So now, from my perspective, a year into my love of Mozilla and support of all things open source, running concurrently with my immersion into the narrow-vision world of online music marketing, not to mention my adventures in digi-dj culture and mp3 blogging… and out pops Songbird 0.1, a web player. Essentially, its a browser that converts webpages to playlists that you can play, download, burn, share, and so on. Even though this is just a simple preview, a proof-of-concept… I’m already jumping for joy!
Designed by Pioneers of the Inevitable LLC, the San-Francisco quintet of programmers (“digital media innovators”), that developed Winamp and Yahoo’s Music Engine. The team is headed up by digital music veteran Rob Lord, whose success, and bankings, you can accurately guage by how almost every new media project he’s been involved in has been snapped up by a major corporate – BMG, AOL, Vivendi/Universal, etc. But Songbird is a whole new baby, and pehaps quite atypical of the team’s past portfolio… It’s definitely a whole new dimension for online music fans.
The Pioneers use Firefox’s open source platform as a starting point on their quest to perfect the total digital music experience. Yes, Songbird looks like a black iTunes at first, but then you realize that you’re staring at a browser window that’s going to rock you in full 256 colors! You can surf on it like any old browser, but when you hit a page with mp3s, Songbird lists out all the files for you in a convenient download panel. The rest of the application is everything you could need or want from a smart new-generation media player. Some of the more exciting features include:
Integrated Web Search – Search the web from the context of your collection or tell Songbird to search on the currently playing track.
Make Smart Mixes & Dynamic Mixes – Criteria-based playlists that are always up-to-date with what’s on your laptop… and what’s online!
Multi-Tasking – Based on what I can tell, they will be macking up the multi-tasking capabilities, which is key for rabid media eaters.
Feathers (Skin) – Choose from standard designs, or make your own!
You get a feel for the depth of insight of user needs that the Songbirdnest has when you check out the bookmarks they loaded into this preview – sure they have the Googles and the eMusics on there, but they also have Beatport, Bitchdork (err… typo! Pitchfork!), Creative Commons, and some other digital services or content sites that suggest a prerogative to keep Songbird indie-friendly. Beyond that, after spending a little time diddling around with the interface, I have almost total faith that Songbird will be a triumph in user-friendliness, rubbing out the PC/Mac divide. Hey, as long as it truly reads all formats, as they claim, I’ll be ok. But I’m guessing Songbird is going to get pretty macked out (in a good way), and here’s why: Open Source Community & Development.
February 21, 2006 at 4:38 pm |
That looks pretty interesting. I think a may have to put that on the ever-growing list of things to check out on the net.
February 28, 2006 at 5:14 am |
am i really behind the times? i still use foobar2000.
February 13, 2007 at 4:14 pm |
Bush goes ballistic about other countries being evil and dangerous, because they have weapons of mass destruction. But, he insists on building up even a more deadly supply of nuclear arms right here in the US. What do you think? What is he doing to us, and what is he doing to the world?
Our country is in debt until forever, we don’t have jobs, and we live in fear. We have invaded a country and been responsible for thousands of deaths.
We have lost friends and influenced no one. No wonder most of the world thinks we suck. Thanks to what george bush has done to our country during the past three years, we do!
June 18, 2008 at 11:09 am |
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Toughly
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