Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Songbird version 0.1, a proof-of-concept release with only a few functional features, is a music player and Web browser that autodetects and imports most music file formats on users computers and in Web pages. The browser is currently available to download for Windows, with ports to Mac OS X and Linux in progress.

The plethora of stores that can be accessed through only one music player, such as iTunes, Napster, and Musicmatch, is limiting consumers' adoption of digital media, says Rob Lord, project lead on Songbird and founder and chief executive of Pioneers of the Inevitable (POTI), the company developing the browser. Lord says Songbird's creators want the application to centralize users' interaction with digital music files.

Lord compares proprietary music stores to the early online services era dominated by America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy, when users of those different services could not email each other. He says that by focusing on the music, rather than formats, stores, and players, the digital music industry will grow because playing songs will be easier for users.