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Open-source, here we come! The third entrant in the "best music organizers ever?" category is its only open-source creation. Thousands of developers--ranging from Mozilla Firefox geeks to Winamp hackers--have descended upon this application in hopes of providing an awesome third-party solution to the predominant media tools on the marketplace. Have they succeeded? Yes and no. Unfortunately, some of the program's faults are elements that don't really have an open-source solution.
Add-ons: Right off the bat, Songbird prompts you to install a number of awesome add-ons that take this music organizer light-years beyond its closed-source competition, including last.fm integration, a built-in lyrics auto-downloader, and a concert-tracker to tell you when artists in your library are on tour. Excellent.
Tabbed-browsing: Ahh, now you know it's an open-source program. In all seriousness, Songbird's tabbed-browsing-friendly interface does help you look up information on-the-fly, as these tabs serve as a built-in Web browser analogous to Mozilla Firefox.
File-formats: You'll be hard-pressed to find a music organizer that supports more file formats than Songbird, including: MPGA, MP3, M4A, M4V, MP4, M4P, M4B, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, AAC, WMA, WMADRM, FLAC, LPCM, ADPCM, and AMR.
Skinnable: Don't like how Songbird looks? Change up the look at a whim by installing a new skin overtop the program's core!
iTunes integration: Sorry, Zune. Songbird works alongside your existing iTunes configuration, enabling you to pull up your playlists from that program into this one. It's a great trick if you're still on the fence about switching from one to the other
Video: Not gonna' happen. Songbird is the only media organizer on this list that can't play video files... for right now. This support is promised in the February revision of the program. We'll see just how well it works then!
64-bit: Sorry, Windows 7 x64 enthusiasts. The current version of Songbird (as of this article's writing) doesn't work perfectly in your 64-bit operating system. Hello, problematic disc burning. For what it's worth, Windows 7 support as a whole is also fairly limited--no Aero in this one, folks! [author's note: fixed this section for additional clarity!]
Not very speedy: Clicking through menus and selecting options in Songbird feels like you're wading through molasses. This could be a direct result of the program's lack of 64-bit support (confession: That's how I was running it on my system). Or, at least, here's hoping that's the fixable culprit--this app is s-l-o-w.
Less-than-perfect device support: Although Songbird will sync up with devices like the Palm Pre and Motorola's Droid, and a other handheld audio players like Apple's iPods and MTP-based devices, it employs workarounds to sync with Apple devices and won't sync with a Zune unless you go hunting for add-ons.
No streaming: Want to share your library to other computers on your network a la iTunes' shared libraries or Windows' libraries? Not with Songbird, you won't!
So which music player should you go with? All three. No, really. There are compelling reasons to pick any of these media organizers--your personal "best match" really depends on your use scenarios. For a no-frills audio experience with super-fast sharing capabilities and a powerhouse store of content to purchase, you'll want to hit up Apple's iTunes.
If you're looking for a bit more flair for your rocking out and prefer to synchronize your tunes with more than just computers, Zune is an excellent choice that bridges a beautiful aesthetic with excellent, recommendation-based functionality (provided you don't mind the constant links to Zune's store).
And, naturally, if you're looking for features that you simply can't find in either app, Songbird is your ticket--its powerful add-on database extends the capabilities of this application light-years beyond what you'll find in either iTunes or Zune. The downside? You can't stream your audio and, honestly, the program feels a bit sluggish.
Comments are closed on this article
birch
February 10, 2010 at 2:18pm
I had no problems upgrading, it went smoothly. If it keeps telling you to restart, you might be missing some required component on your machine.
Carbon
February 09, 2010 at 7:07pm
By far one of the best User Interfacing of any program and I'm a UX designer by trade.
I love a quote I saw on the net saying that "The Zune software makes iTunes look like an Excel Spreadsheet!!"
classic!
Plus, the Zune HD stomps the iPod Touch as far as hardware goes.
reded23
February 09, 2010 at 6:56pm
"Long Loading: I'm currently sitting at 2.5-hours and counting just for Zune to make a Smart DJ mix of my files."
This is not standard and is pretty much instant if you have you PC setup right....you might what to check this settingin IE. Automatically detect settings in the conections/Lan settings needs to be unchecked.
fry
February 09, 2010 at 6:43pm
iTunes for loading music and podcasts onto my iPod. It does nothing else.
Still using Winamp to manage my library. Small and simple.
dreamsburnred
February 09, 2010 at 7:00pm
Too bad iPod Touch can't stream new podcasts without 40,000 clicks, other then that I would have 0 use for iTunes.
Hoster of http://canadiantechblogger.com
Modred189
February 09, 2010 at 6:41pm
I have both an Ipod touch and a Zune HD 1ggb. I use the Ipod as a pda and for teh apps (it was free) and the Zune for music.
I have to give, in terms of software, the nod to the Zune software for two main reasons: 1: AS the article mentioned, iTunes is pretty ugly/aging, and needs to be refreshed.
2: Speed and stability: iTunes is a horrible piece of software on Windows. It's slow, backups take for ever, and I cannot go a month without it crashing a few times. Not to mention that it pushes Safari and some other program at every software update. Also, why does iTunes install 3 different run-at-startup background apps that MUST be running for iTunes to work?
jrocknyc
February 09, 2010 at 6:36pm
i used a zune for 2 years, then last week got an ipod touch.
i'm still using the zune software for my "master" collection of music, while i'm using itunes for audiobooks & podcasts and my on-the-go music (which can get deleted/renamed/whatever'd, since it's backed up in the master collection AND on other hard drives stored at my parents, at work, and on my shelf here.)
itunes is a little kludgey after having used the zune software for so long, but it's a lot friendler when it comes to syncing podcasts and audiobooks. (the zune always required setting up each podcast sync rule individually, whereas itunes says lets you say "sync the most recent podcast" once, universally... and zune made me rename my self-ripped audiobooks to "podcast" in the tags before accepting them, and refused to let them keep their album art...
i also installed mediamonkey but it was just like, "i dont wanna learn a bunch of new crap" so it's already gone.
PCG_Erik
February 09, 2010 at 6:27pm
As a Zune user, I must say that this article is very fair, which is nice to see. What I will add, is that with a ZunePass, Zune has the power to make Smart DJ Mixes with music from the enitre Zune library, which is a really nice feature. and then if you like a song, you just download it! No worrying about paying individually. Plus the ZunePass lets you keep 10 songs a month, so it's practically $5 a month instead of $15.
Modred189
February 09, 2010 at 6:37pm
PLus, they are adding Smart DJ to the player itself over wifi sometime this spring. THAT will be awesome: stream related music to your device wirelessly.
malebolgia
February 09, 2010 at 6:19pm
Nice article, hope to see one with Media Monkey if this ever gets revisited.
