…getting Rainmeter to display the currently playing track from Songbird was a trip!

I just installed Rainmeter, which is great! It doesn’t support Songbird though… So I tried to get it to, but getting Rainmeter to display the currently playing track from Songbird was a trip! You see, Rainmeter only supports Winamp natively. So, I had to do some detective work and some modifying to get it to work. Here is how I did it…

First, I assume most of you have tried to figure this out yourself, or not! Anyway, you should have Rainmeter, Songbird, and the Songbird add-on LiveTweeter installed already. If not, do so. The Songbird add-on LiveTweeter can output a text file with the current track’s info, among other things. Exactly what we need!

Now, you have everything you need. Maybe, you jumped ahead or have already tried to write a Rainmeter .ini to display the text that LiveTweeter puts out. If you have or have not, here is what happens. Rainmeter will read the data from the text file just fine as long as something is playing in Songbird. Rainmeter crashes, though, whenever playback is paused or stopped in Songbird. This is because the LiveTweeter add-on empties the text file whenever playback is paused or stopped. Thus, Rainmeter tries to read an empty text file, which crashes it! So, I figured out how to prevent the file from being empty when playback is paused or stopped. I simply modified LiveTweeter’s output… its easy when you know how to do it! Let me show you how!

What you have to do is:

1. Close Songbird and Rainmeter
2. Open LiveTweeter.js in notepad (Its easiest to just search for the file because of the many different places it could be on different Operating Systems)
3. Search in the text for “var data = “”;” and change to “var data = ” “;” (Notice, I added a space.)
4. Save LiveTweeter.js
5. Write your own .ini or use my Rainmeter .ini file below.
6. Start up Rainmeter and Songbird
7. Try it out! No more crashes when a Songbird stops playing! (It’s that simple people!)

Explanation: By adding the space to the text file , it will always have data inside it. So, Rainmeter wont be reading an empty file and will no longer crash!

Enjoy!

Extras:
• Here is my Rainmeter .ini file for you. Use it and extend upon it.
• To install:
  1. Extract the .zip to your Rainmeter Skins folder
  2. Modify the text file path of SongbirdCurrentTrackInfo.ini to match your LiveTweeter output file
  3. remember to restart Rainmeter.

P.S. - This is a current issue with LiveTweeter, and will hopefully be changed in a future release. After all, it is just a simple change.

I am always listening to music while I surf, and I am willing to bet you do too.

Maybe your skeptical about marrying these two application together? You may think that iTunes is good for you, and it does just what you want, Firefox too. This maybe so. In fact, that’s what I thought as well. But, don’t knock it until you try it! Just take a look.

When you see the life that Songbird brings to your music, you will quickly abandon iTunes.

What Songbird can do for YOU, straight out of the box:

• Browse the web with Firefox
• Fetch artist info
  • Bios
  • Official and fan website links
  • News articles
  • Photos
• Scrobble your songs to Last.fm
• Concert Alerts
• Listen to SHOUTcast Radio

So far so good? On the edge of one butt cheek now? You know, we haven’t even got to the juicy goodness center yet, Firefox! Yea, it is really Firefox in there! And, since its Firefox, you can use your favorite Firefox add-ons. The feature list only grows further when you find Songbird add-ons and enhance your experience even more!

Here are a few Songbird add-ons that I love:

• LyricMaster – Automatically fetch and save song lyrics ( Preview )
• MediaFlow – Cover Flow look-a-like ( Preview )
• iPod Device Support – Sync Songbird and you iPod (You don’t need iTunes!)
• MorningPeeps – Wake to you music library ( Preview )

Check out my other post about Firefox add-ons for an in-depth look at my favorite recommendations.

So, are you convinced that Songbird might be worth a try? I use it full time now to web browsing and to listen to music. Head over to their site, getSongbird.com, and grab you free copy for your Windows, Mac, or Linux OS. If you are still skeptical or you didn’t see a feature you can’t do without, check out their features page for a detailed list of current features, along with a list of features in the works.

Try Songbird and tell me and the Songbird team what you think.

Happy listening / browsing everyone!

Lyrics Plugin is a piece of software tailored for music fans. To put it simply – it is an add-on to view lyrics in WinAmp or Windows Media Player. No more searching for lyrics. Just start listening to your favourite songs and lyrics will be displayed automatically.

Instant Messaging
digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list.

Email Notifications
digsby is an email notification tool that alerts you of new email and lets you perform actions such as ‘Delete’ or ‘Report Spam’ with just one click.

Social Networking
digsby is a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to.

Personally, I have been using the multi-purpose application for a day now. It has really simplified my daily life. I use to use TerraIM for AIM and a Gmail plugin for firefox to automate my email and of course manually login to facebook and myspace. Now, with Digsby, I no longer have to keep my browser open to see if I have new mail or login to myspace or facebook to check for new comments. Digsby does it all!

What is even better is that the whole thing is portable. I can use it on another computer. All my preferences are stored server side. So, when I login, its all there just like on my other computer! The only con is that Digsby doesn’t have random instant message colors, which everyone knows I love. I suppose you cannot have it all. Hats off to you over at Digsby.