I don’t like iTunes.

Yes, even the absurd sexiness of iTunes 7.0.

iTunes doesn’t play FLAC and other mp3-alternative file types, it doesn’t rip CDs without DRM, it doesn’t let you sort by multiple columns, and heaven help you if you allow iTunes to organize 70+ gigabytes of obsessively catalogued ‘tunage.

But if you’re a pair of ‘ears with feet’ and a mac user, iTunes is the headliner, the surly roadie and Ticketmaster all rolled into one.

Enter Songbird, an OS-neutral mp3 software program created by the same folks who brought you Winamp. It’s tantalizingly feature-rich and nicely designed. It even has a Mozilla web browser built right into the interface. It does what iTunes doesn’t.

And It seems destined to never get out of the proof-of-concept phase it’s been mired in since January.

I’ve been waiting for Songbird 1.0 for nine months. It was featured on TechCrunch in November, 2005!

I have suffered unstable builds and empty promises like the zealous early adopter that I am. The OS X build is still buggy and sluggish. (The PC version is more stable, but I have a commercial iTunes alternative (MediaMonkey) that it must first replicate and then surpass if it hopes to be my go-to program.)

Now to my belated point – and confession. I feel like the failings of Songbird mirror my own failings with Red Canary.

Like them, I’m stuck in development limbo. Like them, I’m moving too slowly. Like them, I’m losing (or at least not keeping) eyeballs.

I’m spending too much of my time fiddling with little things instead of working towards Canary 1.0.

I’m trying to do too much with too little. I’m neglecting my core product: content. There are Canadian startup stories waiting to be told. I must tell them tomorrow and not be shy about imperfections. It ain’t easy.

I want to move into 1.0 territory – as in 1 post a day. It’s a feat accomplished by the esteemed Dharmesh Shah of onstartups.com and he’s kicking my ass as a result.

What’s the moral for startups? Gauge your resources and:
• do one thing extremely well
• keep improving your core product
• add features that complement it
• don’t be distracted by ephemera
• if you want to add ephemera, add resources first

Songbird is neglecting a long tail audience – frustrated Mac audiophiles.

I’m neglecting a long tail audience – Canada’s startup community.

It’s change or die.