Songbird (software)

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Songbird

Songbird 0.5 running on Windows
Developed by	Pioneers of the Inevitable
Stable release	0.5 (March 26, 2008 (2008-03-26); 76 days ago) _[+/−]
Preview release	0.6rc3 (June 5, 2008 (2008-06-05); 5 days ago) _[+/−]
OS	Windows XP/Vista, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X
Platform	x86, x86-64, PowerPC
Genre	Media player
License	GPL
Website	www.songbirdnest.com

Songbird is a free software media player and web browser developed by a group known as Pioneers of the Inevitable (with members who previously developed for both Winamp^[1] and the Yahoo! Music Engine), with a stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web."^[2]

Songbird runs on Mozilla's XULRunner platform, thus capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Solaris, and most distributions of Linux. On the Windows and Macintosh platforms, Songbird utilizes the VideoLAN Client for media playback. For Linux & Solaris, Songbird utilizes the GStreamer media framework instead of VideoLAN. The Qtrax client is based on Songbird.

1 Features
2 Extensions
3 Skins
4 Localization/translation
5 Release history
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Features

As of version 0.5, current features are^[3]:

Cross platform compatibility with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X (PPC, Intel), Sun Solaris x86 and Linux (Intel).
Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and Windows Media Audio.
Able to play Apple FairPlay-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTime (authorization takes place in iTunes).^[4]
Able to play Windows Media DRM audio on Windows platforms.^[4]
A skinnable interface, via feathers.
Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files in Songbird.
Built-in RSS subscription and MP3 file download.
The ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlists.
User-created bookmarks.
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 miniplayer mode.
Keyboard shortcuts & media keyboard support.
Automatic updates.
eMusic integration using the eMusic Integration plugin.
Insound.com and HypeMachine integration.
Microsoft MTP compatible device support.

[edit] Extensions

Users can add features and change functionality in Songbird by installing extensions. Community coded extensions are available on Songbird's addons support page. Known community designed extensions are: Qloud Tagging & Search, eMusic Integration, iTunes Importer, iPod Device, Artist Tracker, Library File Organizer, Audioscrobbler Notifier, Wikipedia Artist Display, SHOUTcast Radio Directory, UnPlug, Adblock Plus, Taglib metadata handler and Minimize-to-Systemtray, and ChatZilla.

[edit] 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. Then with the knowledge of CSS (and optionally XUL) and the use of an image manipulation program such as Photoshop or the GIMP, users are able to make Songbird look however they want.

At the time of this writing (3/31/08) there are approximately 50 feathers, and the number grows almost daily with the addition of more users and artists designing the add-ons.

[edit] Localization/translation

There are 98 localizations of Songbird currently being developed at various stages. Localizations are done on a volunteer basis. Songbird encourages developers from all languages and locales to help update and develop localizations so that Songbird can be available in each of the 482 language tags established by the IETF for all 567 localities of the world. Songbird has made this project available at Translate Songbird!.

[edit] Release history

Colour	Meaning
Red	Old release; not supported
Yellow	Old release; still supported
Green	Current release
Blue	Future release

Gecko Version	Version	Release Date	Code Name	Significant Changes
1.8	0.1	February 8, 2006	Hilda
	0.1.1	February 22, 2006		UI fixes. More file types supported.
	0.2	October 17, 2006		Cross-platform compatibility. Multi-language support.
	0.2.5	February 28, 2007		Windows Media DRM audio playback. QuickTime DRM audio playback. USB mass storage device support. iPod device support. Automatic locales downloading. Improved OS integration.
1.9	0.3	October 30, 2007	Bowie	Tabbed browsing. API overhaul.
	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, including the Zune.
	0.6	June 2008	Eno	Memory and performance improvements. Write metadata back to the file.