Pastacode computer science blog

From a certain size on one’s own music collection is not simply sortable in a file structure. The index approach is something I started to like, I gained control over my collection again. This approach is used by almost all the major players - be it Amarok (Linux), Windows Media Player or Itunes.

Songbird is coming to conquer the crown of this sort of audioplayers. The big download button on getsongbird.com, the domain, the site …. all that is familiar and is reminiscent of Firefox and Co.

Like back then with Firefox, it will take some time until Songbird reaches the masses. I tested it… and hey, I’m really impressed. This player just has the potential to reach the masses. The appearance just seems like iTunes, but there is more to discover under the hood.

Like with Firefox, Songbird can be extended - some interesting plugins have already been developed. There is mashTape that displays all sorts of useful information about the artist played (see screenshot), the Last.fm Album cover plugin, which shows covers from last.fm… or the album art manager, to manage covers locally.

There is even iPod support as plugin, which I have not yet tested. It is a very pleasant thing, to have a free (open source!) audio player as an alternative to Itunes and co.

Long live the birdy!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Musik, Tipps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.