Songbird

Songbird is a desktop music player alternative to Itunes, Microsoft Windows Media Player and WinAmp.

Think of it as Itunes on steroids, with unique features, while most media players are still focusing on local music only, It is currently looking to the constantly-changing landscape of the web for guidance. It allows you to ‘play’ the web, instead of needing separate applications to search for and listen to music, and does it all from one simple program, with an outstanding level of integration between the web and your music, bottom line this mediaplayer tries to bridge the gap between the web and your desktop.

Features

Multi-platform compatibility with Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X v10.5 (x86, x86-64) and Android.
Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple Lossless and WMA
Ability to play Apple FairPlay-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTime
Ability to play Windows Media DRM audio on Windows platforms
A skinnable interface, via feathers
Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files
MP3 file download
Ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlists
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 interface similar to iTunes, and mini-player mode
Keyboard shortcuts and media keyboard support
Automatic updates
Last.fm integration via a plugin, complete with love/hate buttons
Insound.com and Hype Machine integration
Microsoft MTP compatible device support
Ability to edit and save metadata tags
Gapless Playback & Replay Gain
Watch Folders
Media Importing / Exporting (from and to iTunes)
Automatic Library Files Organization

It features a fully integrated internet browser for streamlining the process of downloading and playing songs from the internet. If you use it to navigate to a website that includes links to audio files, it will automatically generate and display a playlist on a separate tab under the browser view. Any songs you download are automatically added to your media library.

Besides simply adding or dragging and dropping specific media into your library, provides you with the ability of importing your media by means of iTunes or watching a specific folder for changes. You can also have it automatically organize your library files based on metadata into a specific folder and file format of your choice, also you can add Lyrics and comments as well.

There’s more to Songbird’s freedom than its lack of a price tag, It is open-source, which means that it is community-driven and powered by you. You can truly make it your own and modify it to your heart’s content with add-ons.

To my humble opinion I think it is probably the most customizable media player on the planet. If you want to change the way it looks, add support for a web service, or add something new to the way the media library works there’s probably an add-on for it, and they are easy to install and all that for free.

Although is a great option considering all that I have to say, modifying preferences can, in rare circumstances, break Songbird, or can cause strange behavior. Only do so if you know what you are doing.

[box type=”info”] SongBird Gone Social:

Facebook https://twitter.com/songbird

Twitter https://www.facebook.com/Songbird

Blog http://blog.songbirdnest.com/[/box]