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Songbird offers alternative to iTunes
James Oakwood
0 comments 20 April 2007
Songbird, the open source media player, is available in its beta form for both Windows and Mac, and it's a fantastic piece of software for music fans.
Created by a crack team of coders, it’s clear that Songbird is attempting to shake up Apple’s monopoly of the media player market, as it does a lot of what Apple’s iconic software does, but also plenty that it doesn’t, too.
Songbird is based on the Firefox browser programme, so manages to come complete with its own inbuilt browser. In the source list on the left, it’s possible to store bookmarks for the net – which could be links to Songbird add-on files or your favourite music blogs.
Open up a music blog in the browser window and a list of available tracks from it appear underneath (or you can simply play them through the browser). Find something you like? Then you can download it and add it to your library with ease. Want to search for more tracks from a band? You can do that too, via Songbird’s search function and a list of decent MP3 sites – you’re obviously free to add more to widen the search.
And, as there’s an inbuilt browser, you can obviously run Internet radio, too – Songbird has a link to SHOUTcast, but once again, you’re free to add sites of your own.
Add-ons that have already been created allow you to import your iTunes library and also recognise your iPod.
We’ve been playing with Songbird all day and plan to play with it well into the weekend. It’s easy to use, packed with features and allows you to explore a world of free music in a way that iTunes simply cannot.
While you obviously don’t have a store, you do have access to hundreds of thousands of legal downloads. And, best of all, they won’t cost you a penny.
Songbird has been around for a year or so, but this is the first time we've stumbled across it. And, if you're yet to find it yourselves, we recommend you take a look.
To find out more about Peel, go here.
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