Songbird - The finest music player ever

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

Bombastic titles tend to draw the eye, but trust me, this is more than just a firecracker. Discovering new applications is fun - discovering great new applications is sublime. For people with old, acquired taste, finding new thrills is not easy. But every now and then, you stumble upon a remarkable piece of engineering, which simply blows you away.

Songbird is one such piece.

Hence, an extensive, ethusiastic review of Songbird, a phenomenal cross-platform music player with stunning Mac-like looks, tabs, inline search, online services like Last.fm and 7digital, extensions, easy to use filters and rating, powerful media interactivity - artist info, news, reviews, photos, and videos - via mashTape, drag and drop artwork, and so much more. Must see.

Have fun and comment if you like:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/songbird.html


Regards,
Mrk

[bman412]

Reminds me of foobar with columns UI

Is there a global switch to turn off all the internet connect stuff?

[JRViejo]

Originally Posted by bman412

Is there a global switch to turn off all the internet connect stuff?

bman412, would like to know the answer to that question as well.

I have tried Tools > Options > Advanced > Update tab and unchecked everything.
Also, Web Integration and checked all to block Permissions.
Still tries to connect to the Internet (Zone Alarm pop up) when the program starts.

FYI. I'm using Songbird Portable, courtesy of PortableApps.com.

[bman412]

Thanks. I may have to hold on to foobar then until a newer version of songbird has a kill switch to turn the internet stuff off.

[JRViejo]

bman412, if a past Official Rep's statement holds true, for any new Songbird version, it looks like the program will always connect, unless a firewall rule is created to block it:

Actually, it is not just a media player. It is a browser and a media player, also known as a Web Media Player. One of Songbird's most recognizable features is it's ability to navigate to websites and scrape media. How do you expect we realize our goal of an open media web without a browser? I realize that some users may not use the browser feature all that much, but it is important to us.

Re: How do I prevent Songbird from ever connecting to the internet?

[chronomatic]

I tried Songbird several months ago, and while it's OK, I found it doesn't integrate with KDE very well. It seems to be heavily GTK dependent. Since I am a KDE guy, I will stick with what I think is the best music player ever: Amarok.

[Tony]

Another great review
One question about Songbird.
Is there a way to enable 5:1 speakers?
As far as i can tell there is only support for 2 speakers.

[Mrkvonic]

I don't know about the speakers.
As to disabling web access, haven't delved into it either. Will check.
Mrk

[TechOutsider]

Yeah, I've used Songbird recently. I've also used it quite a while ago, when it was still in the .3.x builds. Kinda clunky, even more so than iTunes. And you had to manually add subscriptions to podcasts . I applaud Mozilla for funding this project though.

[firzen771]

how does songbird compare to mediamonkey?