Songbird (software)

Songbird

Songbird 1.7.3 on Windows 7
Developer(s)	Pioneers of the Inevitable aka POTI Inc.
Initial release	February 8, 2006
Stable release	1.10.1  (November 1, 2011; 2 days ago (2011-11-01)) [+/−]
Preview release	[+/−]
Operating system	Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Android; unofficial support for Linux and Solaris as of 1.7.2[1]
Platform	x86, x86-64 PowerPC (unofficial)
Available in	98 localizations at various stages of completion.[2]
Type	Media player
License	GPLv2 with exceptions
Website	www.getsongbird.com

Songbird is a free and open source software audio player and web browser, with a stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web."^[3]

Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks Mozilla XULRunner and GStreamer media framework, and largely capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Solaris and Linux.

In January 2010, Philips announced they will ship a personalized version of Songbird with some of their line of portable audio/video players.^[4]

On April 2, 2010, it was announced that POTI Inc. will drop official Linux support ending with Songbird version 1.7.2. POTI Inc. would instead focus on its Windows and Mac OS X versions of Songbird, providing only unofficial support for Linux releases.^[1] Linux builds are still being offered, but only as nightly builds (not on the main page) and they are not tested by the developers.

Features

• Multi-platform compatibility with Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X v10.5 (x86, x86-64). In April 2010, the Songbird team announced they would drop Linux support starting with 1.7.2 (NOFX), and begin releasing only on Windows and OS X.^[1]
• Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple Lossless and WMA
• Ability to play Apple FairPlay-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTime (authorization takes place in iTunes)
• Ability to play Windows Media DRM audio on Windows platforms
• A skinnable interface, via feathers
• Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files in Songbird
• MP3 file download
• Ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlists
• Ability to build custom mixes
• Ability to scan the user's computer for all audio files and add them to a local library
• A configurable and collapsible graphical user interface similar to iTunes, and mini-player mode
• Keyboard shortcuts and media keyboard support
• Automatic updates
• Last.fm integration via a plugin, complete with love/hate buttons
• Insound.com and HypeMachine integration
• Microsoft MTP compatible device support
• Ability to edit and save metadata tags
• Gapless Playback & ReplayGain
• Watch Folders
• Media Importing / Exportings (from and to iTunes)
• Automatic Library Files Organization
• Last.fm Radio

Add-ons

Extensions

Users can add features and change functionality in Songbird by installing extensions. Extensions are similar to the Extensions for the Firefox browser and can be easily ported.^[5] Community coded extensions are available on Songbird's addons support page. Known community designed extensions are: Qloud Tagging & Search, eMusic Integration, iTunes Importer, Artist Tracker, Library File Organizer, Audioscrobbler Notifier, Wikipedia Artist Display, SHOUTcast Radio Directory, UnPlug, Adblock Plus, Taglib metadata handler, and ChatZilla.

Skins

Skins are referred to as "feathers" in Songbird, and give users and artists the ability to change the look of Songbird via an extension which generates a default skin. Using CSS (and optionally XUL), and an image manipulation program such as Photoshop or GIMP, users are then able to make Songbird look however they want.

Release history

Songbird was founded by Rob Lord and developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable (with members who previously developed for both Winamp^[6] and the Yahoo! Music Engine).

Color	Meaning
Red	Old release
Yellow	Unreleased, internal milestone
Green	Current release
Blue	Future release

