Review: Songbird Desktop is much more than just a media player - goodsict1974

At a Peek

Skilled's Military rating

Pros

Free
Does much much just wager music

Cons

No more CD burning
No iPhone/iPod support

Our Verdict

Songbird Desktop is a media player and much more than…so some more, information technology Crataegus laevigata overwhelm casual users.

Songbird Screen background is a media player that's not chained to your desktop, despite its name. Although this escaped application for Personal computer and Mack bequeath organize you collection and playback audio and picture files from your computer, information technology's also a tool for discovering new music, learning to a greater extent about your front-runner artists, and connecting with friends. Songbird installs quickly and easily, but acquiring your medicine into the program is all up to you. You birth to sum files manually, by pointing Songster in the instruction of your media collection. Once your songs and videos are added to Songbird, you rear take reward of its staple media playback functions. You can play songs, rip CDs (but not burn them), create playlists, and more. Songbird does period of play videos, but you may have to download extraordinary video codecs to play back every files, as Songster doesn't include some that would require it to salary a royalty.

Songbird includes a Web browser that lets you discover info about your favorite artists.

Songbird volition synchronize with Humanoid mobile devices and smartphones, but not Apple's products. While iPhone and iPod owners are prohibited of chance, Android users will appreciate that Songbird syncs with their devices. I had to download an appurtenance from Songbird's library in regulate to induce the lotion to recognize my Motorola Droid Bionic, but once I successful it finished that somewhat puzzling process, Songster worked seamlessly with my phone. In fact, Songbird's extensive library of add-ons is just one of the factors that make this lotion so interesting. In thither, you can discovery add-ons that will do everything from adding lyrics to songs as they toy to displaying record album art from Last.fm. If you're prepared to pass about time poking around the add-along collection, you can uncovering plenty of tools for customizing everything from the look of Songster to the experience of using its Web browser, which displays right in the main window of the application program. This allows you to find out more than about your dearie artists. Information technology also allows you to connect with other users, and lets you connect via Facebook to retrieve unstylish what artists your friends like, too.

Songbird's interface is a bit diplomatical, but you can customize it with skins to get a new look.

And that's non all: Songbird besides works as a media server, streaming your media collecting to UPnP or DLNA devices connected the synoptic local network. It's also available equally a Web app and an Android app that sync with the screen background version. In short, there's not much Songster can't practice. It may each be overmuch for the casual user who simply wants to listen to few tunes, and if you want to sync them to your iPhone, you'rhenium out of luck. Simply adventurous music fans looking for a player that they can customize leave find a great deal to sing about in Songbird.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's situation, where you can download the in style variant of the software appropriate to your system.

Note: When you buy in something after clicking links in our articles, we Crataegus laevigata earn a small commission. Show our consort link policy for more details.

Liane Cassavoy is a veteran technology and business diarist. She contributes regularly to PCWorld and has typewritten about business issues and products for Entrepreneur Magazine and other publications. She is the author of two business organisatio set off-up guides published by Entrepreneur Fourth estate.