- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
- Date added: June 18, 2009
- Total Downloads: 108,075
- Downloads last week: 308
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 123 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 1.2 can auto-organize your music library, two-way iTunes import/export, Last.fm support, and a 10-band equalizer.
What's new in this version:
Version 1.2 can auto-organize your music library, two-way iTunes import/export, Last.fm support, and a 10-band equalizer.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.7 stars out of 123 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 9 user reviewsSee all 9 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Songbird 1.2.0
"A Under Rated Player and a Must Have !!!!!!"
Pros: Does everything I-Tunes and Media Player does and more.
Cons: Have not found one yet and been using for nearly a year
Summary: A great customizable media play that does not use up system resources and can transfer music to all players( with a add-on) and a must have for any Computer
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 1.2.0
"Amazing, uses to much memory, though."
Pros: It's easily the best media player out there. mashTape(built-in) shows information about the song and artist, and Lyrics Master automatically pulls lyrics off the internet and even gives you the option to overwrite the existing lyrics.
Cons: It uses an outrageous amount of memory, more so than iTunes. On Windows 7, It starts up with 90MB, and goes up once you play a song, and it just keeps going up with each play. Even with 4GB of memory, it leaves a noticeable imprint.
Summary: Lyrics Master and Mashtape are keeping me on board with this one. There is a way to tune the memory usage, but it requires you change the configuration and look for rather obscure numbers.
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Version: Songbird 1.2.0
Pros: Easier and covers more mp3 players then iTunes, does not take over your system either with constant updates, systemtray leeches & background programs. From Mozilla too!
Cons: Better covers and lyric choices.
Summary: I think it beats iTunes for features and is open-source as well
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Version: Songbird 1.2.0
Pros: see Summary
Cons: see Summary
Summary: I still utilize WMP11 and/or WinAmp more often than SongBird. I personally believe WMP11 has the best sound quality out of all of them (I play 192K 6.1 channel WMA), and WinAmp has my G15 keyboard plugin and pars very close to WMP11 in quality. I ha... read more >>
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0 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Songbird 1.2.0
Pros: It playes the file.
Cons: Using version 1.2:
It does not work with many subscription feeds ( http://freetalklive.com/netcast.xml ) With the ones it does work on, it will continue to re download songs every time because it's not smart enough to know it already has them.Summary: This is the same behavior that the older version had that we were promised a fix for. The software is just S***, don't use it. There are many alternatives out there that actually work for this. (Rhythmbox is one)
- See all 9 user reviews Write review
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