An Open-source player version of iTunes has been reigning over the web at present and it’s the new eye candy of music players.  Great reviews for the new program are flooding technology sites.  Will this new Songbird really outreign the famous Apple app?

Songbird is a free and open source software audio player and web browser, with a stated mission “to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web.” Songbird employs Mozilla’s XULRunner platform, and is thus capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Solaris and Linux.  Thus, utilizes the GStreamer media framework.

The following are what Songbird makes an excellent option over other players.
•    Cross-platform compatibility with Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X v10.5 and Linux.
•    Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple Lossless and WMA
•    Ability to play Apple FairPlay-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTime (authorization takes place in iTunes)[4]
•    Ability to play Windows Media DRM audio on Windows platforms[4]
•    A skinnable interface, via feathers – which give users and artists the ability to change the look of Songbird via an extension which generates a default skin. Using CSS (and optionally XUL), and an image manipulation program such as Photoshop or GIMP, users are then able to make Songbird look however they want.
•    Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files in Songbird
•    MP3 file download
•    Ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlists
•    User-created bookmarks
•    Ability to build custom mixes
•    Ability to scan the user’s computer for all audio files and add them to a local library
•    A configurable and collapsible graphical user interface similar to iTunes, and mini-player mode
•    Keyboard shortcuts and media keyboard support
•    Automatic updates
•    Last.fm integration via a plugin, complete with love/hate buttons
•    Microsoft MTP compatible device support
•    Ability to edit and save metadata tags
•    Media Importing / Exportings (from and to iTunes)
•    Automatic Library Files Organization

As a user, you would  love more the added features and ability to change functionality in Songbird by installing extensions. Community designed extensions are: Qloud Tagging & Search, eMusic Integration, iTunes Importer, iPod Device, Artist Tracker, Library File Organizer, Audioscrobbler Notifier, Wikipedia Artist Display, SHOUTcast Radio Directory, UnPlug, Adblock Plus, Taglib metadata handler and Minimize-to-Systemtray, and ChatZilla.

Songbird is really an excellent for playing and downloading music from the web.  Organize your music files and playlist with Songbird with its big library window in the middle, search tools, digital file conversion features, and playlists.

Further, many are looking forward on the added development of this open-source player which can leave  iTunes far apart.