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If Firefox and iTunes hooked up, their hatchling could very well be Songbird. Basic usage bugs have gone the way of last season's molting, so this fun app that's part music player, part Web browser, and all about music discovery, management, and playback is ready for every day use.
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, which is not a bad pace. It then asks you which of the preinstalled Songbird extensions you want to load. Most of these, like the iPod, Mass Storage Class, and USB device managers 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 you started. When you're looking at any Web site with MP3s available for download, Songbird will open a new window at the bottom of the main browsing pane. Double-click on a song to play it, and 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. Although it works on Windows 7, it doesn't yet have any Windows 7-specific features. Still, Songbird is more than stable enough to take flight for the music-loving, Web-surfing fanatic in all of us.
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. Manage your music, sync your library, build playlists. Browse, search, sort. Songkick option automatically notifies you when your favorite bands come to town, and you can purchase tickets straight from the app. Synchronize your hand held and get your media to go. Songbird supports the latest generation of hot new phones.
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All versions:
3.6 starsout of 179 votes
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Current version:
3.4 starsout of 7 votes
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My rating:
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Results 1-7 of 7
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"By far one of the best apps on my computer"
Version: Songbird 1.9.3
Pros
- Integrated music player/web browser
- iTunes like feel for us anti-Apple users
- Sleek design, easy-to-use interfaceCons
- Hard to support mp4 files (had to convert to mp3)
- Am used to the Firefox navigation bar where you type in keywords and it finds the best website / search results; had to get used to typing "Google.ca" each time.
- No included equalizer settingsSummary
I really love this app, and I really can't do too much complaining. If they would do more support for different formats (including video codecs), I would give this 5 stars. But this app, combined with DivX player, is all I need now for my computer. I'm surprised that Apple hasn't gone crazy and started suing to be honest.
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"Great program, good sound and selection of stations"
Version: Songbird 1.9.3
Pros
easy to work, attractive appearance and the lyric addons are a terrific feature.
Cons
Had trouble with the initial installation which seemed to work itself out when I re-installed.
Summary
Good program, I would recommend it.
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"Great Player"
Version: Songbird 1.9.3
Pros
Love the sound, the features and most of all I love the lyrics add-on. Struck me as being better than that of the competition.
Cons
I'm a mozilla fan, so I might just be being a bit biased here.
Summary
Get it. This application deserves all the downloads it gets.
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"Songbird is tone-deaf. Probably not worth the effort..."
Version: Songbird 1.9.3
Pros
Looks great, very customizable. Awesome droid player app
Cons
Everything else. Watch folders don't watch, the software crashes, is laggy, and often unresponsive. Syncing music to your phone just doesn't work well at all. When you spend half the time in help files and emailing support, it's just not worth it.
Summary
I spent the better part of an evening trying to figure this software out. I really wanted to make it work. I love the player for the droid. However, it's just far to problematic for what it is. This is just one of many tools for listening to and managing your music collection. There are so many other players that work just fine without the problematic learning curve to waste your time on this one. It looked good, but didn't deliver in my opinion.
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"Hear your music as you browse the web, a lot of fun."
Version: Songbird 1.9.3
Pros
Huge selections of radio stations, you can import your music files.
Cons
None that i have experience.
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"A good player, but a bit slow to load."
Version: Songbird 1.9.3
Pros
Works well, handles all my needs except mp3, and is Open Source.
Cons
Slow to load, doesn't include an MP3 coder for ripping music.
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"Latest Version doesn't install"
Version: Songbird 1.9.3
Pros
None since it doesn't install
Cons
Install crashes
Summary
The install crashes - says it's a license issue.
Results 1-7 of 7
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