I'm not that picky when it comes to desktop audio player. Typically, I just use whatever audio player that comes with my Linux distro. As long as it plays all of my audio files (with the right plugins of course), I'm good. Until most recently, when I've tried those iTunes replacements that I wrote about a while ago, I've discovered Songbird, and it quickly became my favorite audio player.Getting to know Songbird
As described on its project website, Songbird is an open-source customizable music player that's under active development. The project’s main aim is to create a non-proprietary, cross platform, extensible tool that will help enable new ways to playback, manage, and discover music.
Getting Songbird
If you are using Ubuntu or any other Debian based distro, you can download the .deb package HERE. You can also download Songbird directly from their website HERE.
Using Songbird
Songbird has an iTunes-like interface, so playing and managing audio files in it is completely trouble-free. If you don't like the default appearance of Songbird, you can customize it by getting some of the good-looking ready-made themes (called feathers), and then simply install it the way you do in Firefox.
The most promising thing about Songbird is the add-ons. Though some of the add-ons don’t exactly work as they should be, I have high hopes that they will be well-integrated in the near future. Some of my favorite working add-ons include:
Smart Playlist- lets you create dynamic playlists that automatically update based on criteria you set.
Last.fm Scrobbling- Last.fm integration which allows you to scrobble, love, and ban your tracks.
SHOUTcast Radio- ability to stream music through SHOUTcast Radio directory.
Because Songbird is still in beta, some of the features are experimental and need to be polished as pointed out by its developers.
Why Songbird Rocks
Songbird is my ideal audio player. It's light, fast, easy-to-use, and highly-customizable. Plus, it is fairly stable even though it is still in beta that I'm keeping it as my primary desktop audio player. If Songbird will continue to improve along the way, it won’t take time before it will become “the Firefox of media players”.
Now with the add-ons getting much better, Songbird is almost ready to fly, but is still getting it's wings.
For now I will stick with Amarok, but by this time next year I will probably be using Songbird. It is growing on me!
SlippJigg
The only problem that keeps me from using it is that it's still a bit slow in GNU/Linux systems
I use OS X and had abandoned iTunes for everything except updating my iPod, because much of my library is FLAC. I refused to use Apple's proprietary ALAC format. As such, there was no decent player/library manager on OS X until Songbird came along.
jess
http://www.privacy.cz.tc
VLC FTW
In windows, i still prefer the old classic winamp (ironic since the songbird crew came from Winamp and Yahoo) and in gnu-linux nothing comes close to amarok. actually when its stable i might even use amarok on windows...
but for those who like this way of doing things, good stuff.
Free software does elegant well now as well as solid.
articles on Ubuntu, and plan to
install a system soon. Your article
on Songbird helps toward a better
choice of applications to use.
thanks from tony
I'm a Mozilla fan, a Firefox lover, but concerning SongBird, not convinced. It does manage music nicely, the GUI is a success, but ... remains the essential, that is the sound! I love music and no player has met my requirements as AIMP player has, though its functions are not as elaborated as those of SongBird... but the sound (try jazz, try classical, try chords and voice...) is gorgeous.