HOWTO: Songbird

[peanut butter]

dare i call it the cross-platform itunes?
It works great, cant wait till the stable release.

[pickarooney]

I really like the look of Songbird, but can't seem to fogure out how to use it properly!
I want to scan through my files and add them to the playlist as I find them, but to do it I have to select the file, click on add to playlist, then select a playlist from the list of one.
How do I make it so that a double-click adds a song to the current playlist?

[lilmienboy]

WOW thats script work wonders!! finally got my sound back

[spin2cool]

Here's some quick help on importing windows iTunes libraries from songbird.

I needed two things. First, get the iTunes Importer extension (install it from within Songbird, under Services>Extensions).

Unfortunately, we're going to require one more step before I can use the importer. Since the iTunes library was created with windows, it's xml contains a bunch of links that look like: file://localhost/E:/music/unsorted/filename. Since I'm running it under linux, that clearly isn't going to work.

In linux, I have my music folder mounted at /media/music, and my so I wrote a quick little three line script that will make the changes for me.

Create a new script:

gedit iTunes2Songbird.sh

Copy the following text into the script, altering the paths as necessary:

#!/bin/bash
cp /media/data/documents/My\ Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml /tmp/
perl -pi -e 's/file\:\/\/localhost\/E\:\//\/media\//g' /tmp/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml
echo "Use File>Import Library to import the library (found at /tmp/iTunes Music Library)";

Make it executable:

chmod +x iTunes2Songbird.sh

Run the script:

./iTunes2Songbird.sh

You'll have to modify the script to point to your music folders, but that should be easy enough, now that you see how it works. Sadly, this is a one-way solution, which means that any changes you make in Songbird won't be copied back to iTunes, but I can live with that for now.

Also be sure to go to File>Preferences, then choose the Import tab and check all of the boxes. That'll make sure that Songbird automatically updates the library.

[~LoKe]

Seems to have made some progress since I last saw.

Nice work. =]

[CAX]

I have installed songbird and from what I could see there was no problems But it doesn't play my mp3's. No error message or anything it just doesn't start. Amarok plays them with no problems. Any ideas?

(Kubuntu edgy user)

[byenary]

Hello, installed it, look nice but does not play, it says no devices yet under Devices....
Ive got sound when booting ubuntu, so i guess it should be ok ?

[escopio]

It worked! Your script "iTunes2Songbird" has saved my music library.
I have registered myself in the forum just to say: thank you!!

[tokh]

Hi everybody,

I'm posting this little comment here in the hope that it helps the community. I followed help from numerous pages:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/songbird
http://www.songbirdnest.com/node/1478
http://publicsvn.songbirdnest.com/tr...ngUpGStreamer\
as well as this topic here.

anyways, it seems like you need Gstream up and running. the link (mentioned above) to help you is:
http://publicsvn.songbirdnest.com/tr...ngUpGStreamer\

the page also mentions which gstreamer files you need, so please install them under synaptic-package-manager by clicking on "system" -> "administration" -> "synaptic-package-manager".
next, you will find help under "Selecting Your Output Plugin".
type :
gstreamer-properties
and a window titled " multimedia systems selector" will open. don't worry (too much) if you see (in the terminal):
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'artsdsink'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'polypsink'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'sdlvideosink'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'v4lmjpegsrc'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'qcamsrc'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'esdmon'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'polypsrc'

as my Songbird works fine even without those plugins mentioned above.

i had "autodetect" on my output setting, and it seems like Songbird didn't like that. I chose ALSA and Songbird is up and running.

please note that I'm no expert, I've had Ubuntu installed for just about 4 days now, and I'm trying to migrate from windows to Ubuntu (always good news, isn't it?)
Also note that I did not go through all the posts in this topic, so if my help/tip/advice has been mentioned before, then probably someone has a more elaborate walk-through on how to fix the annoying "error" thing.
another (extremely important) advice i'd like to offer is to google for help besides looking in this forum, and have many walk-throughs open in many windows so you can choose which walk-through best describes your issue(s).

now, let the Bird Sing!

[kornface13]

Where in songbird are you seeing this output device setting?? mine stopped playing music all of a sudden, and i need to get it fixed. i need my songbird!!!