Sing into Spring: Songbird in Version 1.1
The Songbird music player is now out as version 1.1. Next to some normalization enhancements, the free software includes a watch folders feature and optimized album cover downloads.
Almost a million users have downloaded Songbird so far, according to company claims, and the feedback prompted a few changes, bug fixes and new features in Songbird 1.1, available since last week. Now album cover artwork off the Web is just a mouse-click away, via Last.fm by default, but you can also specify Amazon.com.
The watch folders features allows users to specify which music folder hierarchy to monitor for changes and then automatically import new titles to their libraries. Removed files are also removed from the libraries. The sorting algorithm was also improved with unicode collation and recognition of leading articles such as "the" and "a" in titles. To prevent damage to sensitive eardrums, Songbird adjusts the playback volume if a track's metadata has replay gain, including for iTunes titles.
Overall, Songbird 1.1 should be more stable, use significantly less memory and CPU, and undergo fewer crashes. With large music libraries, the player uses 40% less RAM and playback cuts the CPU usage in half. A very practical feature is that developers can launch Songbird from a URL, such as from a Last.fm stream. One improvement applies to Windows only: better identification of silent spots for a smoother playback. The Windows version also recognizes MTP devices better and can synchronize Windows Media DRM content with them.
Like other open source projects, Songbird wants to make some revenue. Their business model is the 7digital MP3 Store, now in beta, where you can buy high quality MP3s (up to 320 Kbps). Recommendations from 7digital are based on your most recently played track. The music store contributes a part of each purchase to Songbird's development. The U.K. version of the store is now "fully stocked" and the U.S. and European stores, with a few titles still missing, will hopefully soon follow suit.
Download of the bugfix version 1.1.1 of Songbird for Linux is available as a tar.gz here.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.
Captain Sarcastic Reporting In
Next to the stunning, well thought out interface, that's gotta be it's best feature.