Most of us have used the standard music players. Winamp is relatively light weight and has some really cool features such as Winamp Remote (full streaming web access to your entire music library from anywhere…including your mobile phone). iTunes is crisp, well thought-out, and works great with your iPhone too, but is almost ridiculously slow when run in Windows. And then there is the standard-shipped Windows Media Player. Microsoft has been attempting to up-the-ante on it for years now, but it’s just not that great and shows slow growth and improvement. Are there any other options worth taking a look at?

I’ve tried out many alternative media players and have been disappointed every time, crawling back to my Winamp/iTunes hybrid experience where I use one or the other depending on what I want to do. Until now.

I’ve installed and stuck with Songbird for a few weeks now. It can run on your operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux), it’s Free/Open Source, and happens to be a web-browser as well. If you enjoy using plug-ins on the FireFox web browser, you’ll love Songbird too. Songbird is a new favorite of mine for a few key reasons:

1. It has quality plug-ins. There are numerous useful plug-ins that make using Songbird more efficient and more fun.
2. It has an active developer community. Songbird is improving all the time- the community of developers actively resolves bugs, updates their plug-ins, and innovates the player.
3. It’s got an attractive, skinnable interface. In addition to being able to download “feathers” to change the look of Songbird, one can also install “Pure Player” which provides a great interface that is somewhere between the main player and the mini player.
4. The rating system will write to the MP3 tag instead of purely storing it in a local database. This is great for those of you who want the option to take your ratings with your files in case Songbird dies or you begin using another player that flexibly reads those ratings.

I’ve really enjoyed Songbird, but don’t want to forget to point out some of the weaknesses:

1. No CD-Burning yet.
2. Not light on the RAM.
3. Almost too customizable for tech-novices.

All in all, I think Songbird is a great media player to buy into. If you find any bugs, just let everyone know at their support site.

Consider installing Songbird and giving it a try. If you do, you’ll want to install my top 10 Songbird plug-ins listed below.

TOP 10 SONGBIRD PLUG-INS

• Last.FM Scrobbler – keeps track of what you listen to, recommends other artists, etc.
• MediaFlow – shows album art like iTunes above the library
• Smarty Pants – highly customizable tool for automatic playlist generation based off of a song selection
• Amazon Fetcher – grabs large album art for your MP3s
• Releases – tells you of upcoming releases for artists in your library
• Concerts – shows you if artists in your library are playing near you any time soon
• The Exorcist – helps to find and rid your library of broken/missing tracks
• SongbirdRemote – Allows you to control Songbird from your iPhone
• PurePlayer – not the mini size, not the full size…right in the middle
• LiveTweeter – annoy your friends with automatic notifications of what you are listening to!