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- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows XP, Windows 2000
- Date added: December 19, 2006
- Total Downloads: 91,772
- Downloads last week: 357
- See full specifications
A newer version of Songbird is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 121 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
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.
Watch the CNET video review of Songbird:
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's browser engine. Songbird is open source and supports user contributed, cross-platform extensions. The latest 0.2.1 update fixes an issue with the VLC Player plug-in, among other changes.
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User reviews of Songbird 0.2.1
- Average user rating: 3.7 stars out of 121 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 5 user reviewsSee all 5 user reviews
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8 out of 9 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.2.1
"Shaky, But Headed in a Good Path"
Pros: Major music-player innovation.It's basically like iTunes, except they have stepped it up with better, important features.
I love how you can browse the web. The search and play-on-the-spot feature is fantastic! IMO
Cons: Since it's a beta, it's not quite stable. There's some issues with playing some songs, customization, etc. but it's a great start, and I'm excited for the actual release!
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.2.1
Pros: (WAY)Faster than itunes. Nice interface. Integrated with my laptop's media buttons. Its in great shape for an early stage product. It works as a web browser too (no tabs though). Haven't tried the burn yet, but happy it has it.
Cons: Needs to be integrated with tabs in Firefox. Haven't checked yet, but would like skin change at some point. It seemed to take a while to get the library to work correctly, and didn't give me error messages. Just didn't work for a short time.
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0 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.2.1
"It plays WMAs on Mac, for starters"
Pros: It is the only way I know of to play WMAs on Mac. [why I would want to is another story]. Everything is integrated well, gui is clean and look is miles ahead of most windows 3p software. It's not perfect yet but plenty good enough to use and enjoy. Plus it's fun searching for and discovering music. When Songbird is finished it will be my only player. If they could only integrate it with Airport Express...
Cons: Still a bit buggy but in a quixotic, not dangerous way.
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0 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.2.1
Pros: The best is having Firefox+Media Player of choice integrated.
Great design.
Cons: Since it doesn't (yet) support tabs, you (I) still need Firefox running along. So 200 MiB of RAM used in a browser and a media player.
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1 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.2.1
Pros: sounds promising, looking forward to a version I can load on my machines.
Cons: it is not cross platform as it only works with the recent corruptions of miKro$loth offerings. Let us know when it is offered for Linux, Mac, etc. Then it will be cross platform.
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