What digital music formats will Songbird play?

So am I right that it won't play directly from a CD and won't play AIFF files. In other words, if I want to load my system with my CDs using Songbird then play them with it, it won't. I need to load them using something else to put them in another format then Songbird will find locate them and store pointers to them for reading only. Is that all this does or do I have it wrong.

what about monkey audio's .ape support ?

Great, I just uninstalled RealPlayer and cleaned out all my files so I could load my CD's into Songbird only to find out you cant do that yet! I'm sorry but the first thing in any Media Player should be the ability to load your actual media library'@%$%$#! No equalizer just yet is lame enough, but no way to load a CD into your NEW "MEDIA PLAYER" is a joke! It looks great and I have high hopes but what the @%$%@#!

@iggy
Our media player's first big feature is to play the web, CD support will be here for 1.0 version I hope !
Be sure to look at http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Roadmap for next features !!!

.shn, .ape, .mp2 support would be great. This looks like a promising media player, but not exactly ready for prime time. I'll definitely be tracking this project though. I'll use it once there is more support for other formats. I'm looking for a MediaMonkey alternative.

i would like some better linux support in the future, but, woudn't everyone!

Is it possible to download a book on tape?

Yes, Songbird does support most of the popular formats. But it DOESN'T support FLAC image + cue sheet playback, like Amarok and Foobar 2000. For live concert albums, mixes, much classical music and opera, true gapless playback is a MUST. The only reliable way to accomplish this is to rip (with a tool like Exact Audio Copy) to a CD image instead of to separate tracks. The image can be uncompressed - like a .wav file - or compressed, as in .flac. EAC generates an accompanying "cue sheet" (a text file with the extension .cue) which tells the compatible player where the track divisions are within the image file. Gapless playback is assured because there are no gaps; just playback of a single large file with directions from the cue sheet where the divisions are.

What's more, the image+cue sheet model is perfect for archiving CDs. An image, in conjunction with its accompanying cue sheet, can be used to re-create the original CD virtually byte for byte, complete with tracks.

Serious music lovers - regardless of their tastes - eventually become frustrated without this capability! I have been eagerly watching and waiting for Songbird to mature, but I will tell you right now; if the final release does not include cue sheet support, that will be a deal breaker for me!

Also, I strongly suggest including support for playback of Audible electronic book files! Adding Fairplay support is great, but without Audible book support, I will still not be able to get iTunes off my hard drive! Help me out here!

It says above that the program supports the protected itunes files, but I am having a difficult time getting them to play. Are there any other measures I need to take to allow my protected songs to play? Can you set it up for songs from multiple itunes accounts will play? I searched thoroughly and couldn't find a solution other than trying to remove the protection from the files.

hey there. does anyone know for sure about .wav support.

songbird won't play them for me but vlc will (of course)? (on win xp by the way)

will this be available when gstreamer is integrated etc?

So i have had something happen where the player will play a song once, and then it will refuse to play it later on. The file is in the same format and in the same place, but simply will not play. Does anyone know why this might be?

minikahuna, that sounds like a bug? maybe one of the employees can help you. what kind of file is it?

It's just an mp3 file

do you have any other music programs running? i'm no expert but i've had the experience of having had mp3's on my laptop for like a year, then suddenly itunes reads them as being "encoded," and nothing else will play them or burn them. luckily i had most of my music on cd's, but this drm weirdness is part of the reason i'm trying songbird now....

I have some .m4p files from the itunes store and songbird won't even import them...do I need to install anything else for them to work?

in the best response at the top of the page, it says to use the quicktime and windows media playback add ons, but when i look for them i am unable to find them? do they exist or am i just looking in the wrong place?

why doesnt songbird support ape yet?

/bump for .ape support. 75% of my music is in this format. Once it's supported, I'll be happy to switch to songbird! :-)

@ Daniel
I'm on Windows Vista 64.

np. well im on vista x64 too, but ape isnt played on songbird while im on linux either

Got it, but if I get it right, it still doesn't play WAV, AIFF, or straight from a CD. In other words, and I don't mean this in a nasty way, it is not meant for quality playback, just compressed junk.