Version	Release date	Codename	Significant changes
0.1	February 8, 2006	Hilda
0.1.1	February 22, 2006		UI fixes. More file types supported.
0.2 RC1	September 26, 2006		Cross-platform Windows 2000, XP Mac OS X (PPC, Intel) Linux (Intel) 30+ languages New features Bug fixes Automatic updates
0.2	October 17, 2006		Cross-platform compatibility. Multi-language support.
0.2.5	February 28, 2007		Windows Media DRM audio playback. FairPlay audio playback. USB mass storage device support. iPod device support. Automatic locales downloading. Improved OS integration.
0.3	October 30, 2007	Bowie	Tabbed browsing. API overhaul. Updated to Gecko 1.9
0.3.1	November 6, 2007		Six major bug fixes.
0.4	December 27, 2007	Cher	Display panes.
0.5	March 26, 2008	Dokken	Media library API. MTP device support.
0.6	June 13, 2008	Eno	Memory and performance improvements. Write metadata back to the file.
0.6.1	June 25, 2008		Three major bug fixes.
0.7	August 20, 2008	Fugazi	Layout and feather changes Smart playlists Drag & drop Dropped support for Mac OS X PPC
1.0	December 2, 2008	Genesis	GStreamer media core on all platforms
1.1.1	March 10, 2009	Hendrix	Watch folders for changes and auto-import media Fetching Album Art Playback normalization (ReplayGain) Improved sorting Gapless MP3 playback via file metadata[7]
1.1.2	April 9, 2009	Hootie	Bugfix release
1.2	June 18, 2009	Isan	Automatically Organize Library Files 2-way Sync with iTunes Last.fm Radio 10-band Equalizer
1.3	N/A	Jackson 5	Dropped iPod device support[8] Mass Storage Class device support Playback of additional formats Metadata support for MP4 and ASF files Transcoding to MP3 or WMA formats
1.4	December, 2009	Kanye	MP3 encoding Mobile device firmware updates CD ripping CD information lookup Notification for un-synced DRM controlled media
1.4.3	December 23, 2009	KoЯn	New Feather (Purple Rain) Addons Visual Redesign New First Run Bundle Additional Device Support Critical Bug Fixes Easily Resizable Display Panes
1.5	N/A	Led Zeppelin	Video Library Video Playback Video Metadata Video Device Sync Performance and Stability Vendor Rebasing General Build Improvements Video Transcoding Windows 7 Support
1.6.0	N/A	Madonna	Video Transcoding Video Transcoding Device Support Device Video Compatibility Firmware Support Import Network Settings Gracenote metadata Performance and Stability Codec Profiling Startup Localization Some Firefox Addons Start Working on Songbird
1.7.0	N/A	Nirvana	Photo Device Synchronization AAC Decoder Windows 7 Support Additional Device Support Performance and Stability
1.7.2	June 3, 2010	NOFX	Additional Encoding Support Additional Device Support SD Card Support Video Window Performance and Stability Official Linux support dropped
1.8.0	September 2, 2010	Orbital	New Device Support Mac USB/MSC Support Mac Partner Integration Service Pane Cleanup Device Synchronization and UI Cleanup AAC Encoding Stream Transcoding (Backend) Performance and Stability
1.9.3	February 9, 2011	Pink Floyd	Online Media Store Integration Play Queue Addon CD Rip for Mac Firmware Updates Seamless Update for Partner Releases XULRunner 1.9.2 Misc Minor Projects 7digital Addon Rewrite (new API) Performance and Stability
1.10.1	November 1, 2011	Qbert	Device 2-Way Sync Performance and Stability
2.0	Release Target Date: TBD	Rick Astley	Performance and UE Improvements Performance and Stability

See also

Free software portal

• List of media players
• Comparison of audio player software
• List of feed aggregators
• Comparison of feed aggregators
• Qtrax, a client based on Songbird.
• Nightingale (software), a Songbird fork for Linux
• Mozilla

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Auberger, Georges (2010-04-02), "Songbird Singing a New Tune", Songbird Blog (Songbird), http://blog.songbirdnest.com/2010/04/02/songbird-singing-a-new-tune/, retrieved 2010-04-02 
2. ^ Translate Songbird!
3. ^ About
4. ^ Blankenhorn, Dana (2010-01-07), Songbird now in convenient Philips hardware form, ZDNet, http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5565 
5. ^ Wayner, Peter (19 October 2010). "Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed". InfoWorld. p. 7. http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/top-10-specialty-web-browsers-you-may-have-missed-026?page=0,7. Retrieved 28 October 2010. 
6. ^ Songbird Jobs
7. ^ http://blog.songbirdnest.com/2009/03/10/songbird-11-is-here/
8. ^ http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Docs/IPod_Device_Support

External links

• Songbird homepage
• Songbird Add-ons
• Songbird, the "open source iTunes killer," flies today - Boing Boing interview with Rob Lord
• Lord of the Birds…Songbird - Interview with Rob Lord
• Songbird ver. 1.4.2 review at Lifehacker.com - December 23, 2009, accessed January 14, 2010
• Songbird, music player that wants to do everything, loses CEO - Songbird loses CEO
• Frenchbirds, a French Songbird community