I’ve had a chance to play with the new open source music player for windows, Songbird and I see a ton of potential there. I like the idea of being able to connect to any music store (iTunes, CDBaby, Amazon, etc…). The interface is comparable to iTunes and has a slightly better interface for browsing your library. Songbird already boasts a laundry list of features that iTunes doesn’t have. Songbird is still a little rough around the edges, after all the current release is only a user preview (version 0.1).

What makes Songbird a candidate for iTunes killer is that it is open source so anybody with a great idea (and a little technical inclination) will be able to create plugins. Songbird is built using the same XML user inter face language that firefox uses so developers can easily build application user interfaces for Songbird. This makes me wonder if Songbird will be to iTunes what Firefox is to Internet Explorer.

Another thing that I like about songbird is that it is light weight, using about half the memory that iTunes requires. iTunes works great on a Mac or a PC with tons of memory to spare, but if you’ve got a clunker PC forget about it.

It will be interesting to see how well Songbird will play with my iPod. Songbird has a long way to go before it presents any significant competition for iTunes, but the day will come when an open source music player contends with the big boys.

Here is another great review of songbird that goes into a little more detail about the UI and includes screenshots. ARS technica also has a great article about Songbird here.

You can download (8mb) Songbird here:
Mirror 1 Mirror 2

My next home entertainment gadget purchase is going to be a Squeezebox. I’ve wanted to have an easy way to stream music from my desktop to my stereo for a long time. I’ve considered many options, but after I read the news that Pandora (a music service that I use every day) will be available for Squeezebox the decision is clear. I wrote about Pandora before so I won’t write about it here but I’m very excited that I will be able to listen to Pandora from any room in my house on my stereo and navigate Pandora via a nice little remote control!

Here is the info from Pandora’s website:

Pandora for your Stereo

We’ve got something pretty exciting to share tonight. David Pogue over at the New York Times just broke the news that on March 1st Pandora is coming to the Slim Devices Squeezebox:

“the Squeezebox will do something no other hi-fi component can do: it will hook into Pandora… Slim Devices predicts that Pandora will become a wildly popular feature, and that’s probably true.” (read the entire story)

The Squeezebox, as Pogue’s story attests, is simply the best way to deliver digital music to your home stereo. It’s a beautiful device, with an elegant user interface and exceptional audio quality. Plug it into your home network (wired or wireless) and enjoy Pandora from the comfort of your couch. You’ll be able to listen to all of the stations you’ve been creating at Pandora.com, rate songs, and bookmark favorites all with a simple remote control. Pandora-on-Squeezebox will available to Pandora subscribers ($36 for a year or $12 for three months) and will work with any Squeezebox 2 as well as the new (and very beautiful) Squeezebox 3.

To get you started, on March 1st, Pandora will be offering a free 90 day subscription to new and current Squeezebox 2 and 3 owners. When you connect your Squeezenetwork account with your ad-supported-free Pandora.com account (you’ll do this from your account page at the Squeezenetwork website) we’ll automatically upgrade you to a 90-day-free subscription on Pandora. No credit card required. In the meantime, have fun listening to Pandora online for free.