Songbird: Not There Yet

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I saw all kinds of great stuff about it and how it's "sooo much better than iTunes." So, I downloaded it. Now, I don't get it.

Missing Functionality

First off, there is no video support. Half my iTunes library is made up of video content -- podcasts, movies, and a variety of other small video sources (all legit and without DRM). Songbird shows them. I click to play them. The audio plays fine. No video. I had to search on the help forums to see folks asking when video support will be added. They are serious about being just a music player, apparently. How 1995 of them.

More Missing Functionality

Second, although there is a great plug-in for syncing to iPods it doesn't support a number of things. Apparently, it doesn't support video syncing. That's no surprising, considering the above. However, it doesn't support applications, firmware updates, or other data. The iPhone and iPod Touch are not supported, either.

Missing Hope

At first, I was hopeful that maybe something would finally come around that was actually better than iTunes. I used to exclusively use WinAMP, but it stagnated after an acquisition and has never really returned. Then, I used iTunes after getting an iPod. Now, with iPods and iPhones, both my wife and I use iTunes exclusively. After looking around Songbird, I don't see that it will change anytime soon, either. It's a reasonable attempt at a music player, but even something like Boxee has more functionality and yet it's designed to have a simplistic couch interface.

I won't be switching as Songbird obviously doesn't meet my needs. I don't even see a point in trying to use it for some things right now. I hope they can figure out how to get there, though, if only for the sake of competition so iTunes also improves.

Posted by Shane on December 16, 2008 12:26 PM | Permalink