@ jsonny
yeah man
honestly
ape?
thats like an obvious support feature

XP User
Songbird looks as though it will be good one day. All my files are .wav and i want to keep them that way til compression improves. Songbird can't see them. Tragedy. I've just had a terrible time with I-tunes - I have a 500 gig usb drive which I store my music on together with photos and a backup file. My backup program found the I-tunes Init data file corrupted and turned itself off. I thought I'd delete the backup file and start again but no I wasn't allowed to delete it because I wasn't allowed access to the corrupt file. So there was a 46gig backup file sitting on my hard drive of no use to anyone. Taking the warning I moved my photos, videos to the c: drive and attempted to move my music. I found I was only allowed to move 1 album before I would get a message which would tell me 1 - the files were corrupted, or 2 - the files could not be found, or 3 most worryingly - the device could not be found. If I safely disconnected the USB drive and reconnected it the device could be found, the files could be found and what's more I could copy another album. I uninstalled I-tunes (the latest version by the way). When I rebooted there was a warning from Nero saying my cd drivers were incorrect and Nero had replaced them but I should reboot again. I did so and had no problem copying my entire music library from my USB drive to drive C: in one hit. I-tunes has gone security mad - anyone who can offer a decent music management program which covers all the formats, and there are still a lot of minidisc users out there, could make it the industry standard.

What about mp3 PRO as offered by Live365 radio stations?
Their player for Mac is very old and unstable (on my Mac).
Would be fine to have an alternative.

It is very badly that the Songbird does not play APE format!!!
It is very important for classical music!!!

I just tried to bring some flac files recorded in 24/96 into Songbird, but they were dimmed out in the import dialog box. I tried changing the file extension from .flac to .fla, but that did not work. Are 24/96 FLAC files supported? I am running Mac OS X 10.5.4.

Is it me, or is there just no option to play apple lossless formats? I want to migrate from iTunes to Songbirg since I love the features and im using mozialla products all the way and never have been disappointed. Couldnt get songbirg to play my audio tho. Apple lossless and .aiff support would be much appreciated and would make it easier for ppl to switch from itunes to songbird.

Another one surprised and saddened that I can't play a CD with Songbird. Yes, lots of players will but we are trying to find one big happy player so this is a big too bad!

I want a complete format list to be on the site somewhere, updated as the application evolves. It seems ridiculous to me to have a media player application and not specifically list which formats the player can use. I assume that .MP3, .OGG, and .MP4 work, but what about more obscure formats like FLAC, Monkey'sAudio, or MusePack?

So... if I download Songbird, would I be able to put songs on my 3rd Generation iPod Nano?

ud think that if enough people complained and some time passed by thered be ape support by now

Adding .ape would be very nice yes... Just wanted to play some .ape of Frederic Chopin but wasn't able to play it with Songbird.
Even looked for a add-on but without results.
Kinda strange that Songbird haven't included .ape support yet.
Keep up the good work for the rest ;)

The install button for the WMA addon is grayed out and will not let me install it. Anybody know why?

Do you support WAV files? Also what is the best format to save your music files in regardless of formats you support? Have been copying CDs to my laptop and WAV was the default format.

I have been listening to AIFF files in SongBird 1.2 on my Mac for some time now. I rip them into iTunes and then import the entire iTunes library into Songbird. When I add new AIFF files to iTunes, I go to Songbird Preferences and re-import the entire library. It works fine. Last time I tried, using Songbird to pull in individual AIFF files, or folders with such files, did not work.

BTW, I find the sound to be superior through Songbird, compared with iTunes, at least on my system. That is the main reason that I use Songbird.

-1 for APE support. Please continue supporting FLAC!

APE is main lossless format (over FLAC) for some countries so it should be suppoted for sure. And FLAC should be suppoted as well, of cause. We want to see Songbird a full-functional program, which could be installed for long-time use after such players like foobar2000, amarok. And without supporting as many formats as possible it just never will happen.

Good day, mr. Andrew Luecke.

I fully accept your position that supporting of the APE format - like some other formats - could be (shout be) realized via pluggin(s) and not build-in. But, no doubt, it should be realized someway.

Let's look at APE format closer.

It's not so popular for Europe and American users, indeed. But it's very popular for about 1/7 part of the earth. The only one example: Torrents.ru. Most lossless audio files from there are in APE. And this is one of the largest torrent trackers in the world.

So if FLAC is most popular lossless format for one parth of the Earth, then APE is the most popular lossless format for another. We can't ignore that fact.

Now let's look at Songbird.

I'm a big Mozzila fan and i *really* like this player (thanks for it very much!). Still, i can't use it yet because of luck of suppoted formats. I can use any side converter, of cause. But why i would use Songbird then if i can do the same and much more with let's say foobar2000?

When i want to convert downloaded APE into Apple losses (.mp4 container) for my iPod, i can't do that with Songbird because it doesn't support APE+CUE. I need to use side converters. But the same operations i can do with other players: with additional pluggins but i can. Why it should be so?

We'r looking for a program which could to function not only as web radio station receiver (to be honest, birddy is a bit "fat" to do only that) but as full-functional audio player: and supporting formats is one of the main function for an audio player, sir.

G'day,

I totally agree APE support should be available, however, there is a very good reason why Winamp, windows and most other players don't include APE by default, and that's because, as mentioned, technically APE has a lot of problems associated with it. APE is a format which could suddenly become officially unsupported without warning.

