Those looking for an alternative to iTunes or Windows Media Player might be interested to know that their open source competitor, Songbird, has finally reached its 1.0 version this week after two years in development. This free media player built from Mozilla code offers all the basic features for managing your music, from media importing and smart playlists creation to song ratings and (limited) device support, though its real appeal comes from its extensibility.


Like Firefox, Songbird supports user contributed add-ons, allowing you to customize the program’s appearance, playback capabilities and more – quite a few are available here. Sadly, however, there are still a number of features notably missing – CD ripping for example – while others such as iPod integration and concert ticket searches definitely need some polishing.

All in all, Songbird is a promising alternative for users who want a truly cross-platform option for organizing their music libraries and well it’s worth a look, though if you rely heavily on iPod integration and the iTunes Store perhaps you might want to skip this one.