Birdwatchers,
Big news! Today Songbird shows some wing, shows some leg and leaps media players into the next era of innovation.
Today, Pioneers of the Inevitable launches Songbird 0.3 “Developer Pre-release”, also know by its codename Bowie, available here at Songbirdnest.com. So much to say. Let’s get started.
Songbird Webpage API
If you’ve tried previous Songbird releases, you know that Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Now the tables are turned: Web developers can mash-up their websites with a desktop media player. Songbird’s Webpage API makes media player features accessible to the webpage author, collapsing the barrier between media player and website.
Early feedback from Webpage API implementors including indie music store Insound.com and music blog aggregator HypeMachine is that the integration is easy and that they anticipate their users will prefer a simpler, more integrated player-Web experience.
Anthony Volodkin, The Hype Machine
simplify our customers’ purchase experience. With Songbird, Insound customers can buy digital albums from within their media player and the music appears in their music library. Songbird allowed Insound to have an iTunes-like purchase experience with just a few lines of Javascript.”
Joe Weber, Insound.com
Starting today, Songbird is open to download stores, subscription services, radio services, social networking services, recommendation services, locker services, music blogs and other digital media services a crafty Web developer may devise.
Songbird Add-on API
Songbird 0.3 also lands documented, supported APIs for add-on developers. Firefox extension and Winamp plug-in developers should check it out. Like Firefox Add-ons, Songbird Add-ons are simply mark-up and Javascript in a zip file. Like Firefox, Songbird notifies users when a fresh add-on update is available, keeping the love alive.
Update: Greasemonkey and mashTape add-ons just released for Songbird 0.3 and kick ass.
Songbird Feathers API
Songbird’s Feathers have been meticulously preened, making it easier than ever for visual designers to customize Songbird’s appearance and share their own feathers with other ‘birders. Styling Songbird’s Feathers and webpages both use CSS, so visual designers can extend their Web design expertise to Songbird Feathers.
Update: The Feathers Wizard walks visual designers through the steps of creating and sharing feathers. You’ll find “Create New Feathers” under the Songbird 0.3 Tools menu if you installed the Developer Tools Add-on. Also, check out iBird. 
The Songbird Community is the Mozilla Community
Finally, I’d like to thank and recognize the exceptional work of the 20+ full-time Songbird product designers and developers here at Pioneers of the Inevitable and the 1,800+ Songbird community developers and QA volunteers who directly contributed to Songbird 0.3. You are rockstars.
Moreover, Songbird is built on the Mozilla platform, so we ‘birders give a pterodactyl squawk to the Mozilla community. Mozilla’s Chief Lizard Wrangler Mitchel Baker recently blogged that 10,000 Mozilla community developers contributed to Firefox 2 in 2006, that the Mozilla community has grown so much recently that its prepared to move “beyond sustainability.” This is extraordinary news for all Web surfers, and specifically the Mozilla community, Mozilla platform, Firefox and Songbird.
Enough for now. Please install 0.3, experiment with the Webpage API, try the Insound.com or HypeMachine integration, port your Firefox extension to Songbird or create feathers. Play the Web!
Chirps,
Rob Lord
