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11 Things I Would Like To See Added To Songbird

Monday, October 6th, 2008
by Chris Pirillo

Gnomie Bryan writes:

Songbird, as Chris knows, is an iTunes-like media player with an Internet jukebox appeal. Here is a list of things I think would improve this application. (Note: some things are already in the works.) For the sake of full disclosure I have Ubuntu 8.04 and 512 MB of RAM with a Pentuim 4.

Automatic device recognition – How many times have you plugged in that SD card or USB drive only to find you have to mount it for a one-time use to play Song bird?
An equalizer – Seriously, a kickass iTunes wannabe with no EQ? It’s insane!
Better support for cell phones using SD cards — To get music to my cell phone I have to drag and drop from folders and manually edit the metadata like it’s 2004. There needs to be some sort of SD manager.
Better video support – This flaw isn’t exclusive to Songbird — WinAmp does the same thing. It plays music amazingly then looks at the video and opens a pathetic little window. I know Miro or a Web browser will do just as well, but adding video support could make Songbird the flagship media app in the FOSS world.
Better RSS support – Songbird needs a simple app to subscribe to video/audio/text feeds since it’s a media player.
MTP support in Linux – Sure, this takes effort, but us *nix users have had the cold shoulder for so long — come on! I bought the freakin’ thing; I should be able to control it in Ubuntu.
Improved Flash – You can’t call yourself a media playing Web browser without it. I like the Newgrounds audio portal, so pulling up Flock just to go listen to some GOA trance really sucks.
Media center features – This is a no-brainer. Combine the Web-based media components with FM radio and PVR-like stuff. We don’t think of a border between TV over the air and Web TV like hulu.com.
Stream capture + timed stream capture – Along with Flash support, this could be a revolution. Imagine some video interface capable of scheduling and time shifting or playing online video locally (like Totem in GNOME) or capturing Shoutcast mp3s like that XM mp3 player.
CD ripping/burning with codec support – For a media player to win over iTunes users, it’s a must! Sure, a serious project might require something more complex, but for quick plop in and burn, it’s a good idea.
Extras for audiophiles – I know most of this is OS/kernal stuff or for Pulse audio if you use it, but it needs stuff like surround support, special EQ settings for high end headphones, etc.