Songbird Soars With Version 0.3

Tuesday marked the release of the Songbird 0.3 “developer’s pre-release,” codenamed Bowie.  For those unfamilar with the product, Songbird is an open source desktop media player that is affiliated with Mozilla.

About 6 months ago I actually discovered this site via StumbleUpon, and have been following their progress ever since.   When I first tried the software, it served its purpose, but needed a lot of work to compete with its competitors.   Now it looks like they are taking that next step. 

New features listed include:

• Webpage API – This feature allows web developers to link up their websites with this media player.   This allows Songbird to be used with download stores, subscription services, radio and even social networking services.
• Songbird Add-ons API – These are designed to work like the Firefox add-ons, which will allow users to create additonal features for the media player.
• Feathers – This feature uses CSS to customize the appearance of Songbird.  So far, this looks similar to the “themes” add-ons we know from Firefox.

As you can see, being built on the Mozilla platform was a smart move and has set up this media player for continued success and growth.  If you’ve tried Songbird at some point, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!