The Open Source cross platform media player Songbird got the internet abuzz with its 1.0 release. The media player is said to have a feature set that makes iTunes looks like a malnutritioned cripple. Reluctantly, I decided to use this app for two weeks to see what the big fuss was all about.
Please note, that as an Apple fanboy, I might bring in some negativity towards Songbird into this writeup. I will state facts where facts can be stated, but otherwise I’m afraid some amount of fanboyism will creep in.
Interface
There is nothing wrong with the interface, other than the fact that it’s totally non-native. Everything from the window colour, to buttons, scrollbars, to menus all reek of Linux-love. I’m not saying I want an iTunes clone. I just want something that looks at home on my Mac desktop.
Then there are areas where by itself the interface is bad. The tab bar for instance is very badly done. There are a lot of other small kinks that show a lack of polish. For instance, an artist “The Doors” will come under “T” and not “D” as it should. Also, closing the window quits the app!
Integration
One of the sole reasons why iTunes works, is because it is so integrated with the system. The Media browser, iTunes Store, Spotlight, etc., just spread out your music throughout the system. One of the biggest areas where Songbird cannot perform is Front Row, which is iTunes only. This will naturally cause you to add songs to the iTunes library instead of Songbird, which means that the next time you launch Songbird, you have to reimport them into that library. The whole process seems a little too much to do for what little Songbird offers.
iTunes Extenders
Most of the time I don’t have iTunes open to play my music. I use Coversutra (one of the many iTunes extenders) to play, rate, and control my music. I use keyboard shortcuts, music search, and have nice album artwork on my desktop using iTunes extenders. None of these work with Songbird. To be honest, Songbird does have Add-ons, but even those are nothing compared to the refinement and polish of Mac native iTunes extenders.
Performance
Songbird’s performance is pathetic. It uses up a whole lot of memory (at any give time it is 3 times that of iTunes), and the CPU usage for simple things like scrolling the music library (iTunes ~20%, Songbird ~80% of a total of 200%) uses up a whole lot of CPU. It actually idles at around 23% CPU! Songbird comes with it’s own plugin for a rendition of CoverFlow, but the performance of that was totally unusable. Compared to that CoverFlow in iTunes is butter smooth. Overall, Songbird is a performance fail.
(I haven’t rigged this screenshot in any way. iTunes and Songbird are both idle)
No Video support
iTunes has become the central hub of managing all media on the Mac. If Songbird wants to compete with that, it needs to make sure there is no reason to use iTunes. Songbird has absolutely no video support. It can play certain videos, but only the audio part of it. What this means is, if you use Songbird, every time you want to watch a movie, TV show or Music video, you need to open up iTunes.
What I Like
Songbird is not all bad though, as it has some pretty nice features.
The Info panel
This is a really feature rich panel, displaying different tabs for Artist info, News, and a stunning photo view displaying pictures of the currently playing artist. Surprisingly, Songbird has incorporated Videos into this panel, grabbing youtube video links according to the currently playing song.
Add-ons
Similar to Firefox’s extensions – in fact, too similar – Songbird has a lot of third party add-ons like lyrics sidebars, Fairplay support (iTunes Store DRM’ed tracks), iPod support, different skins, and a whole lot of other interesting functions. All of these add-ons are available in the built in browser that comes with Songbird, with a single click to install an Ad-on.
Built-in Browser
I’m not sure how useful this is (in fact, I don’t), but Songbird features a basic web browser. You can visit websites, perform searches, and do quick and dirty browsing if you need it. Of course, the browser is only there for the purpose of searching for Add-ons, but I’ll mention it anyway.
As you can see, Songbird offers very little for what it takes away. iTunes is still the media player to use on the Mac, and it shall remain so for some time to come. Using Songbird on the Mac will inadvertently require you to use iTunes as well for all the integration it offers, making this whole exercise kind of moot.
On Windows, I’d say Songbird would be an excellent choice. iTunes isn’t nearly as useful, integrated or fast as on the Mac, so Songbird can fit in nicely. Linux I’m not too sure about, but judging by the UI, I’d say it will fit in perfectly.
What’s your view with regard to Songbird on the Mac. Are you actively using it instead of iTunes, or have you not even cared to install it?
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I am totally with you on using iTunes over SongBird, when I first installed SongBird i was so overwhelmed, the first thing I look at was the design of it which failed. And don’t get me started about the user experience. Still loving iTunes.
Spot on! I tried Songbird but after five minutes of being ‘wowed’ by the auto artist info, I was back to iTunes. Nice blog you guys have. How come I never heard of it!
I agree with most of what you’ve said, though I find it’s a pretty good starting point as an application. It has stuff the differentiates itself from iTunes while still having some familiarity.
