A while back I wrote a post about managing music on Linux.
Since then I have bounced back and forth between using Rhythmbox and the Listen music player. In preparing music and playlists for our upcoming wedding (no way in hell I was going to rent a crappy DJ) I have been putting these players through their paces. I have been listening to song snippets, creating large playlists, smart playlists, transferring files etc.
With this work I have brought both Rhythmbox and Listen music players to their knees, causing crashes left and right. Frankly they have both pissed me off to the point of no return. Rhythmbox crashed and somehow lost/wiped all my playlists which I spent hours creating.
Rhythmbox (0.12.3), besides being very boring, works very well except for one thing: if you start double-clicking quickly from song to song, it will momentarily hang for 30 seconds at a time. Sometimes it comes back and works for a bit, other times it comes back and will no longer play at all (I have to restart it). This one bug, which I found to be filed in launchpad months ago (still has no fix) kills this app for me, unusable in my mind.
The Listen player is my favorite (v0.6+). I’ve come to love its “dynamic” mode and the queue centric behavior, unique layout. However, as much as I really really want to love this player, it crashes all the time.
What about Amarok? Screw it, I’ve tried, just do not like its layout, never figured out how to get devices to work right. If I can’t get something working quickly I dump it.
Bashee.. no.
So… I have been avoiding, but recently decided to download and try Songbird. It is a cross-platform music app, built on Mozilla technology, open source blah blah.
Long story short, it does what I want. Actually, I love the mash-up pane for instant artist info. I got it running quickly, added a few add-ons so I have a now-playing queue playlist similar in function to the Listen player, yet can browse my music similar to iTunes and Rhythmbox. Best of both worlds. I tend to prefer simple “lightweight” apps, and Songbird is “heavyweight” in my mind because of the integrated web browsing that I don’t see myself using. Yet, so far… its solid. Me likey. At least I can make some progress now…
