OStatic

Late last year I broke down and picked up Rock Band for the resident game console, a Nintendo Wii. From this statement, astute readers can safely make the assumption that neither I, nor other members of my household, are big into gaming. I am, however, better with balance boards and nunchuks than I am any musical instrument, be it a stylized controller or the real deal.

Given the humbling experience Rock Band (continues) to be for me, I wasn't exactly eager to try out the open source rhythm game, Frets on Fire. However, the open source aspect and the advantages that brings to the game's genre, the Guitar Hero-esque focus on one instrument, and the project being chosen as SourceForge's March Project of the Month, I figured my ego might benefit from a slight bruising.

My fingertips aren't raw, but this confirms I won't be joining a band, real or virtual, any time soon. Frets on Fire on an easy setting makes me long for the simplicity of kernel recompiles and the soft whir of a rebooting system.

Last month, I took a brief tour of the pre-release Songbird music player. Songbird is a cross-platform media player based on Mozilla code. This week, the Songbird project released the finalized 1.0 version of the player.

The pre-release versions of Songbird featured iPod support, Last.fm scrobbling, SHOUTcast radio, plugin extensions, and a localized concert discovery service. The 1.0 release adds one more feature to its default list -- MashTape -- and turns an ambitious eye toward the future.

There is one universal truth in desktop computing, regardless of operating system: There are more music players out there than you'd be inclined to try (never mind use) on a regular basis. Some focus on the simpler, basic functions, and others strive for improved music and media management and delivery. A few of these players achieve their goals and gain a loyal user base. More fall short and get lost in the noise. New music players, then, need something distinctive (that's well developed and delivered) to draw new users, and keep them coming back.

Songbird is still in beta, but nearing the milestone 1.0 status. A few months ago, it showed promise, but not enough was there to be able to predict how much of that promise would translate into a strong application. The 0.7.0 beta release reveals more of Songbird's strengths, and suggests that the player is able to rise above the noise.