again
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"Could be fantastic but several intolerable quirks"
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.9.1
Pros
sound quality is superior to itunes, lots of interesting material presented with music, can stream from 3d party sites that itunes can't.
Cons
wants to save to my printer! multiplies my itunes library repeatedly, adding duplicates and triplicates.
Summary
If the quirks and bugs get worked out this will/would be the best music and sound application, but now it is just the most frustrating.
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"Crashes sometime for no reason."
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.9.1
Pros
This application is great, it is both a web browser and a music player and management tool, it has lots of great features but...
Cons
It looks like it is not polished well enough, it still has some serious bugs and crashes some times which makes to use this application very annoying.
Summary
Nice features but still not polished enough.
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"Best media player... EVER...."
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.4.3
Pros
1.Very Fast & Free...
2. Huge range of Add-ons
4. Amazing in searching, retrieving, organizing, syncing media files...Cons
it needs an integrated iPod/iPhone sync option..
Summary
BEST media player ever comparing with the WORST media player (iTunes)
THANK u so much Songbird developers.. -
"SLOWWWWW...."
Version: Songbird (Intel) 1.4.3
Pros
Nice feature set, easy to navigate if you are used to iTunes.
Cons
Terribly sluggish, lots of sitting and waiting.
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