SongBird Changelog

What's new in SongBird 1.8.0 Beta 3

Jul 8, 2010
  • Support for device synchronization on Mac OS X via the MSC add-on.
  • Support for the following devices:
  • BlackBerry Storm
  • HTC Evo
  • HTC Magic
  • HTC Tattoo
  • LG KU990i Viewty
  • Nokia N85
  • Nokia N96
  • Nokia N97
  • Sony Ericsson W980
  • A complete visual and behind-the-scenes overhaul of the Service Pane.

New in SongBird 1.8.0 Beta 2 (Jun 29, 2010)

  • We tossed in support for a whole bunch of phones between the last beta and this one, and we nuked quite a few bugs. The newly-added phones are:
  • Blackberry Storm 9500
  • HTC Magic and Tattoo
  • LG KU990i Viewty
  • Nokia N85, N96, and N97
  • Sony Ericsson W980

New in SongBird 1.4.3 (Dec 28, 2009)

  • Purple Rain:
  • Songbird has a new default feather.
  • FIXED SINCE SONGBIRD 1.4.1:
  • Display panes are blank on a 1.2 -> 1.4.1 update ( bug 19334)
  • Clean install does not launch into EULA ( bug 19365)

New in SongBird 1.4.2 (Dec 22, 2009)

  • We’ve fixed the snag mentioned in our previous post. It wasn’t anything serious — just a UI glitch exposed during updates in which some remnants of the old Gonzo feather were showing up in the new Purple Rain feather, which made mashTape and LyricMaster hard to use. If you’re interested in the full details, head on over to bugzilla.songbirdnest.com and read up on bug 19334.

New in SongBird 1.1.1 (Mar 11, 2009)

  • On Demand Fetching of Album Artwork:
  • Songbird can now fetch album artwork from the web at your command. Simply select or right-click a track and choose "Get Album Artwork". You can also select your preferred source of artwork. By default, Songbird will retrieve album art from Last.fm but you can install from other sources such as amazon.com via an add-on.
  • MTP Device Support:
  • We fixed many bugs affecting MTP devices on Windows. We've also added the ability to synch authorized Windows Media DRM'ed content to your MTP device. To see if your MTP device is supported, or to report your findings, visit our MTP Device Support page.
  • Watch Folders:
  • You can choose to watch a folder hierarchy for changes and the content will auto-magically be imported in your library. If a file is removed from the watched folder, the corresponding track will be deleted from your Library.
  • Better Sorting:
  • Library sorting supports unicode collation and better handling of leading definite and indefinite articles such as "The" and "a".
  • Replay Gain Support (Normalization):
  • If a track's metadata contains replay gain (including iTunes-specific) information, Songbird will adjust the playback gain appropriately.
  • Reduced Installer Packages:
  • We've reduced the installer package size on Mac and Linux by about 45% on each of those platforms.
  • Improved Memory Usage/Performance:
  • As part of our project to bring down memory usage in Songbird, we've re-tuned the database to be less greedy with your system's memory. On some memory starved systems, this should actually increase performance, but most users shouldn't notice any difference in searching, sorting, scrolling, filtering, or smart playlists. Users with very large libraries (>100,000 tracks) will see the biggest memory use improvements. If you do find things are more sluggish than you remember, please see Tuning Songbird Memory Usage and try adjusting the page cache size upwards. If you find any problems in these areas, please file a Bugzilla issue against Songbird.
  • 7digital MP3 Store Add-on (Beta):
  • We've partnered with 7digital to bring you the highest quality MP3s (320kbps). You can easily search, purchase, organize and get recommendations directly into Songbird. Just click on the 7digital Music Store node in your Songbird service pane. NOTE: The UK store is fully stocked, but the US and other European stores are still continuing to populate a complete catalog of music. Please file any bugs, issues or suggestions for the 7digital MP3 store specifically in our Bugzilla database.
  • Bug fixes:
  • [linux] Mini mode position is not remembered when switched back from Full Player ( bug 5938)
  • Maximized state is not remembered between feather changes ( bug 9002)
  • [podcast][mac][linux] Play stopped on change of feather ( bug 9525)
  • [mac][linux] Songbird does not play MIDI files ( bug 9798)
  • [linux] Cannot D&D import files from directory with spaces it path name ( bug 9804)
  • [linux] Files from SMB shares cannot be played ( bug 12539)
  • Songbird won't play music under Fedora 10/Songbird does not work on Fedora 10 ( bug 14090)/ ( bug 15235)
  • Songbird hangs / crashes when connection to NAS share lost ( bug 15434)
  • [watchfolders][linux] Watch remote folder on Linux ( bug 15536)

New in SongBird 1.0 (Dec 2, 2008)

