- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000
- Date added: December 02, 2008
- Total Downloads: 102,077
- Downloads last week: 252
- 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: Seth Rosenblatt on November 07, 2008
If Firefox and iTunes hooked up, their hatchling could very well be Songbird. Almost ready for prime-time and still a bit 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, and Songbird is now stable enough to 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 :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 1.0.0 features improved audio/playback functionality using GStreamer, UI experience improvements including new keyboard shortcuts, refining the column heading property list, "Show File" now available for any selected track, smart playlists can now be used as rules within other smart playlists, and the ability to show/hide display panes via individual buttons, as well as numerous performance and stability enhancements.
What's new in this version:
Improved audio/playback functionality using GStreamer, UI experience improvements including new keyboard shortcuts, refining the column heading property list, "Show File" now available for any selected track, smart playlists can now be used as rules within other smart playlists, and the ability to show/hide display panes via individual buttons, as well as numerous performance and stability enhancements.
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User reviews of Songbird 1.0.0
- Average user rating: 3.7 stars out of 121 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 18 user reviewsSee all 18 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Songbird 1.0.0
"Great Player, Great Interface, Great Compatibility"
Pros: Everything. Songbird was recently updated and now includes a Watch Folder and compadibilty with the 7digital music store. Also the update lowered the resources used while playing music and the software overall got quicker and easier to use.
Cons: None that i have noticedThis isn't really a con because i would say all media players do this occasionally but if you leave the player open for a long time...im talking like a week or so, when you try to use it again it might take a while to respond.
Summary: Look through the list of add-ons maybe you will find one that is useful to you. The list is not too big for now but sooner or later once people like you suggest them or make them the list will grow and make it easier for others to do what they want ... read more >>
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Version: Songbird 1.0.0
Pros: Good interface, strong player non the less
Cons: No support for .cue file with APE/Flac. Poor Podcast support. Not much format support.
Summary: I still uses Media Jukebox 12
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 1.0.0
"The future of media players."
Pros: Mozilla based;
- Add-ons.
- Browser integrated.
- Multi-platform.
Open source (millons of people out there making it grow way past your wildest dreams).
Internet integration, potentially unlimited . . Everything at your finger tips.Cons: Impatient people don't realize it's only just begun, and it's already amazing.
Summary: It's mozilla. Firefox's fire-tested easy-to-develop-for add-on system, it's xml basis and, hence, a MULTI PLATFORM nature (get your heads out of the bucket, windoze people, there's a bright world out there), makes it the only media player out there ... read more >>
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 1.0.0
"this j-box/browser is awesome! it's got everything"
Pros: ease of use, the web search for everything music related, the feather choices, & best of the way it looks for the lyrics
Cons: it's a little buggy yet (it froze on me once in the first 48 hours that i used it but no real cons otherwise) hopefully it will get better with age :)
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Version: Songbird 1.0.0
"Very good music player&browser"
Pros: This Vn.1.0.0 has improved a lot from previous versions.It is now stable with almost no crashes.The sound output is better and it provides most of the features of Winamp.The few feathers(skins) provided are beautiful.
Cons: The cpu usage is more when compared to other music players,this is to be improved.
Summary: With some more improvements and additional features such as flv video playing(in the first beta Vn. this was included,now it is taken off) it can become a versatile media player/browser.
- See all 18 user reviews Write review
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