March 2, 2007
Songbird adds support for FairPlay music
Posted Mar. 2, ’07, 4:00 PM PT by Aaron Freedman
Category | Software » Updates
A little while back I posted about Songbird, an open-source media music player by the makers of Firefox. Well, Songbird has come a long way over the past few months. It’s become more stable, has more extensions and themes, and now supports FairPlay DRM. That’s right, using the latest version of Songbird and an extension allows you to play iTunes Store music. While many people may not like DRM, it’s still a fact of digital music listening now and days. I find it odd, though, how someone was able to crack or manipulate Apple’s DRM so Songbird can play FairPlay music (but not video) files. Songbird can even play songs purchased and used in the latest version of iTunes, while VLC Player cannot. This, in addition to iPod support and more themes and extensions in general, gets Songbird closer to being a viable iTunes alternative.
[via Download Squad]
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Maybe it's just using Quicktime to playback fairplay AAC files, no crack involved? Although you still need to authorize the computer in iTunes.
I think Songbird has a good future ahead of it. Not just as a media player (more radio stations than iTunes) but because of the discovery tools, which come out the web browser built right on that scouts for music within 'blogs.
I did a review some months ago, so I'm keen to see what's changed.
The version I have is sort of usable, but needs an update, so I'll get that sorted out later today...
Songbird is developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable, not the Mozilla Foundation. However, there are some ex-Mozilla developers there.
You have Apple to thank for allowing Songbird to play FairPlay protected files. They provide an API to the QuickTime playback engine that Songbird can hook into.