  • GStreamer:
  • We now use GStreamer as our main media playback system, across all platforms - giving us higher performance, better reliability, and a platform for much more media-related functionality in the future.
  • Improved mashTape:
  • When you listen to music in Songbird you'll have the option to see Flickr photos, YouTube videos, last.fm biographies, google news (and more) for the currently playing artist.
  • Improved Album Art Support:
  • The album artwork feature now supports drag and drop of images, as well as, toggling between Now Playing and Currently Selected tracks.
  • Complete Keyboard Shortcuts:
  • We've cleaned up our Keyboard Shortcuts this release (and added some new ones for power users).
  • Updated Linux Installer:
  • We've created a single archive that has all the necessary dependencies so that Linux users can run Songbird without having to install any additional dependencies.
  • Re-usable Smart Playlists:
  • By popular request we've implemented the ability to use a smart playlist as a rule within another smart playlist.
  • Reveal Original Files:
  • We've added the ability to expose the media items in Songbird as files in your filesystem by right clicking and choosing "Show File".
  • Recommended Add-ons Updater:
  • A new update mechanism ensures that all upgraded users have an option to install the latest Recommended Add-ons.
  • Hide & Show Display Panes:
  • We were inspired by Atrieu's Pane Button add-on and decided to add a few buttons to allow you to toggle between showing & hiding Display panes.
  • Simpler Column Headings:
  • We've refined the column heading property list and made it easier to enable the properties you care about.
  • Performance Enhancements:
  • We made some substantial gains this release...
  • Drastically Faster Search: Searching in Songbird is now anywhere from 10x faster for small libraries to 1000x for large ones.
  • Reduced RAM Usage: There's a 70% reduction in RAM usage when importing and using large (100,000 track) libraries.
  • Faster Media Importing: Importing media into Songbird is now 2-4x faster.
  • Reduced Startup Times: Large library users (10,000 tracks or more) will notice that Songbird startup times are now twice as fast.
  • Efficient Scrolling: Scrolling through your library now uses half the amount of CPU.
  • Snappier Sorting: Sorting your library is now 3-4x faster, which adds up to significantly smoother browsing when scrolling and filtering.
  • Optimized DB Size: We’ve optimized the database in Songbird and reduced its size by, on average, 60%. This leads to a variety of performance improvements throughout the application.
  • Fewer Crashers: We've worked hard to identify and fix 11 of the most common crashes in Songbird.

New in SongBird 1.0.0 RC2 (Nov 16, 2008)

  • Importing iTunes libraries will no longer trigger a hang.
  • Using the the Windows Media Playback and QuickTime Playback add-ons we’ve brought back the ability to play pre-authorized DRM media: WMA DRM on Windows; Fairplay on Windows and Mac.
  • mashTape has been updated and will no longer invoke Flash player security warnings.
  • We’ve adjusted the buffer size for streaming media but we’re still working on the final setting. If you think it’s too high you can adjust it by following these steps.
  • Video support has been temporarily removed from the application. Our move to GStreamer introduced some new video related bugs that couldn’t be addressed in time for this release. Since video has been an unsupported feature we decided that this was the prudent thing to do for now. You can absolutely count on us re-introducing video support in a future release down the road!
  • When viewing Album art at fullsize you can now easily close the window.
  • When clicking on a track in the library invoking inline editing of metadata is now less likely to appear when you weren’t looking for it.
  • We resolved a number of bugs that could crash the application (thanks for always submitting your crash reports. Your anonymous data really helps us track down issues!)

New in SongBird 1.0.0 RC1 (Nov 5, 2008)

  • Improved Audio/Playback Functionality:
  • We now use GStreamer as our main media playback system, across all platforms - giving us higher performance, better reliability, and a platform for much more media-related functionality in the future.
  • Songbird supports MP3, FLAC, and Vorbis on all platforms; WMA on Windows; and AAC on Windows and Mac.
  • UI Experience Improvements:
  • Many new keyboard shortcuts added. The list of those supported per platform can be viewed via "Keyboard Shortcuts" selection in the Help menu.
  • We’ve refined the column heading property list and made it easier to enable the properties you care about. Just right click on any column heading in a library or playlist to give it a try.
  • "Show File" now available for any selected track via File menu or right click on track contextual menu. This provides an easy way to find the media file location on your filesystem.
  • Smart Playlists can now be used as rules within other Smart Playlists.
  • Ability to show/hide display panes via individual buttons for service pane, bottom and right sidebar display panes
  • Performance Improvements:
  • Faster Media Importing
  • Drastically Faster Search
  • Reduced Startup Times
  • Snappier Sorting
  • Efficient Scrolling of Large Libraries
  • Reduced Memory Usage (When importing and using large libraries)
  • Stability:
  • Many miscellaneous top crashers were fixed for this release.