Yesterday, I promised an update regarding my change of media players once I had tested the open-source player Songbird a little. I was very enthusiastic about the new application, mainly because I was happy to be well-rid of iTunes - but even so I did not expect this.

Songbird is a XUL application, like Firefox and Chatzilla. XUL is a new definition language for user interfaces, developed by Mozilla. I've found that applications using it are very fast and smooth (on my system, anyway), so I was really happy to see Songbird is one of them.

{{songbird.png|right|200px}}Hilariously, Songbird has a built-in web-browser of its own, making its user interface an interesting mix of Firefox and iTunes. You start with the standard table library view with the Playlist sidebar like iTunes has, but new tabs can be opened with Ctrl+T. The best part is that these tabs can of course also contain views of the Songbird library and different playlists, meaning that another annoyance of iTunes (having to switch back and forth between playlists) is taken care of. I rather like the different skins available for Songbird as well.

And finally, after years of mangling the sound of my Myst and Riven tracks, it is bliss to hear them sound as they should. No more rattling on the low notes. In summary, I'm very happy I switched.

Scott Gilbertson on WebMonkey heavily criticized the iTunes media player, and I found myself deeply in agreement.

{{itunes-logo.jpg|right|200px|noresize}}When I began using iTunes in 2006 (according to the first file added in 2006-08-25), it was a vast improvement over the alternatives I had tried:

• Windows Media Player frequently froze up, tried to call home without telling me, and (much like Internet Explorer) is altogether too cozy with Windows.
• WinAmp was Shareware, and made sure I didn't forget it.
• I didn't have any others, because iTunes was the third player I installed, upon falling in love with it.

Back then, when I started it, it launched instantly. It didn't freeze up, nor stutter on MIDI files, nor take two minutes to load. And back then I had 256 MB of RAM, rather than the 512 I have now.

Nowadays it is amazingly slow for something I expect to do nothing but organize my files, play them on command, and shuffle them when I need some background noise. And it seems like every button you click attempts to lead you to the iTunes store, which I never even use: I buy my music in uncompressed form on old-fashioned Audio CDs, so I don't have to deal with DRM telling me how often or where I can play the stuff.

The climax of my strained relationship with iTunes came a few weeks ago, when after a messy inadvertent downgrade the player just refused to start up, re-install, or de-install. It took me a full week of seeking online assistance (unsuccessfully) and two hour-long dives into the registry to dig out the program and re-install it. Obviously, favoring iTunes instead of WMP to avoid lock-in backfired royally, as iTunes messes with the registry just as badly.

{{songbird.jpg|left|200px|noresize}}This was the last stroke, and after reading the article I linked above, I realized that I don't even have an excuse for using iTunes. That's right; my player is a third-rate, ancient Trekstor i.BeatJoy that is essentially a 128MB memory stick with mp3 function; my cellphone is a Motorola that I basically use only for phoning, so I'm not locked in by any sleek Apple gadgets. My relationship with iTunes started nicely, but in the past year it has become increasingly abusive, and nothing stops me from leaving.

And as soon as I realized this, I went and downloaded SongBird. Bliss will soon be here. I'll write an update when I have managed to migrate my library.

I now am the happy owner of the soundtrack to Pirates of the Carribbean, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, and Ultima V: Lazarus (the third being a computer game).

And I noticed something odd about three of the tracks - parts of the opening of the PotC soundtrack sounded similar to a passage each in the other two soundtracks. So, for comparison, I cut together 2 mp3s that compare 30 second samples of each. I didn't want to upload the tracks themselves because on the whole I'd prefer to keep the RIAA off my back.

Here goes. The first file starts with 30 seconds of Chris Many's "Captain Johne's Hornpipe" from Ultima V, followed by 30 seconds of Klaus Badelt's "Fog Bound". The second one starts with 30 seconds of "Fog Bound", followed by 30 seconds of Vangelis' "Opening" from Conquest of Paradise.

The second one may be a bit far-fetched, but you can't deny the similarities of the first two...

Edit: Permissions now set properly. To see the attachments, please click on the "read more" link below as they will not be visible from the main page.

I found Mary Jean Holmes' site while looking for fantasy music around 2-3 years ago (I also discovered the Brobdingnagian Bards this way, incidentally). She's an independent composer who produces music related to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings - long symphonies inspired by tales from the Silmarillion and the trilogy itself, which are all available as free mp3s from her site. One of my favorites is The Akallabêth.

Unfortunately, it seems not many know of her music - nobody I've mentioned her name to has heard of her. I concluded that there are perhaps 10 other fans.

In April, I started using AudioScrobbler / last.fm to track statistics about my listening habits, and am now also using the latest Google Labs concoction Google Music Trends.

The latter one is new, and not widely used, so individual listeners can have a big impact on the statistics. But regardless of that, I might have to revise my estimate. "Cirdan the Shipwright" is ranked #13 in the listing of Classical pieces:

(Click to enlarge, here for the original page)