I think you missed the point of the browser though. I find it handy for keeping my music in my music player. There are so many streaming music sites nowadays and I hate having that stuff play in my main browser. The other bonus is for those who might frequent music blogs. When you hit up a site that features downloadable media Songbird will pop up a list that shows you everything available on the site and have the ability to download or stream the music as a playlist. Sure this doesn’t appeal to every music listener, but there are features that you wish iTunes had 5 years ago.
@mcflash Thanks, the blog is less than 1 year old so you might not have came across yet!
i use both…no problems with any software, although I prefer Itunes.
iTunes + Last.fm will give you the artist info as well as doing a much much better job than Apple’s Genius of recommending music to you.
http://www.last.fm
eg
http://www.last.fm/music/Coldplay
iTunes. Definitely. Tried Songbird but it feels like something slapped on. There’s no flow in that UI. No flow.
“The media player is said to have a feature set that makes iTunes looks like [it has] malnutri[tion] …”
You’re joking.
There’s no hint of malnutrition in the size of Songbirds download. But it terms of “features” it’s positively skeletal. It does the odd thing iTunes doesn’t – e.g. provides support for more formats, lets you know about concerts in your area – but there are not just a few but a helluva lot of things that iTunes does that it doesn’t. There’s major stuff like ripping, grabbing artwork, playing video content, streaming to an airport express, synching with an iPhone, and looking through the vast free warehouse of podcasts at the iTMS in a superbly-well designed interface for the purpose. Then there are literally dozens of minor details like right-click on an MP3 track and choose Convert ID3 tags … or, for the matter of that, right-click on an album cover and choose “half size, actual size, double size, or fit to screen. You know, iTunes has a *vast* feature set – there’s almost nothing connected with audio (and video) that it doesn’t do – arguably it does too much.
You downloaded it. Did none of this strike you, because it did me when I looked at Songbird?
There’s nothing wrong with Songbird, but it is early days for it, and its very basic feature set nowhere near approaches what iTunes has as yet.
I said it is “said to have”. I read all about how Songbird has all these great features, so I thought I’d take a look at them. Obviously it doesn’t stand a chance against iTunes, as said in the rest of the post.
I have to agree. I really wanted to like Songbird, but something about Mozilla apps just don’t sit right with me anymore. I think it’s because they’re resource hungry and don’t integrate very well.
The fact that I couldn’t get it to work with my iPhone was a deal breaker.
Typical mac fanboys, over analyzing version 1.0!!!! While iTunes is version 8.0!
So why would you adopt a version 1 product that doesn’t work as well as one you’ve been using for ages? Unless you’re a glutton for punishment, I can’t see a legitimate reason.
itunes 8 was major fail, just saying.
songbird is great for people who use linux, like me anyway.
the only thing macs are good for are iwhatevers and graphic design though, so of course itunes is going to be better if you’re using a mac.
This article made me laugh. Everything that you completely said is biased. iTunes only works well on Macs, it’s a piece of shit on any other computer. Oh, and it’s about 500x faster than iTunes.
@Apple Sucks I was a PC user for 20 over years, now I’m a Mac user. Just like you, I always says Apple Sucks. I can’t “build” an Apple computer just like how I used to build a PC. Though, all I get is blue screens and viruses. I thought Apple don’t have as many software as the PC market. But I was wrong, Apple’s software are quality and Window’s is just quantity.
I think long time PC users have a stronger voice over the opinion of which is more superior. If you have been both a PC and Mac user for several years and still think Apple or Mac sucks and choose to go back to windows using SongBird because iTunes doesn’t work on your Piece of Shit (PC), then so be it.
Otherwise don’t make one sided judgement here.
@AppleSucks How on earth is this a biased article if it’s all about iTunes on a Mac? Did I even mention the PC? As a matter of fact, there’s another article here about how iTunes for PC sucks.
My point is that iTunes for Mac is so integrated, plus all those things I mentioned, that Mac users have no need trying out Songbird.
Although, I’m glad it at least made you laugh. Couldn’t ask for any more than to make someone laugh
I didn’t see a forum on my question. Sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask a question.
Please help me turn on the lyric scrolling feature in iTunes. I have the current version and have downloaded MP3 and AAC files that are suppose to contain lyric files. I’ve looked everywhere for help.
Songbird has some really nice benefits. like listing all the .mp3 files on a webpage in a panel at the bottom for download. and I “think” it will have support for Creative media players on OSX soon, which is about the time I will definitely use it instead of iTunes, for I own a creative Zen.
you suck… my songbird idle at 0%, and it’s fully customizable.. i take songbird over itune or any apple product for that matter anyday…