- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000
- Date added: March 28, 2008
- Total Downloads: 95,430
- Downloads last week: 279
- 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, 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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User reviews of Songbird 0.5
- Average user rating: 3.7 stars out of 121 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 8 user reviewsSee all 8 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.5
"it's no good for me...for now..."
Pros: it looks nice...it's free...
Cons: - it's not 13.46mb; it's 62.6mb!...some one @ download either misread or purposely deceived me.
- won't read both my mp3 players: the dell dj30 and, of course i knew it wouldn't work, the new crappy zune80.
- for all the music stuff i futz around with at home and on the net, i still find the media monkey gold much more satisfying that this blackbird in the dead of night (sorry, paul).
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0 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.5
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.5
"This Program Does Many Great Things"
Pros: Endless ways to discover music and related material. This thing is gonna be huge some day. You can spend an entire day on this program and still not hit all of it's great features.
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.5
Pros: I get songs from songbird... I Love this player... It is superb.... Keep it up songbird...
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 0.5
- See all 8 user reviews Write review
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