Songbird.
Songbird is both very cool and very important.
Up until now I've been completely unimpressed with music purchase websites and programs. Most are inconvenient, and all are limited in some way. The only one worth mentioning is iTunes Music Store, which itself is crippled by Apple's DRM encryption standard, known as Fairplay. Purchasing music online should be easy. Pay the fee, download the mp3 or ogg file.
Now it is.
Songbird is a new online music purchase/download utility which is going to have a dramatic impact on the internet music scene. With an interface modeled on the iTunes paradigm, Songbird will soon allow people to set up non-proprietary music stores on the internet. Indie music buffs rejoice. This is the program that will free your labels. Not only that, it works as an interface to mp3 blogs as well ( here is one of my favorites ), giving you a slick interface for your browsing pleasure. Any website which contains mp3 files becomes a playlist as you browse it. If the major labels want to take part, so be it. If not, they can't sue the creators of this software. They can only sue the store owners.
This BoingBoing article has shown me yet again why open standards are generally superior to proprietary standards. Sadly, Songbird is only available for Windows right now, so I can't use it ( I swore off of Windows ages ago ). The creators are promising versions for the Mac and Linux very soon and I wait with baited breath.
I am a huge music buff. In college, friends and I would trade mix tapes ( yes, on cassette ) of Sonic Youth, Nirvana bootlegs, Cibbo Matto and the Afghan Whigs. I own more Compact Discs that I'd like to count.
Napster changed everything. It was both a blessing and a curse. In Napster I found an enormous trove of music at my disposal; Not just the popular music, but the niche stuff too. Convenience was only part of the attraction. Napster opened a whole new world of music to me, and community as well.
The music companies didn't get it. They were quickly becoming obsolete, and they didn't want to lose control. They shut down file sharing sites, sued consumers for file sharing, built copyright protection systems into CDs. They began to remove my newfound freedom. Recently I made the decision to stop purchasing CDs from major label vendors. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with paying for music. I simply believe that once I've made my purchase, I should be able to do as I like with it: Play it for friends, put it on a server, burn a disc for my car. Songbird is the first step in the direction of technological equilibrium for the music industry.
Up until now I've been completely unimpressed with music purchase websites and programs. Most are inconvenient, and all are limited in some way. The only one worth mentioning is iTunes Music Store, which itself is crippled by Apple's DRM encryption standard, known as Fairplay. Purchasing music online should be easy. Pay the fee, download the mp3 or ogg file.
Now it is.
Songbird is a new online music purchase/download utility which is going to have a dramatic impact on the internet music scene. With an interface modeled on the iTunes paradigm, Songbird will soon allow people to set up non-proprietary music stores on the internet. Indie music buffs rejoice. This is the program that will free your labels. Not only that, it works as an interface to mp3 blogs as well ( here is one of my favorites ), giving you a slick interface for your browsing pleasure. Any website which contains mp3 files becomes a playlist as you browse it. If the major labels want to take part, so be it. If not, they can't sue the creators of this software. They can only sue the store owners.
This BoingBoing article has shown me yet again why open standards are generally superior to proprietary standards. Sadly, Songbird is only available for Windows right now, so I can't use it ( I swore off of Windows ages ago ). The creators are promising versions for the Mac and Linux very soon and I wait with baited breath.
I am a huge music buff. In college, friends and I would trade mix tapes ( yes, on cassette ) of Sonic Youth, Nirvana bootlegs, Cibbo Matto and the Afghan Whigs. I own more Compact Discs that I'd like to count.
Napster changed everything. It was both a blessing and a curse. In Napster I found an enormous trove of music at my disposal; Not just the popular music, but the niche stuff too. Convenience was only part of the attraction. Napster opened a whole new world of music to me, and community as well.
The music companies didn't get it. They were quickly becoming obsolete, and they didn't want to lose control. They shut down file sharing sites, sued consumers for file sharing, built copyright protection systems into CDs. They began to remove my newfound freedom. Recently I made the decision to stop purchasing CDs from major label vendors. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with paying for music. I simply believe that once I've made my purchase, I should be able to do as I like with it: Play it for friends, put it on a server, burn a disc for my car. Songbird is the first step in the direction of technological equilibrium for the music industry.
posted by Q. at 8:49:00 PM
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