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186 Comments
- BrettFromTibet, on 12/02/2008, -7/+77I am extremely excited there is a release version of a quality, open-source iTunes competitor for Mac users.... I am really, really, really sick of Apple's restrictive digital media conspiracy..err.. "strategy"
- snasu, on 12/02/2008, -1/+53This version is a huge step up from the betas.
Direct link to songbird homepage http://getsongbird.com/ - pablovener, on 12/03/2008, -2/+47The question is: can it really whip the llama's ass?
- SSPink, on 12/02/2008, -6/+47You're burying stories based on who submitted them?
That seems fair to the people who would be interested in reading this article. - krystalo, on 12/02/2008, -8/+48Ok, autoburying you.
- cptmichael101st, on 12/03/2008, -4/+31at first i was like "why do i need an itunes clone?"
then i saw the features... - hawksfan03, on 12/03/2008, -1/+24The only thing that keeps me away is that it doesn't integrate nice with downloading podcasts. I've got 20+ podcast subscriptions through iTunes and there isn't an easy way to add in those url's to auto download new podcasts that I can find. If anyone knows how to do this please let me know.
- diskit, on 12/03/2008, -10/+27MrBabyMan.
Go to bed.
Get some sleep. - mwalker05, on 12/03/2008, -4/+21believe it or not there are other pieces of software that are capable of ripping and burning cds
- strictnein, on 12/03/2008, -0/+15New versions of winamp have a censored version of that tagline. Super lame.
- SteveMax, on 12/03/2008, -0/+13@dema,
You mean iPod Touch + iPhone + Zune userbase is bigger than iPod + iPod Classic + iPod Nano + iPod Shuffle + generic mass storage devices? I really don't think so. - deadbaby, on 12/03/2008, -1/+12I don't understand the hype. Do you really want a web browser in your media player? Add-ons are nice but, like FireFox, add too many or download something buggy and your whole browser gets slow & flakey. The quality of most of these add-ons is not good. I tried the iTunes style skin and it totally glitches the whole GUI. On OSX, the whole GUI is non-Cocoa so it looks totally out of place and is noticeably slower than a native app. Apparently it doesn't even support CD ripping & burning?
If you're going to try to replace an app you really need to focus on matching features people actually use. No CD burning? That's a feature people use 100000x more than automatic lyrics or last.fm support. Leaving it out makes it completely impossible for most people to use an app like this as a replacement. No syncing, of course, kills it too but you can't really blame the developers for that given the legal issues surrounding it. - bjarki, on 12/03/2008, -1/+11"Is Songbird 1.0 a viable music player replacement for iTunes, Windows Media Player, and other incumbents? As long as you don't need to manage videos and aren't nuts for the play/pause key on your keyboard, we can answer "definitely.""
I have been using my media keys with songbird 0.7+ with out doing any configuration my self - silfiriel, on 12/03/2008, -1/+11yes it can, but when it comes to MediaMonkey it doesn't stand a chance, and I won't even mention Amarok.
(no auto update of the library, no ripping, no burning, no converting, the memory footprint is too big, 2.5 times then mediamonkey etc.) - pyroguy56011, on 12/03/2008, -2/+12Songbird is more bloated than iTunes. If there was a program with iTunes interface (I mean, christ, I only use the list view with album art on, I don't even use grid or cover flow) that didn't use as much memory, I'd switch in a heartbeat. That and the fact that iTunes organizes all my music into folders by artist and album are the two things that keep me from switching. The "Get Album Art" feature is really nice perk as well. Say what you will about iTunes, but I've yet to find a media player that replicates everything (or at least the important things I mentioned) iTunes does as well as iTunes does it. And even with the supposed bloat, it's once in a blue moon that I actually notice the memory it uses.
- WasabiBomb, on 12/03/2008, -0/+10Lemme know when it can sync my iPhone. That's the main feature I'm looking for.
- lostsymphonies1, on 12/03/2008, -2/+12It's been at LEAST 18 months since i have listened to a CD lol
- MethylNH3, on 12/03/2008, -12/+21Are you kidding? Not even close.
"Sorry, iPhone, iPod touch, and Zune owners: support for your devices is still on the way. "
Stop with the hype already. - mwalker05, on 12/03/2008, -6/+15i dont own any of those 3 specific products
- koenigje, on 12/03/2008, -0/+9You could have had 2 kids in that time! Good going!
- silfiriel, on 12/03/2008, -2/+11the people just don't get it, I don't need a web browser in my music player. I have firefox and I have mediamonkey, it's enough.
- TomKarpik, on 12/03/2008, -0/+9XUL and Gecko? Ugh. Say hello to slowness and bloat.
That said, why does the stock skin look 95% like iTunes? - melance, on 12/03/2008, -0/+9I guess I'm still a bit of an old schooler. I like my CD's and albums so ripping and burning are essential. It's nice to have the integration that comes with iTunes. I'll be very pleased when that comes to SongBird.
- MonkeyFit, on 12/03/2008, -4/+13iTunes doesn't play WMA files. That's actually a pretty common format. Before you tell me it will convert it to AAC, you should remember there is always quality loss when converting between two lossy formats. Since iTunes is able to convert WMA's, that means the program is fully capable of reading them, and Apple is just being stubborn and restrictive by not allowing the program to play them.
- feanix, on 12/03/2008, -2/+11The reason theres no support for those devices is that Apple have gone to some lengths to prevent third party apps from interfacing with iPod Touches and iPhones. And that's why I won't be buying either.
