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Songbird (software)
Encyclopedia
Songbird is a free and open source software
audio player
and web browser
, with a stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web."
Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks Mozilla XULRunner
and GStreamer media framework
, and largely capable of running on Microsoft Windows
, Apple Mac OS X
, Solaris and Linux
.
In January 2010, Philips
announced they will ship a personalized version of Songbird with some of their line of portable audio/video players.
On April 2, 2010, it was announced that POTI Inc. will drop official Linux support ending 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. Linux builds are still being offered, but only as nightly builds (not on the main page) and they are not tested by the developers.
. 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, and ChatZilla
.
s 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.
and developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable (with members who previously developed for both Winamp
and the Yahoo! Music Engine).
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
audio player
Audio player (software)
An audio player is a kind of media player for playing back digital audio, including optical discs such as CDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, HDCD, audio files and streaming audio....
and web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
, with a stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web."
Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks Mozilla XULRunner
XULRunner
XULRunner is a runtime environment developed by the Mozilla Foundation to provide a common back-end for XUL-based applications. It replaced the Gecko Runtime Environment, a stalled project with a similar purpose....
and GStreamer media framework
GStreamer
GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject.GStreamer allows a programmer to create a variety of media-handling components, including simple audio playback, audio and video playback, recording, streaming and editing...
, and largely capable of running on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Apple Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Solaris and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
.
In January 2010, Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
announced they will ship a personalized version of Songbird with some of their line of portable audio/video players.
On April 2, 2010, it was announced that POTI Inc. will drop official Linux support ending 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. Linux builds are still being offered, but only as nightly builds (not on the main page) and they are not tested by the developers.
Features
- Multi-platform compatibility with Windows XPWindows XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, VistaWindows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Mac OS X v10.5Mac OS X v10.5Mac OS X Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007 as the successor of Tiger , and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a...
(x86, x86-64). In April 2010, the Songbird team announced they would drop LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
support starting with 1.7.2 (NOFX), and begin releasing only on Windows and OS X. - Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, AACAdvanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple LosslessApple LosslessApple Lossless Apple Lossless Apple Lossless (also known as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), or ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music. After initially being proprietary for many years, in late 2011 Apple open sourced...
and WMAWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs... - Ability to play Apple FairPlayFairPlayFairPlay is a digital rights management technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store. Formerly, all songs in...
-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTimeQuickTimeQuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
(authorization takes place in iTunesITunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
) - Ability to play Windows Media DRMWindows Media DRMWindows Media DRM is a Digital Rights Management service for the Windows Media platform. It is designed to provide delivery of audio and/or video content over an IP network to a PC or other playback device in such a way that the distributor can control how that content is used.WMDRM includes the...
audio on Windows platforms - A skinnableSkin (computing)In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
interface, via feathers - Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files in Songbird
- MP3 file downloadMusic downloadA music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
- Ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlistPlaylistIn its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. They can be played in sequential or shuffled order. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.-In radio:...
s - 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 interfaceGraphical user interfaceIn computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
similar to iTunes, and mini-player mode - Keyboard shortcuts and media keyboard support
- Automatic updates
- Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
integration via a plugin, complete with love/hate buttons - Insound.com and HypeMachine integration
- Microsoft MTPMedia Transfer ProtocolThe Media Transfer Protocol is a devised set of custom extensions to the Picture Transfer Protocol . Whereas PTP was designed for downloading photographs from digital cameras, Media Transfer Protocol supports the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media...
compatible device support - Ability to edit and save metadata tagsID3ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
- Gapless Playback & ReplayGain
- Watch Folders
- Media Importing / Exportings (from and to iTunes)
- Automatic Library Files Organization
- Last.fm Radio
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 portedPorting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
. Community coded extensions are available on Songbird's addons support page. Known community designed extensions are: Qloud Tagging & Search, eMusic
EMusic
eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City with an office in London and owned by Dimensional Associates. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers....
Integration, iTunes Importer, Artist Tracker, Library File Organizer, Audioscrobbler Notifier, Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
Artist Display, SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast is cross-platform proprietary software for streaming media over the Internet. The software, developed by Nullsoft , allows digital audio content, primarily in MP3 or HE-AAC format, to be broadcast to and from media player software, enabling the creation of Internet radio "stations"...
Radio Directory, UnPlug, Adblock Plus, Taglib metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
handler, and ChatZilla
ChatZilla
ChatZilla is an IRC client for Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox, introduced in 2000. It is cross-platform open source software which has been noted for its consistent appearance across platforms, CSS appearance customization and scripting....
.
Skins
SkinSkin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
s 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
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
(and optionally XUL
XUL
In computer programming, XUL , the XML User Interface Language, is an XML user interface markup language developed by the Mozilla project. XUL operates in Mozilla cross-platform applications such as Firefox...
), and an image manipulation program such as Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
or GIMP
GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
, users are then able to make Songbird look however they want.
Release history
Songbird was founded by Rob LordRob Lord (software developer)
Rob Lord is an American software executive best known as a founder of the Songbird media player application. He also created the Internet Underground Music Archive and worked on Winamp as its general manager.-References:...
and developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable (with members who previously developed for both Winamp
Winamp
Winamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
and the Yahoo! Music Engine).
