Songbird Review: iTunes Killer?
- Easy iTunes import
- Excellent web integration
- Handles video files poorly
Many have tried to take down iTunes, but none have succeeded. They say that video killed the radio star, but no one has even come close to killing the iTunes store. Songbird is no iTunes killer, but it gives it a pretty decent shot. Songbird is open-source music management software put out by a group that calls themselves “Pioneers of the Inevitable.” After years of development, betas, complete redesigns, and what were likely many hours and tears: Songbird 1.x is out in the wild.
Songbird’s interface look familiar? A ghost from iTunes Past?
The most interesting thing about Songbird is the open-source code it’s built off of: Firefox. That’s right! The folks over at Pioneers for the Inevitable have built the entire thing on top of Mozilla’s popular browser, which brings me to my biggest complaint: my TI-84 graphic calculator could load my music library faster! Songbird’s Achilles heel seems to be it’s speed. It’s like trying to play streaming video on dial-up. The slow start times and rendering speeds that seem to plague the Mac version of Firefox get even worse in Songbird. I’m relatively impatient when it comes to app responsiveness and loading, but others I’ve spoken to agree: Songbird can be a bit of a clunker.
Songbird integrates Last.fm in a very classy way
Aside from my quips about speed, Songbird can be fun to use. Through extensions and themes (called “Feathers”), it has a number of fantastic features, and room for expansion. iPod support, Last.FM integration, QuickTime FairPlay integration, as well as the benefits of a built-in tabbed-browser (which I’m using right now to post this review). I know I was harsh on the developers earlier for using Firefox because of the speed, but it’s also my biggest compliment; browsing the web with your music elegantly placed in the same window is quite nice. Besides, the built-in web browser allows for easy integration of other Mp3 stores, and easy searching for legal music downloads on the web.
Firefox users will be met with a familiar preferences panel
Other features such as a Mini-Player, the ability to re-order your music window panes, song ratings, easy library search, and organizing features puts Songbird in contention with iTunes. It really is an intuitive program, and such an easy switch from iTunes, that you may not notice the difference (apart from the speed of course). Songbird will even import your iTunes library complete with music, playlists, and playcounts. If there isn’t a feature available built into Songbird check out their add-on’s page, where a number of incredibly useful plugins are available for download.
I do have one last issue to take with Songbird, and it’s video. When I imported my iTunes library, it brought in all of my video podcasts and integrated them into my music library. Songbird doesn’t support video playback, but will play the audio in a video. Putting my library on shuffle, I found it incredibly annoying to have to constantly stop and delete video from the library. Plus because I had Last.fm scrobbling enabled, I had to dig through my recent plays and pull them out. If the software isn’t going to support video, it shouldn’t allow it to import into the library.
All in all, Songbird makes a fantastic attempt at an iTunes replacement, but a number of short comings make it impossible for me to jump ship. If you can handle the slightly sluggish interface and you’re looking for an alternative to iTunes with support for other music stores, and iPod support; Songbird might just be your match.
How old is Songbird now? Four years? Five? Six? Wouldn’t you think it’d have replaced iTunes by now if it was going to? It’s just a bunch of stupid social networking crap built around music that wouldn’t interest anyone beyond their “tween” years.
Does it rip cds yet?
iTunes killer, doubtful. But competition is a good thing, if they can add the features that iTunes users want and then some extras it can only cause Apple to improve things. However from the last time I checked it out Songbird still had a long long way to go
Dave- Thanks for the thoughtful review. We’re releasing 1.2 in a couple of days, so check back at the end of the week if you’re interested.
@Billy: Not yet. But it’s scheduled for mid October this year.
@Y-Guy: We’re actually not out to kill iTunes. In fact our release next week will synchronize with the iTunes library. The big idea behind Songbird is around deeply integrating and improving other music services. So, for example, we think Last.fm radio gets better when experienced in Songbird. We don’t think Apple would ever incorporate last.fm, or some of the other major music services, into iTunes, so we think we’re servicing a different niche. We do have a long road ahead, but we’ve also come a long way over the past 2.5 years (not 4 years).
Best,
Ethan
@Ethan: I’ll be sure to check out 1.2. You guys do have a bit of a different niché, but as a user it does feel like you guys are trying to mimic the iTunes interface. I know there are a number of subtle differences, but overall the design is a bit of an iTunes clone.
@Y-Guy: I agree, the more competition the better. This market really needs some new players… Real and Creative dropped out as real contenders years ago. I’m glad to see some healthy competition again. Though, as Ethan said, I doubt Apple considers them competition as they’re targeting different types of users, but still, good to see.
Hmm… You speak of what I have had in my mind. Word to word
The only problem I ever had with songbird (and still do) is the speed. If only it were as fast as some of the other applications (which are not build atop Firefox of course), Songbird might have been my preferred media player.
I have started using Songbird after using Amarok and iTunes, as well as Winamp, and I am very impressed. it is in my opinion the best audio program, and I wouldn’t give it up at all now. Plus it’s cross platform so I can use it whenever I use Windows, Linux, or if i’m on a Mac. Great program, highly recommend. It has only been out for a couple years now, fairly new, give it a shot if you want, it doesn’t hurt to try a free program. My favorite is all the add-ons you can have with it.
I’m an add-ons guy, which is why I use firefox as opposed to Chrome or Safari. It just depends on your personality of course.
It has killed iTunes in my mind. I have switched from it and only use Songbird now. iTunes is a piece of shit on Windows, on Mac it tends to be ok. I use more than just a Macs, so I need one that works well on everything.
Right now I think DoubleTwist [ http://www.doubletwist.com ] is the best rival to iTunes. Personally I don’t like it because it has to open a new window every time you play a new song but I prefer it to Songbird.
Hi! I’m quite happy with my new Mac – but miss MediaMonkey tremendously. There you can browse your music through a finder/explorer view. You can look at all your folders with music and choose music that way. In itunes you have to do a search to find and narrow the song selection down. That’s a problem if you don’t know what you want to listen to and hope to get inspired by looking at all your music arranged in its folders. Why on earth is there no software for Mac that can do the same!!??
Or is there
Would be thankful for any input!
Jonas