Songbird

I may have found a music program which...may be better than iTunes. Now wait, before you go and grab your pitchfork and coming storming towards my house, just listen. Yes, iTunes is the top music program that people use, but I feel like that's mainly because people use iPods. I'll admit iTunes does have some pluses. I really think its great with its podcasts, but there are more and more places you can get these podcasts. As far as purchasing music goes, yes iTunes is easy, but you can only listen to purchased music on your accounts and only on iTunes. I have used iTunes this whole time because it does its job. It plays my music, and puts music on my iPod. But the other day I came across a program that completely beats out iTunes in terms of awesomeness: Songbird. Developed by Firefox (no surprise), this music program is great because it allows add-ons to its normal program, just like Firefox. Here are the reasons why Songbird is worth getting:

1. iPod Support
Songbird has an add-on which allows your iPod to work just as easy with Songbird as it does with iTunes.




2. Last.FM Scrobbling
If you dont know what Last.fm is, you should stop reading right now and go get it. Last.fm basically logs all the tracks you listen to (on your computer or iPod) and puts them all on your user profile. Then you can see your most listened to tracks, as well as music compatibility to your friends (well maybe its not as good as eHarmonys compatibility, but it works). This feature is supported in Songbird, which means any song you listen to on it will get scrobbled. Oh, they also have a thing where last.fm finds you cover art automatically for songs, as well as music recommendations based on what you like.



3. Concerts Near You
Being in Boston, I like to know whenever artists I listen to come to any of the many music places in the area, and this add-on is truly great for that. It goes through your library, and lists artists playing near you. Instead of tracking all your favorite artists' shows down, they're all in one convenient location.



4. LyricMaster
LyricMaster is this sweet program that automatically finds the lyrics to the song you are currently playing in Songbird. So if you're in the mood to sing along badly but aren't sure of the words, now its easy to know. It's one step away from those sing a long songs on TV that have the lyrics show up as they are being said. Maybe Songbird will have that one day.

5. SHOUTcast Radio
Not only do you get all the music in your library, but Songbird as a great radio station add on, where you can type in your favorite genres and listen to new music from that genre, for FREE. It's a nice little add-on that gives you something else iTunes doesn't.



The Unneccessary X-Factor: still not convinced? Well this is probably the dumbest thing ever (or the coolest thing ever), but Songbird as an add on that let's you tap out the tune of a song, and then it will find it for you. So if you have a song stuck in your head and forget the name, you can tap it out on the spacebar and SongTapper will find it for you.

While its still in its early stages and there's probably a few things that could still be fixed about Songbird, its definitely becomming my favorite program to listen to music.