As mentioned, I simply couldn't see POTI pouring resources into Monkey directly. It takes a lot of time to do so, and none of the obvious feasible solutions available seem nice.

HOWEVER, one feasible solution which benefits a lot more then APE, is MediaFoundation/Directshow support. This framework allows Songbird to play any music which Windows Media player is capable of playing (Winamp and many other players support this already). I filed a bug for this previously: http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com/show... but they are waiting for Windows 7 before implementing. It should be noted though that, directshow is a Windows only thing..

Directshow supports APE (if you install the correct filter), and this would allow the developers to support almost any format (even Wavpack), and it would allow QuickTime to be permanently dumped on Windows 7.

Its simply a much better solution overall, with enough benefits to justify its implementation.

I agree with you, sir. Here's filter to play APE with Directshow already [http://www.free-codecs.com/download/R...]. But it's not about Songbird directly.

We haves 2 ways: application (plugin) support for format or filters for DirectX. Still SB could be used not only to play APE but also split up it on tracks (demands CUE support wich we don't have yet) and convert in some output format: mp3, wav. So SB needs plugins anyway.

Apparently generic mediaFoundation wont work as well as I'd hoped due to the way Songbird is designed apparently..

Which gives me an idea for another idea...

G'day,

I have posted another idea that doesn't directly fix your problem di7ra, but it does fix a few of the underlying problems, and eventually help solve your problem. You may be interested in it: http://getsatisfaction.com/songbird/t...

It's not possible for me to convert all the APE files I get from torrent or Emule in another format !
So I'm sorry you don't take into account my request ...
I agree with di7ra: "supporting formats is one of the main function for an audio player"?
APE can be managed by a Plugin if you want, the important is that SB can
play ALL my tracks.

Thanks in advance.

G'day,
I understand what you mean, however, I don't think I explained my point of view well.

1) Monkey Audio support is dodgy everywhere. That's because you can't redistribute the codec legally, Never have found a player which included a decoder by default. And the only open source implementation currently is coded in java... You really want java as a dependency for Songbird?

2) Windows, foobar, itunes, Songbird, winamp, NOBODY seems to officially supports Monkey Audio anywhere. Winamp supports it indirectly using the windows media player codecs, so the fact it works with it, is a coincidence

3) Are the torrents you are downloading available in FLAC instead? Do you mind posting some examples? I've never seen any artist distribute their music exclusively as Monkey Audio. In fact, even pirated songs would be difficult to find in APE format vs FLAC...

4) The APE codec didn't even appear to make it into Gstreamer-plugins-ugly.

I'm not saying don't support it, however, media support isn't the ONLY purpose of a media player. Podcasting, and mechanisms to permit audio books are popular. You are correct if infinite resources are available. However, resources are severely limited, so prioritises must be made.

If 5000 people want podcasting, and only 200 want Monkey audio support, and Podcasting takes double the amount of time to code (and APE support isn't possible to support well), what would you develop?

It simply isn't possible for POTI to support it well. And, Songbird is designed to allow it to be added as a codec. My opinion is that it should be a community project (which would be great). And this is only my opinion, I'm not hired by POTI, not part of the songbird development team, I am 100% community (and don't get paid to say this). I would simply prefer resources to be allocated differently. And as mentioned, nothing is stopping the community developing a plugin for APE support..

@nicault
Mr. Andrew Luecke isn't Songbird developer, nor plugin developer: he's only trying to help ppl to find possible solution. And doing it his best.

@Andrew Luecke
What about podcasting vs. some formats, well, as i said it before: here'r players which can do everything that Songbird can (with additional plugins or not) and support much more formats. For doing only some of audio player's functions bird is too fat. So until here will be plugins for SB to supporting more formats it never will be any leading player. It's just a fact.

You say 5000 want podcasts and 200: actually, the proportions are different because you don't account ex-USSR countries and Russia itself and some Asian countries (APE is very popular in China as i know) - when it's a lot-a lot-a lot of ppl. But, anyway, they don't even need to choose. Just that will be not Songbird.

G'day, Actually, the figures weren't exact.. It was just an example. And yes, I don't doubt there are players with a lot more formats available (winamp for instance), but its worth noting, nobody seems to officially supports APE out of the box.

Heres a list of players I know which does support Monkey out of the box
(NONE).

All players, you need to install plug-ins separately for APE (at least haven't found one that doesn't), and most don't offer direct support, only via directmedia (or whatever its called). So, Songbird certainly isn't the only one who isn't supportive of Monkey.

