Songbird Add Ons: Are They Worth It?

Songbird Addons: Enhancing Your Music Experience

Initially, when Songbird – a music player built upon Mozilla’s codebase – was first released, it immediately captured my attention. The concept of a fully customizable music player was particularly appealing, essentially the audio counterpart to Firefox.

However, early criticisms proved to be largely accurate. Songbird experienced stability issues and was prone to occasional crashes.

Significant improvements have since been made to Songbird, exceeding the expectations of many iTunes users. The application is now remarkably stable, rivaling other leading players, and the Songbird addons have also matured considerably.

Exploring Valuable Songbird Extensions

In 2008, Laurence reviewed Eight Great Songbird Extensions Worth A Test Drive. While some of those extensions were interesting, many remained largely as novelties, similar to a portion of iPhone applications.

The addons detailed below offer substantial benefits and can significantly enhance your Songbird experience, potentially converting you to this music player.

mashTape: Expanding Musical Knowledge

Prior to the internet, pursuing an interest often proved frustrating. Today, resources like Google and Wikipedia provide readily available information on almost any topic.

mashTape extends this pursuit of knowledge to your music player, filling in the gaps surrounding artist information.

Multiple tabs, located at the bottom of the screen, display additional data about the currently playing song. The Artist Info tab provides details sourced from Last.fm, MusicBrainz, Freebase, and Wikipedia.

The News tab delivers an RSS-like feed of the latest news from sources such as Google News, Hype Machine, and MTV Music News.

Furthermore, the Photos and Videos tabs showcase images and videos from the artist, pulled from platforms like YouTube, Flickr, and SmugMug.

LyricMaster: Instant Lyrics at Your Fingertips

LyricMaster isn't an addon you'll necessarily use constantly, but it can be incredibly useful during social gatherings or when enjoying music with others. While many music players allow manual lyric addition, Songbird's LyricMaster automatically retrieves and displays lyrics in the sidebar.

The sidebar dynamically adjusts to your chosen theme and can be collapsed when not needed. For dedicated users or those frequently offline, LyricMaster also enables saving lyrics to your hard drive, either for individual songs or your entire library.

Last.fm: Personalized Music Discovery

Last.fm is a music platform that learns your preferences. It then offers music recommendations based on your tastes, or suggests artists, albums, or tags you might enjoy. While not a replacement for your existing music collection, it’s a great way to discover new artists, and integrates seamlessly with Songbird.

The Songbird Last.fm addon provides two key functions. First, it scrobbles your listening activity, tracking what you play and communicating with Last.fm’s servers. Tracks played offline are submitted when a connection is restored.

Second, Last.fm radio stations play directly within Songbird, displaying album art and allowing you to rate, love, or tag songs – both from the radio stations and your personal library.

7digital: Integrated Music Store

Many users rely on iTunes due to its integrated music store. Songbird now offers a similar experience through its 7digital integration. 7digital is a popular online music store with competitive pricing, often matching or undercutting the iTunes Store. A credit card isn't even required for access.

The 7digital addon allows you to log into the 7digital store directly from Songbird. You can then purchase music or download previously bought tracks, which are automatically added to your music Library. The addon also provides music recommendations based on your listening habits, similar to Last.fm scrobbling.

What are your thoughts on Songbird? Are there any other extensions you find particularly valuable? Share your opinions in the comments section below!