Can't help you with the Zune, but I haven't heard nearly as many bad things about the Zune software as I have about iTunes. Plus the Zune software doesn't ask you to install Internet Explorer as an "update". - Nephersir7, on 12/03/2008, -2/+11Except for a couple of annoying glitches, I really like Songbird. I've been using it since a couple of months on my Linux desktop and it is really the player i have been looking for. I think the customizability is what makes this app so great. It integrates easily with Last.FM and syncs well with my Sansa. And with extensions you can have the lyrics, DECENT album art management, always useful wikipedia information, and Songbird can even be used as a very decent Web Browser: last week, when my ISP (Bell/Sympatico) decided that my (high speed?) connection should drop from 128KB/s to 2.1KB/s for a whole weekend, I was very surprised to see that the only usable browser was songbird, beating FF3/FF2, Chrome, Opera, IE. Used in combination with VLC for other things than music and (windows-only) EAC for ripping, Songbird is perfect.
- TheSeeker11, on 12/03/2008, -0/+83.98.2 to be precise :)
- str1fe, on 12/03/2008, -8/+15No CD burn/rip capabilities? Still using it alongside iTunes for CD burning then. My car stereo doesn't have a port to plug in my iPod, so I still rely on burned CDs for listening to in the car and sharing with friends who don't pirate directly, as well as making mixes and such for tech-inept family members.
- feanix, on 12/03/2008, -0/+7Yes it keeps the ID tags. Yes it keeps the star ratings. No, you can't search for iPhone apps. No, it won't back up your iPhone. Yes, it does subscribe to podcasts (just not very well, yet).
Good job on reading the article before commenting. - inactive, on 12/03/2008, -0/+6@oceanplexian. Define "for a few $$$". Have you been paying attention to their profit margins?
Check their 12mo
http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q= ...
Kind of wish I sold at 200... would of, could of, should of. - Grazfather, on 12/03/2008, -0/+6I bury most badwithcomputers diggs I notcie because he just steals/reposts.
- TonyCubed, on 12/03/2008, -0/+6*Opens up SongBird and plays a few songs and hides a lot of the stuff I don't need*... 101Mbytes? wtf?
*Opens up Zune with the exact same music library and has all the bells and whistles*.. 72Mbytes.
Why the hell is Songbird using that much memory? Sorry, but until they fix whatever is wrong with the player. I'll carry on using the Zune media player. - Belin, on 12/03/2008, -3/+9Just about anything is better than iTunes. This still doesn't beat WinAmp 2.72 in speed, ease of use, or memory footprint.
- chalkboy, on 12/03/2008, -1/+6Try to get the non DRM music off of your ipod onto another computer that you own.
- oceanplexian, on 12/03/2008, -6/+11Well, I do blame Apple. Apple compromised their integrity for a few $$$. And the hash of the iTunes Music Library on iPods? That has to do with lock-in, not DRM.
- Elranzer, on 12/03/2008, -4/+9Apple is part of Hollywood, actually.
- Elranzer, on 12/03/2008, -1/+6Sounds like something Apple would do. Nearly all of their "innovations" came from somewhere else.
- freezerburn666, on 12/03/2008, -0/+5probably doesn't timeout like the other browsers..?
- TonyCubed, on 12/03/2008, -1/+6Just to add-on, while I was making this post with Songbird playing, the usage has gone upto just over 120MBytes.. What a joke. Nice try though.
- Ridikul, on 12/03/2008, -0/+4Yeah, I used it and saw a considerably slower than iTunes.
- PhillAholic, on 12/03/2008, -0/+4I'm not sure if your looking for a better way of doing it, but to add a podcast to Songbird just click on File > New Subscription and that will allow to you type in the URL set how often it's updated and where to put the files.
- Steeple, on 12/03/2008, -0/+4because too many open source projects hate those pretty cheerleaders, but secretly wish they were one.
- sdub74, on 12/03/2008, -0/+4RTFA
- chalkboy, on 12/03/2008, -1/+5Apple is one of the most restrictive software companies out there. To expect them to not be the same with music is lunacy
- Hartley1942, on 12/03/2008, -0/+4Same. I like having a hard copy of an album.
- EnsErmac, on 12/03/2008, -0/+3The Zune software is absolutely horrid also, it doesn't even support ID3V2.4 tags, It will bring everything up as Unkown Artist/Album. After seeing this happen I used it to tag my albums again. After that I had the curious problem of nothing else reading my mp3s. After running them through tag&rename, I discovered they had multiple sets of ID3 tags making them appear corrupt to other players.
- SteveMax, on 12/03/2008, -1/+4They use Gecko and XUL, so it's somewhat expected.
- rochskier, on 12/03/2008, -0/+3You're not the only one. I tried out Songbird on my MacBook and its memory footprint is HUGE compared to iTunes. I did not see this point discussed in the posted article.
Also, Songbird does not seem capable of streaming to an Airport Express or Apple TV. This could be achieved with 3rd party software, but that would require the end user to spend additional dollars. - kronix2, on 12/03/2008, -4/+7"But don't blame Apple. Blame Hollywood."
What kind of ***** is this? The Apple fans constantly trot out the line that it's not Apple's fault their music is infested with draconian DRM. Who forced Apple to go into the music business, exactly?
They could have simply refused when the labels demanded DRM. But why would they refuse? Apple loves DRM; their entire business model relies on DRM to restrict what people can do with their own products. See: OSX (can't install it on non-Apple hardware), iPods (constantly trying to prevent third-party apps syncing iPods), and the iPhone (app store, you can only run what Apple approve). - rowjimmy, on 12/03/2008, -0/+3had huge potential. largely failed to live up to that.
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