[headchange4u]

SongBird Homepage(site was overloaded last time I checked. 02-08-06)

Download Mirror
From Boing Boing

Quote:

A team led by ex-Winamp-er Rob Lord today released a preview edition of Songbird, a desktop media player that offers an open source alternative to services like Apple's iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Instead of connecting to one locked store full of DRMmed goods, it can connect to any and all available music (and video) on the internet. Code brains behind the project include people who helped build Winamp, Muse, Yahoo's "Y! Music Engine" media player, and developers from Mozilla Foundation. Initial release is for Windows only, with editions for other OSes to follow in the coming weeks. Built on the same platform as Firefox, Songbird acts like a specialized web browser for music. It sees the online world through MP3-colored glasses -- it looks at an archive of public domain sound files or a music store's catalog, and displays available media for you. I spoke with Rob Lord earlier today by phone about the preview release. Screenshots and interview after the jump.

From Gizmodo
Quote:

The long-awaited Songbird project has released their ‘user test’ today for download. The program is built on the same framework that powers Firefox and Thunderbird and has been developed by some of the same people who also built good ol’ Winamp, back before Nullsoft was folded into the gritty loins of AOL, never to innovate again. Our initial impressions are, in order: Wow. Oh man! That’s useful. Quick! No iPod support yet. A little laggy. That’s going to be a good way to find music. Huh. Maybe a double-click? No sound. Does this actually play music? Expect more soon, but until then, enjoy this interview with project lead Rob Lord, including links to download mirrors.

I tried it out today and it's pretty buggy. I think it will be a really great media player once we see a release canidate.

Screenshot:

 

[Jasper994]

Looks like an iTunes knockoff...

Does it support ASIO?

 

[headchange4u]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper994 Looks like an iTunes knockoff... Does it support ASIO?

It is being marketed as the iTunes killer.

I think it will support ASIO in future releases.

 

[headchange4u]

Here's some more info:

What digital music formats will Songbird play?
Songbird can play all the popular music formats including MPEG Audio (mpga), MPEG Layer 3 (mp3), MP4 Audio (mp4a), Ogg Vorbis, Speex, AAC, WMA, FLAC, and less important: LPCM, ADPCM, AMR. If you're a developer, teach Songbird how to play your favorite format!

Minimum system requirements

* 733MHz Pentium III or comparable
* 128MB RAM (256MB for WinXP)
* 30MB Hard Disk Space
* 16bit Sound Card
* Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003
* 1x speed or greater CD Burner (Required for Burning)
* 2x speed or greater CDROM (Required for Ripping)

Recommended system requirements

* 1.5 GHz Pentium IV or comparable
* 256MB RAM (512MB for WinXP)
* 30MB Hard Disk Space
* 32bit Sound Card
* Windows 2000, Windows XP
* 8x speed or greater CD Burner (Required for Burning)
* 16x speed or greater CDROM (Required for Ripping)

One other funny thing. If you look at the SongBird logo on the homepage(now working. you may have to refresh once or twice to get it to load), which is a fat little bird, you will notice a puff of ?air? coming from the rear of the bird. Kinda weird and funny. Just thought I would point that out.

 

[kin0kin]

you sure it aint iBird?

 

[BodiesOfLight]

Looks pretty good, how is it on resources?

 

[breez]

Judging by the minimum/recommended specs I'd guess it is pretty harsh on system resources for someone who is used to foobar2000 level of resource usage

Also, "32bit Sound Card" in recommended specs, eeh, c'mon!

 

[Malus]

Well, I already run Firefox, which isn't really that slim. Running a music player based on it at the same time seems like a bad idea. Looks cool though, I might give it a try if it has any nice features that amaroK currently lacks.

 

[flashbackk]

You have to encourage projects like this. It ain't about the money. I still keep Winamp for Milk Drop and I just about got Foo the way I want it, but this looks good. Maybe Ubuntu and Songbird.....hmmmmmmmmm.