"Amarok is a native KDE application (but is also available for other operating systems besides Linux via KDE ports), while Songbird has been built using Mozilla technology, so it's cross-platform from the first step. Migrating to either from other, lesser, applications is a breath of fresh air. They do the same kind of things, but in a more effective and better-looking way.
"In testing we used Amarok 2.0 and Songbird 1.0 running on KDE 4.2 and Gnome. Amarok arrived via a Kubuntu repository with no issues and Songbird came in a 30MB file from getsongbird.com. Once the tarball had we double-clicked the Songbird script to run the installer. This is efficiently cross-distro, but you have to add your own shortcuts, while Amarok just fell into the appropriate application menu.
"Interfacelift
There are only so many ways a music player can be presented, and both take a similar line. But once you get beyond the basic interface conventions, things begin to diverge a little more and each application presents its strengths."
