Comments on: Songbird Review: iTunes Killer?

By: Jonas Thun

Jonas Thun — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:49:47 +0000

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

By: Rufus Driscoll

Rufus Driscoll — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:13:19 +0000

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.

By: Barret

Barret — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:34:42 +0000

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.

By: al

al — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:31:55 +0000

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.

By: Aditya

Aditya — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:26:31 +0000

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.

By: Dave Ryan

Dave Ryan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:31:38 +0000

@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.

By: Ethan Bauman

Ethan Bauman — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:08:41 +0000

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

By: Y-Guy

Y-Guy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:24:55 +0000

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

By: Billy

Billy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:08:56 +0000

Does it rip cds yet?

By: no

no — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:04:19 +0000

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.