Tech nostalgia: this ⏬ once was one of the best ways to discover new #music in the early digital realm.

It was an #rss feed aggregator and at the same time a #music player for your local library. Based on the #Mozilla codebase, #Songbird let you read music blogs where people shared a couple of mp3s from new releases, amateur musicians, or recent concerts.

#Songbirdplayer played and downloaded those as if they were part of your own collection. And synced them with your mobile mp3 player.

What made this such a great user experience? It didn't have the convenience of an omniscient (and exploitative) #streaming service, but it was a semi-intentional - almost artisanal - curation of music.

A personal radio station of some sort, but free of algorithms. It would be great if one could recreate this approach to listening.