Songbird (software)
Songbird is a discontinued music player originally released in early 2006 with the stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web".[3]
 | |
.png.webp) Songbird 2.0.0 on Windows 7 | |
| Developer(s) | Pioneers of the Inevitable aka POTI Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 8 February 2006 |
| Stable release | 2.2.0, Build 2453 (February 4, 2013) [±] |
| Preview release | None [±] |
| Operating system | |
| Platform | |
| Available in | 98 languages[2] |
| Type | Media player |
| License | GNU GPLv2 with exceptions; Android client closed source |
| Website | getsongbird |
Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks Mozilla XULRunner and GStreamer media framework. Songbird runs on Windows and macOS. In 2012, an Android version and an iOS version were released. Songbird at one point also supported Solaris and Linux, but this support was dropped. As a result, users forked Songbird and created a Windows, Mac, and Linux compatible derivative under the name Nightingale.
Songbird announced on 14 June 2013 that it would stop all operations and shut down by 28 June. The company was unable to fund further business operations and as a result, all operations and associated services were discontinued.[4]
Features
- Multi-platform compatibility with Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X v10.5 (x86, x86-64).
- 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, with skins called "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
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, ChatZilla, and FoxyProxy.
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.
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).
In January 2010, Philips announced they would ship a personalized version of Songbird with some of their line of portable audio/video players.[7]
On 2 April 2010, it was announced that official Linux support would end 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.
Sometime during late 2012 or early 2013, Songbird's public SVN was taken down, along with their wiki and other source code related utilities. A survey later sent out via Twitter by Songbird suggested that POTI was closing the desktop player source code, planning to later sell an updated version, fixing many outstanding bugs and feature requests by users who had been ignored for years.[8]
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Old release |
| Yellow | Unreleased, internal milestone |
| Green | Current release |
| Blue | Future release |
| Version | Release date | Codename | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | 8 February 2006 | Hilda | |
| 0.1.1 | 22 February 2006 |
| |
| 0.2 RC1 | 26 September 2006 |
| |
| 0.2 | 17 October 2006 |
| |
| 0.2.5 | 28 February 2007 |
| |
| 0.3 | 30 October 2007 | Bowie | |
| 0.3.1 | 6 November 2007 |
| |
| 0.4 | 27 December 2007 | Cher |
|
| 0.5 | 26 March 2008 | Dokken |
|
| 0.6 | 13 June 2008 | Eno |
|
| 0.6.1 | 25 June 2008 |
| |
| 0.7 | 20 August 2008 | Fugazi |
|
| 1.0 | 2 December 2008 | Genesis |
|
| 1.1.1 | 10 March 2009 | Hendrix | |
| 1.1.2 | 9 April 2009 | Hootie |
|
| 1.2 | 18 June 2009 | Isan |
|
| 1.3 | N/A | Jackson 5 |
|
| 1.4 | December 2009 | Kanye |
|
| 1.4.3 | 23 December 2009 | KoЯn |
|
| 1.5 | N/A | Led Zeppelin |
|
| 1.6.0 | N/A | Madonna |
|
| 1.7.0 | N/A | Nirvana |
|
| 1.7.2 | 3 June 2010 | NOFX |
|
| 1.8.0 | 2 September 2010 | Orbital |
|
| 1.9.3 | 9 February 2011 | Pink Floyd |
|
| 1.10.1 | 1 November 2011 | Qbert |
|
| 1.10.2 | 25 January 2012 |
| |
| 1.10.3 | 22 May 2012 |
| |
| 2.0.0 | 8 June 2012 |
| |
| 2.1 | 31 October 2012 |
| |
| 2.2 | 15 February 2013 |
|
See also
- List of feed aggregators
- Comparison of feed aggregators
- Nightingale, a community-supported fork of Songbird
- Qtrax, a client based on Songbird.
References
- Auberger, Georges (2 April 2010), "Songbird Singing a New Tune", Songbird Blog, Songbird, archived from the original on 4 April 2010, retrieved 2 April 2010
- "Translate Songbird!". Translate.songbirdnest.com. Archived from the original on 21 August 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
- "About". Songbirdnest.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
- "You gotta know when to fold 'em". Songbirdnest.com. 14 June 2013. Archived from the original on 1 July 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
- Wayner, Peter (19 October 2010). "Top 10 specialty Web browsers you may have missed". InfoWorld. p. 7. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
- Songbird Jobs Archived 25 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- Blankenhorn, Dana (7 January 2010), Songbird now in convenient Philips hardware form, ZDNet
- songbird [@songbird] (21 February 2013). "Use Songbird Desktop? Please take our 5 question product improvement survey:" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 January 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "iPod Device Support - Songbird Wiki". Wiki.songbirdnest.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
- https://getsatisfaction.com/songbird/topics/songbird_1_7_3_where_did_the_subscriptions_go
- http://www.filehippo.com/download_songbird/changelog/12536/
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Songbird (software). |
- Songbird homepage(sourceforge)
- Nightingale homepage - A community supported fork of the Songbird media player and library.
- Songbird homepage, at archive.org
- Songbird Add-ons, at archive.org
- 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 - 23 December 2009, accessed 14 January 2010