The continuing evolution of the media player shows little sign of slowdown, if Songbird is anything to go by. Granted, it seems impossible to go to a software download site in 2008 without having an assortment of tools foisted on you that promise to sort out all sorts of media related jobs, whether you want them to or not, but Songbird still has found itself a useful perch upon which to sit.

The premise behind the application is to manage both online and offline media. So the offline stuff is fairly standard. It scans your drives, sorts out your media, goes through your iTunes directory, hunts out relevant metadata and then, from within the application itself, you have a decent enough playback tool.

What's more, its footprint is quite light, and a welcome antidote to the monolith that the capable-yet-sluggish Windows Media Player has become. Unsurprisingly, it's the sprightly VLC Media Player that's doing a good chunk of the work behind the scenes.

The main thrust of the program, though, is to be a Web media player, and to bring the joys of online media seamlessly to your desktop. So you point the program (which is also underpinned by Firefox) towards a Web site, and it scans it to find tracks that you can play.

Then, from within the Songbird interface, you can choose to play media that is streamed from the Web for you to enjoy, assuming the program can find some. Furthermore, if the music is available to purchase from a location the program recognises, Songbird also puts in the relevant links so that you can do so.

The trick here, of course, is that everything can be done from the same dashboard. Whether you're playing music stored on your hard drive or grabbing it from a site located on the far reaches of the planet, it's all controlled through the same interface and in the same intuitive way. It's a logical step, and perhaps in some ways ahead of its time, more suited to a period where some of the proprietary boundaries have been dismantled.

It's still an early release of the program, and that has to be accepted. Some tracks that we expected to be found by Songbird it didn't pick up, although conversely it was capable of finding all sorts of goodies that otherwise we'd have missed altogether. But it's a fascinating project that's on the road to being a worthwhile and complete music solution. Right now, you just have to accept it as it is, warts and all.

Verdict
An interesting idea that's so far been backed up with improving execution. At worst, this is a media managing program worth keeping an eye on.

Company: Songbirdnest

Tags: itunes windows media player songbird vlc media player media-player computer program digital media music and audio