Either way, software development is like war. You win some users, you lose some users. It however, is impossible to satisfy every user. All that can be done is to decide if you want the maximum amount of users over a long period of time, or over a short amount of time. Every developer needs to sacrifice some users to win others. Its the harsh reality. It sucks, but its life. That being said, I wonder how difficult it would be to compile a copy of the APE plugin for Songbird, and release an Addon (might dig around for a copy of Visual studio I guess, if I have time)

Well. No one says that APE support should to be build-in. No one, sir :) Just here' s no any so far: that's the only problem. Let me explain how i see the situation.

As it has been told, APE is popular mostly in those countries where some other players are popular (with APE support). I don't know many users from ex-USSR countries and China who would be on SB. Have a look, please: http://bit.ly/F1gtv. This is Songbird's thread on the largest russian web forum (1.259.020 members). It's not to say that thread would be totally dead but... now take another look, please: http://bit.ly/QDLge. No need to know russian, just compare amount of posts in topics.

Don't know about China but they have some other players (with china-lang. ui only) and they love foobar2k much. This love isn't some ideological but practical, ofc: it can do everything what you may even need from player.

So we have a situation where those who could to write the plugin just don't use SB and those who wants APE on SB can't write the plugin. But why wouldn't SB developing team write a *separate* plugins to provide APE and other formats suppot instead of telling that none needs it when too many users in the world need and don't even considering SB without more formats suppot?

How hard is it to write a plugin i don't know. But as soon as any other player has that plugin it's possible at least.

So how to send a request to the community for an APE plug-in ?

G'day,

Looks like Laura officially mentioned this on the birdbath :D

Hello
Is .MP2 (Audio MPEG Layer 2) support somewhere in the plans, or will it also need a dedicated add-on?

Also, another question about those addons: will an addon adding support of, let's say, MP2 also allow transcoding from MP2 to OGG when sync to a device?

Thanks

Btw, for those who told that APE format is closed and that makes a problem to add build-in support for that form, read the license, pelase: http://www.monkeysaudio.com/license.html.

"The Monkey's Audio SDK and source code can be freely used to add APE format playback, encoding, or tagging support to any product, free or commercial. Use of the code for proprietary efforts that don't support the official APE format require written consent of the author.".

So, it's just about a free will to add the support as build-in function (and get much more users) or wait while some of those who'r using mostly FLAC will write an APE plugin (because those who'r using APE just don't use SB).

Why i'm about build-in support?

As i wrote earlier, here's situation when we might wait for that plugin long time because not so many people are using SB yet and without format supporting they even won't.

I'm myself Mac OSX / Windows user and i'm using iTunes/XWD under first OS and foobar2k under second one. You may use any player but you will choose the one which can play your music. For lossless compressed formats FLAC may take first place for you but second goes to APE (like mp3 and ogg), third to wv and forth goes to Apple lossless.

I'm Mozilla fan but even i perfectly well understand that SB won't become popular with even pretty cool web integration but with lack of format supporting.

Here's we'r speaking alot about SB because we'r all using it. But here'r so not much discussions about this player on any other forums. You may get ppl to install and try but lacks of functions never will let ppl to use (unless they need only its specific functions). It's not serious.

It's like never-ending circle: those who could write a plugin just aren't using SB (they have already wrote it for players of their choice), those who'r using it just don't need the plugin (don't listen lossless much, let's say).

That's only why i'm about a build-in support. If here would be any developer for a plugin it would be just perfect.

@Raptor007

1. I doubt as well as soon as we don't have monkey's audio support yet :P

2. Some people maybe already have a large music collection in different formats if you need an actual reason, sir.

So I should to convert alot of tracks to be able to play them in SB and do it again every time when i'll get APE audio (about popularity of which has been told above) instead of just listening.

I don't understand a reason to stuck with a program which can work with only a half of my music when here'r some other nice applications to play everything on my computer, especially under Windows.

I'm grateful for advise to go for FLAC and it would have a reason if i would work only on Mac OSX (still i would prefer Apple iTunes because of Bowtie :) ). But i'm also Windows user where i have all what i need just to play APE. WinAMP, foobar2000, AIMP and more - all of these have a monkey's audio plugin. Even Windows Media Player can play it with installed codecs.

You'r trying to help me to get on Songbird (again: i'm grateful) but I have started conversation because i wanted to tell developers why it would be good if they would care to write plugins for most popular formats themselves. I'm not going to repeat myself here but it's about competitiveness which means amount of users.

Of course, Songbird is a multi-platform application and as i know the situation under Mac OSX and Linux is a bit different because there'r not many players with the such functionality like fb2k is, let's say. But still, here's Windows as one of supported platforms and i don't think that "Convert all your lossless to FLAC and have a fun with Songbird" would be a nice market slogan when here'r players with which you can just "have a fun".