Overview

Songbird is an open source media player and web browser developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable and based on Mozilla’s XUL runtime environment, VLC Media Player, and The SQLite database engine.  Songbird will organize and play music files on your local hard drive.  Songbird also plays the media web by playing mp3 files without leaving the page.

Walk Through Review

Installation – 8

I am sure most of you are familiar with Mozilla products and know the ease of installation.  Songbird is yet another application that doesn’t disappoint.  One of the cool things to point out during installation is being able to select your favorite add-ons.

Features – 6

You can browse your favorite audio blogs to easily listen to mp3 files without leaving the page.    By default Songbird comes with The Hype Machine included which offers tons of great music.  In this instance I started up a Rolling Stones song which Songbird loads into the player and I can continue to browse the site or go to different sites all together.

Another cool feature is the ability to download and add songs on mp3 blogs to your library or playlists.

SHOUTcast online radio is available by default.  Songbird is also great for subscribing to netcasts.

There are different interface themes available for Songbird.  One I am most fond of is the Aero Bird UI Theme (or Feather as Songbird calls them). The Aero Bird Theme by LIB53 makes for a visually stunning player with iTunes like controls and features.

Another version is Aero Bird Pro which is an extremely nice polished black interface with the same options as the original.

If you are a fan of iTunes Cover Flow then check out the Media Flow add-on which offers the same visually appealing album cover eye candy.  Songbird also has an easy to use iTunes importer that allows you to import the entire iTunes library with just one click.

Songbird will work with you Apple iPod right out of the box.  To use other mp3 devices just install the MTP Device Support add-on.  Here you can see it works great for syncing up with a Creative Zen Plus.

Finding and managing extensions is just as easy in Songbird as it is in Firefox.

Keyboard Ninja’s will like the fact Songbird supports programmable hot keys.

Performance – 8

Songbird 1.0 runs and operates much more smooth than earlier versions.  Although, it can take up a lot of resources depending on how many tabs are open and what add-ons are running.

Keyboard Ninja’s will love the amount of hotkeys which definitely speeds up navigation.

Conclusion

Songbird is great for playing and downloading music from the Internet.  Organizing your music files and playlist could not be easier.  However, Songbird has yet to incorporate features included in most other music jukebox players on the scene.  There is no ability to burn CD’s, covert audio file formats, or even play an actual CD.  This project is in continuous development so hopefully these features will be added soon.  As it stand now Songbird is still a lot of fun for music fans. 

Download Songbird For Windows, Mac, or Linux

Rating

• Installation: 8
• Ease of Use: 8
• Features: 6
• Performance: 8
• Product Support: 8