“A San Francisco start-up released an early test version of its open-source Songbird music software Wednesday, with which its ultimately hopes to undermine the dominance of Apple Computer’s iTunes,” John Borland reports for CNET News. “The company, which is led by digital music veteran Rob Lord, has cautioned the open-source community not to expect a full-featured music player from this first release, which they are calling only a ‘proof of concept’ for now.”
“Indeed, the first version has a tendency to crash occasionally, and lacks some of the more advanced features of an iTunes or Windows Media Player. But it does show off the company’s vision of a music player that is focused on the Internet, rather than on a computer’s hard drive,” Borland reports. “The player could also be used to tap into online music services such as RealNetworks Rhapsody or Yahoo’s music subscription service.”
Full article here.
The convenience of having a single program that provides access to all of the online music services that nobody uses cannot be adequately understated.
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