Micahville

I really hate iTunes. I love open source. You might ask, “What is open source?”

Source that is open means that the code that runs a program is available to the people. Some examples are Firefox, Azureus (Bittorrent client with headquarters in Palo Alto), and Audacity (free music editing software).

Why is this good? The Rationale Is: “We require access to un-obfuscated source code because you can’t evolve programs without modifying them. Since open source’s purpose is to make evolution easy, we require that modification be made easy.”

I got rid of iTunes a time ago.

Why did I do it?

There are some qualities that really dislike about iTunes. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is great software, it just has some sticking points.

It sucks up my computer power.

It restricts how I use my music. I can’t play some types of music files. That feels horrible.

The design is boring.

That is why I am switching…to a nice little program called Songbird.

The best part about it is that the basis for the program is Mozilla Firefox. One of the features that I especially like about Songbird is that it has Integrated Web Search. In other words: cruise the web, and listen to music.

The coolest most unique part about Songbird, is that unlike iTunes, “Songbird acts like a specialized web browser for music. It sees the online world through MP3-colored glasses — it looks at an archive of public domain sound files or a music store’s catalog, and displays available media for you.” When I got to a website that has music files, or media files in it, a list shows at the bottom of Songbird with the a download button.

It can also play the media preview, or the streamed music, which you can pause, skip through, and turn up the volume for. Without skipping a beat.

Want more? Watch the screencast here.

Here is an excerpt from an interview that a popular blog, Boing Boing, did with the founder.

BB: So why did you guys build this?
RL: People should have more choice about music and video formats, and where they get their music. Imagine what your experience of the web wold be like if IE connected only to microsoft.com. That’s what digital networked media players are like today. Fairplay [Ed. Note: Apple's proprietary DRM] is the 8-track of our generation, and those formats may become obsolete a lot sooner than people using those services realize. Songbird can connect to any a la carte media store — downloadable music, radio, video, P2P networks, and classes of services that haven’t been created yet. Services like iTunes — where everybody has to shop from the same store — are like walled garden online services back in the early days. AOL, Prodigy. That’s how we connected to the ‘net then. Songbird is to iTunes what the Firefox browser is to those old, limiting online services. It opens up the whole internet to you as a music browsing experience.

Don’t worry about the illegal downloading part: The founder has that covered too.

BB: Should the RIAA be worried about you?
RL: As we say in our FAQ, “We don’t steal music and you shouldn’t either. We support DigitalConsumer.org’s Bill of Rights as the best means to a burgeoning, diverse and lawful digital media market.”

Making the Switch

First, I assume you know how to open iTunes. Please do so.

The easiest way to import your music into Songbird is to “consolidate” your iTunes library into a single location before copying.

Step One: Getting All Your Music In The Same Place

Move your mouse pointer to the topbar, and click the “Advanced” button. A menu will pop up, with “Consolidate Library…” as one of the options. Click it. Next, a dialog box will appear that confirms your decision. Click “Consolidate”.

Now, all your music should be copied into your iTunes music folder.

If you are not sure where your music folder is located, go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced, and the location is in a box entitled “iTunes Music Folder folder location. Copy it.

Step Two: Install Songbird

Good. Now that that is done, we need to actually install the software that we are going to switch to.

Download the installation file, by clicking this link. Save it in an easily accessible place.

(While waiting for the download to finish, watch this video of Micheal Moore demanding an apology from Wolf Blitzer on Youtube.)

When you are done, double click the file you have saved.

Click next.

After this choice, you need to input where you want the program to be installed. The default works just fine, but if you don’t want it, choose for yourself.

Click Install and let the Application finish installing while watching the text fly by. When it stops zooming past like a freight train…

Click “Close”.

Step 3: Opening The Program

This is fairly easy. If you did not uncheck any parts of the program during the installation, go to your desktop. Here you shall see your shortcut.

Click twice, and “Voila!” The program hums to life.

Step 4: Making Songbird Your Own

Adding Music: Seeing as the point of this short exercise has been to replace your music player, let’s get down to the business of actually adding the music.

First, locate the top bar of the App.

Next, Click on the “File” menu, and scroll down till you select “Scan for Media”.

Remember the location of your iTunes library that you copied earlier? Now is when it comes into play. (If you somehow erased it, scroll back up to read how to find and re-copy the location.)

The rest is like magic. Paste the location in the “Folder” box, and click “Ok”. Songbird will do the rest by importing the songs automatically.

BE SURE TO CHECK THE BOX THAT SAYS, “WATCH THIS FOLDER FOR NEW MEDIA!!” IT AUTOMATICALLY UPDATES YOUR LIBRARY IF YOU ADD NEW MUSIC TO ITUNES, AND MAKES ADDING NEW MUSIC MUCH EASIER.

You are now free from iTunes. Congragulations!

Getting the most from Songbird

What else can you do with Songbird? Here is a short list; some of the functions have already been listed earlier.

Browse the Web

Make Playlists

Customize It:

With Songbird, you can add plugins, and customize the look of your music player. Check out all of the customization addons here.

iPod users: No Fear! You can update your iPod through Songbird.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to post them.

Songbird works on Mac, PC, and Linux!

"HOWTO: Dump iTunes for An Open Source Upgrade" was given life on on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm and, I think, categorized Reviews.