iTunes Alternative

FreeMacWare.com often picks up some interesting finds for free software, but today's pick really caught my eye. It's an open source iTunes alternative called "Songbird" that is also cross platform (Windoze, Mac, & Linux). I haven't had a chance to try it yet (I will), but the screencast looks very interesting and shows some advanced features.

Songbird will play many kinds of music files (except purchased iTunes AAC files) as well videos (though I'm not sure what formats). The coolest thing about Songbird is that it has a built in browser function that allows you to search the web for music of your likeing, and play right inside songbird. It will find all the media on a particular page, and list them in Songbird just like they were media in your iTunes browser. You can even download media for future use, so that you don't have to go back to the original web page.

The interface is similar to iTunes, but skinable. And the app is still in development, supposedly using the FireFox platform (whatever that means). There are nightly builds you can install. Give it a try, because it looks very cool.

Update: The Developer Preview version may not work correctly after the first start up. The first time you boot the app, disable all the suggested add-on check boxes.