Despite all the amazing things Android phones are capable of, syncing your music and playlists is not as easy as it should be. On Windows you can use Windows Media Player, but that’s obviously a no-go on Linux and OS X. So for the benefit of all, here are the steps to get syncing working for your Android phone (I use a Nexus One, but the process is not device specific).

1. Download Songbird.
2. Install Songbird. On OS X, double-click the disk image you downloaded in the first step, then drag the app into your Applications folder.
3. Launch Songbird from your Applications folder. The first time takes awhile, but just be patient.
4. Click through the license agreement, and you’ll be presented with the Songbird Setup wizard. If you’re on OS X or Windows, you’ll see the iTunes Import/Export wizard page. Go ahead and check Import tracks and playlists from iTunes. I’ve switched completely over to Songbird now so I can’t say how well the export functionality works.
5. The next page has a list of recommended Add-Ons that are checked by default. I only selected LyricMaster and Gracenote. If you happen to have some DRMed files that you bought from the iTunes Store, you’ll need to check QuickTime Playback as well in order to play those on your computer, but even with that checked, you still can’t play those files on your Android phone (remember kids, DRM == bad).
6. At the next page, decide whether you want to send metrics to the Songbird devs, then hit ‘Finish’. Wait for Songbird to restart.
7. Once it’s launched go to Tools->Add-ons then click the ‘Get Extensions’ link at the bottom right of the dialog. Search for ‘foldersync’ in the new tab that opened and click Search. Click the Download button for the FolderSync add-on and when prompted, select ‘Install Now’. After installation completes, restart Songbird.
8. After Songbird restarts, drag up the drawer at the bottom of the application window. Click on the arrow at the top left of the drawer and select FolderSync. If this is your first time selecting FolderSync, you’ll be prompted with a message about syncing. Read it and click OK.
9. Now hook up your Android phone (Nexus One, DROID [Incredible], Hero, myTouch, Dream, EVO, whatever!) to your computer via USB. Slide down the notifications drawer on your Android, select the ‘USB connected’ notification, then tap ‘Mount’. Your phone’s MicroSD card will show up on the desktop.
10. Double-click the sd card and make a new folder called SongbirdMusic on there. This will be the folder where FolderSync/Songbird will store all your music. You can call it whatever you want, but I’ll continue to use SongbirdMusic in the rest of the directions.
11. Go back to Songbird, and in the drawer that contains FolderSync, click on Preferences.... In the dialog that opens, check the box for ‘Write M3U-Playlists’ and uncheck the box for ‘Delete not needed Files and Directories. Press the Escape key to dismiss the dialog (I have no idea why there’s no OK button there).
12. Back in the FolderSync drawer, click the ‘Browse’ button, find the SongbirdMusic folder we made earlier and click ‘Open’.
13. Now select whatever playlist(s) you want synced to your Android, then press ‘Start Sync’.
14. When it’s done syncing, eject the SD card from OS X, and ‘Turn off USB storage’ from the notifications drawer on your Android phone. Android will rescan your SD card (‘Preparing SD card’) and then your synced music and playlists will show up in the Music app when it’s done.

That’s it! To sync in the future, just plug your phone into your computer, mount the SD card, make sure the path to the SongbirdMusic folder is in the ‘to folder’ of FolderSync, then press ‘Start Sync’.