How to Configure Songbird to Update Pidgin and Twitter

Recently, Songbird 1.0 was release to much fanfare. As both a Pidgin and Twitter user, I wanted Songbird to tweet and update my “Now Playing” status automatically (the IM accounts that support this feature, most do). Through a couple of plugins, I was able to get the whole thing working. Follow along with my quick tutorial and set it up for yourself!

Prerequisites

You need a couple of things before you get started. Download each of the following installers and plugins to your desktop:

• Download Songbird
  • LiveTweeter plugin
• Download Pidgin
  • musictracker plugin
• Sign up for Twitter

Optional

If you’re a really audiophile or social networking junkie, you can install/sign up for a couple of other services and automatically update them all!

• Last.FM: Install Songbird’s Last.FM addon to update your Last.FM account as well.
• Facebook: Update your Facebook feed with your most recently listened to tracks (this option requires a Last.FM account)
• MySpace: Update your MySpace profile with your most recently listened to tracks (this application also requires a Last.FM account)
• Windows Live: Update your Windows Live profile with your most recently listened to tracks (this option requires a Twitter account). To configure, navigate to the “web activities” area on your profile.
  

Configuration

First off, install Songbird, Pidgin and sign up for a Twitter account.

Configure Songbird

1. Open Songbird.
2. On the menu bar, click Tools -> Addons
3. In the Options dialog, and in the “Add-ons” section, click the install button.
   
4. Navigate to your desktop and install the LiveTweeter-*.xpi file.
5. Restart Songbird and go back to the Addons dialog.
6. Under the LiveTwitter section enter in the following:
   • On the Twitter tab, under the General heading, enter in your Twitter user name and password.
   • On the Twitter tab, under the Options heading, tick the “Post for each song” check box.
   • On the Messenger tab, under the General heading, tick the “Activate MSN/Windows Live Messenger” check box.
     

Configure Pidgin

1. Navigate to your computer’s desktop and install the pidgin-musictracker-* program (Windows users: Double click the executable. Linux users: extract the tar.bz and issue install/make commands in the Terminal)
2. Once instillation is complete, open Pidgin.
3. On the menu bar, click Tools -> Plugins.
4. In the Plugins dialog, enable the “MusicTracker” plugin and click the “Configure Plugin” button.
   
5. In the MusicTracker dialog set the following options:
   • In the Player drop down, set the type to “Auto-detect”.
   • Under the Other settings section, tick the “Don’t change status message if protocol has working ‘now listening’” check box.
     
6. Click the “Close” button for each of the dialogs.

Now, every time a new song is played, Songbird will automatically update Twitter and your Now Playing status in Pidgin!