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Old release |
| Yellow | Unreleased, internal milestone |
| Green | Current release |
| Blue | Future release |
| Version | Release date | Codename | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | February 8, 2006 | Hilda | |
| 0.1.1 | February 22, 2006 |
|
|
| 0.2 RC1 | September 26, 2006 |
Bug A bug is an insect of the order Hemiptera, known as the "true bugs".Bug or BUG may also refer to:-Biology:* Informally, most arthropods, except marine crustaceans, including individuals or species of** centipede** insect** millipede** mite... fixes |
|
| 0.2 | October 17, 2006 |
|
|
| 0.2.5 | February 28, 2007 |
FairPlay FairPlay is a digital rights management technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store. Formerly, all songs in... audio playback. USB mass storage device class The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two... support. Operating system An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system... integration. |
|
| 0.3 | October 30, 2007 | Bowie David Bowie David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s... |
Application programming interface An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other... overhaul. Gecko (layout engine) Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects.... |
| 0.3.1 | November 6, 2007 |
|
|
| 0.4 | December 27, 2007 | Cher Cher Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in... |
|
| 0.5 | March 26, 2008 | Dokken Dokken Dokken is an American heavy metal and hard rock band formed in 1978. They split up in 1989 but reformed four years later. The group accumulated numerous charting singles and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide... |
Media Transfer Protocol The Media Transfer Protocol is a devised set of custom extensions to the Picture Transfer Protocol . Whereas PTP was designed for downloading photographs from digital cameras, Media Transfer Protocol supports the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media... device support. |
| 0.6 | June 13, 2008 | Eno Brian Eno Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,... |
|
| 0.6.1 | June 25, 2008 |
|
|
| 0.7 | August 20, 2008 | Fugazi |
|
| 1.0 | December 2, 2008 | Genesis Genesis (band) Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years... |
GStreamer GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject.GStreamer allows a programmer to create a variety of media-handling components, including simple audio playback, audio and video playback, recording, streaming and editing... media core on all platforms |
| 1.1.1 | March 10, 2009 | Hendrix Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter... |
|
| 1.1.2 | April 9, 2009 | Hootie Hootie & the Blowfish Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band that enjoyed popularity in the second half of the 1990s. They were originally formed in 1986 at the University of South Carolina by Darius Rucker, Dean Felber, Jim Sonefeld, and Mark Bryan. The band has recorded five studio albums to date, and has... |
|
| 1.2 | June 18, 2009 | Isan Isan (band) Isan are an English electronic music duo. The name was initially explained as Integrated Services Analogue Network - a play on ISDN, reflecting their preference for analogue synthesisers.... |
|
| 1.3 | Jackson 5 |
|
|
| 1.4 | December, 2009 | Kanye Kanye West Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and... |
Ripping Ripping is the process of copying audio or video content to a hard disk, typically from removable media. The word is used to refer to all forms of media. Despite the name, neither the media nor the data is damaged after extraction.... |
| 1.4.3 | December 23, 2009 | KoЯn |
|
| 1.5 | Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham... |
|
|
| 1.6.0 | Madonna Madonna (entertainer) Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983... |
|
|
| 1.7.0 | Nirvana Nirvana (band) Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987... |
|
|
| 1.7.2 | June 3, 2010 | NOFX NOFX NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up... |
|
| 1.8.0 | September 2, 2010 | Orbital Orbital (band) Orbital are a British electronic dance music duo from Sevenoaks, England consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Their career initially ran from 1989 until 2004, but in 2009 they announced that they would be reforming and headlining The Big Chill, in addition to a number of other live shows... |
|
| 1.9.3 | February 9, 2011 | Pink Floyd Pink Floyd Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially... |
|
| 1.10.1 | November 1, 2011 | Qbert |
|
| 2.0 | Release Target Date: TBD | Rick Astley Rick Astley Richard Paul "Rick" Astley is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and radio personality. He is known for his 1987 song, "Never Gonna Give You Up", which was a #1 hit single in 25 countries... |
|
See also
- List of media players
- Comparison of audio player softwareComparison of audio player softwareThe following comparison of audio players compares general and technical information for a number of software media player programs.For the purpose of this comparison, "audio players" are defined as any media player which can only play audio files...
- List of feed aggregators
- Comparison of feed aggregatorsComparison of feed aggregatorsThe following is a comparison of notable RSS feed aggregators. Often e-mail programs and web browsers have the ability to display RSS feeds. They are listed here, too.Many BitTorrent clients support RSS feeds for broadcatching ....
- QtraxQtraxQtrax is an advertiser-supported free music download service based in New York. The company is best known for the controversy following its launch attempt in January 2008...
, a client based on Songbird. - Nightingale (software)Nightingale (software)Nightingale is a completely free, open source audio player and web browser based on the Songbird media player source code. Since official support for Linux was dropped by Songbird in April, 2010, Linux using members of the Songbird community diverged and created the project...
, a Songbird fork for Linux - MozillaMozillaMozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....
External links
- Songbird homepage
- Songbird Add-ons
- Songbird, the "open source iTunes killer," flies today - Boing BoingBoing BoingBoing Boing is a publishing entity, first established as a magazine, later becoming a group blog.-History:...
interview with Rob LordRob Lord (software developer)Rob Lord is an American software executive best known as a founder of the Songbird media player application. He also created the Internet Underground Music Archive and worked on Winamp as its general manager.-References:... - Lord of the Birds…Songbird - Interview with Rob Lord
- Songbird ver. 1.4.2 review at Lifehacker.com - December 23, 2009, accessed January 14, 2010
- Songbird, music player that wants to do everything, loses CEO - Songbird loses CEO
- Frenchbirds, a French Songbird community