Songbird: Introduction

Introduction

Software name : Songbird
Software version : 0.4

Songbird is a media player for your managing your music files and subscribing to podcasts. You could say it's an open source version of iTunes. Songbird is built upon the Firefox web browser.

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Getting started with Songbird

Songbird allows you to play and manage the audio files on your computer. Here are some quick tips how to do this.

Please note that this isn't an extensive guide to everything that Songbird can do but it will enable you to get started.

Importing your music

To import your audio files so you can listen to them using Songbird you should select from the top menu File > Scan for Media

When you have selected Scan for Media a dialogue box will appear.

Select a folder which contains audio files. If you have one folder that contains lots of other folders, you can select just the top level folder, as all those underneath it will be imported as well. For example in the screen shot below, there are a lot of other folders with music in F:\audio but by selecting that and pressing OK all those folders will be imported.

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If you have audio file in other locations on your computer you should repeat the process and add those locations.

When you do add audio files they appear in the Library section of Songbird. Click on the tab marked Library to see them.

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Playing a file

To play an audio file you can select either an artist or album in the respective window of the library. A list of tracks the album or by the artist selected will appear in the main window of Songbird. You can then double click on the first track or the particular tack you want to start it playing.

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When that track is finished the track underneath it in the main window will start to play.

Creating a play list

If you want to create a play list of tracks to play one after the other this can be done by selecting the track you want to add to a new play list, right clicking it, and selecting Add to Playlist > New Playlist

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When you do that you'll see a new playlist appear in the left column.

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You can rename that play list something memorable, in this case Hard Funk vol 23. Then when you return to the Library view and you come to repeat the process of adding a track to the play list you'll see the one you created appear in the list.

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About Add-Ons

Songbird uses a system called Add-Ons to add features to the normal functionality of Songbird. These work in the same way that Extensions do in Firefox or plug-ins in other applications. Add-Ons are additional downloads that can be enabled as you choose them. New features are often best added in this way, as it allows anyone to write an Add-On that brings new features to the programme, but without it having to be installed in the original release.

You can find out much more about Add-Ons here. http://addons.songbirdnest.com

Installing Add-Ons

There are at least 2 ways to install Add-Ons.

You can browse the add-ons via a web browser, download them and then import them into Songbird, or you can use Songbird's internal browser to so this and install them directly. As the second method is easiest, we'll outline it here.

Select from the top menu Tools > Add-Ons

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Then click on Get Extensions at the bottom of the Options window.

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When you see the Songbird add-ons page appear in the main window you can browse through the different add-ons until you find one you want to install.

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You can then click the Install button when you find an add-on you want to install on Songbird.

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Then after clicking Install a window should appear called Software Installation.

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Click Install Now

You should then see a screen telling you the Installation has been sucessful.

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For most Add-Ons you will need to restart Songbird to use the features of it.

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Click on the Restart Songbird button.

When you have restarted Songbird the Add-On you installed should be enabled. In this case it is the Wikipedia plugin which shows you the Wikipedia entry for the artist of the audio file you are currently playing.

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Some Interesting Add-Ons

There are lots of great Add-Ons already written for Songbird, and there are sure to be plenty to come. Here's a few that are currently available.

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ITunes Library importer: Imports your iTunes library of files into Songbird
Wikipedia Extension: Displays the Wikipedia page for the current artist
USB mass storage device: Allows you to use USB mass-storage media devices in Songbird.
iPod Device Support: control the contents of your iPod with Songbird

EDIT