Open-Source Songbird Music Player Hits Version 1.0

The up-and-coming open-source music player “Songbird” has just hit a major milestone: Version 1.0. “Up-and-coming” might be a poor choice of words, though, as the developers have stated that usage is now above 160,000 users, which is an incredible show of support for an application that didn’t release a “stable” version until just now.

Songbird, unlike so many other music players, is unique in various ways. The first major feature is the fact that it’s open-source, so anyone can download and alter the code as they wish (and hopefully contribute to the project). In addition, it’s actually a combination music player / web browser, and is built on top of Mozilla’s XULRunner platform. This means that it has a solid base and that extensions (plugins) are plentiful.

At first glance, Songbird looks similar to iTunes, and overall, I suppose that’s a good thing. It’s an extremely clean design, one that’s neither busy or difficult to navigate. Plus, it also happens to look pretty-much the same regardless of what platform you’re using it on (Windows/Linux/OS X). Other key features include support for many formats (MP3, FLAC, etc), iPod support (including FairPlay support), built-in RSS capabilities, support for Last.fm and SHOUTcast, and more.

I installed Songbird on Linux, and it couldn’t have been easier. It includes all the required dependencies, so it was just a matter of extracting the archive and running the executable. It didn’t take too long to realize this might not be for me, but my reasons are going to likely differ from most. Being a long-time Amarok user, I’ve become very accustomed to how things work there, and Songbird is fairly different.

One thing I can say though, is that the application is fast. It took about two minutes to import my collection of 7,000 FLAC files, which isn’t bad at all. General navigation was also speedy, as well. I won’t get into the main problems I had with the program (not problems per se, just functionality I want) since I don’t turn this into a novel, b the user-base of 160,000 can’t be wrong. If you are looking for a new media player, this is definitely one that should top your list.

We set out to build an open, customizable music player. Today, we’re launching with dozens of integrated services, hundreds of add-ons, and a growing developer community. We’ll be the first to admit that there’s plenty left to do. And, while we’re not ready for everyone, 160k users a month are expressing their vote for an alternative music player.