That...also what people call ICly and OOCly spellsinging on Amia is just vaguely similar to the spellsong feats from the PnP PRCs.
3rd edition indeed made bardic magic an innate form of magic, although it is not necessarily the case. Bards have to learn what they need for spellcasting and other musical/magical things they are doing. The reason why they made it an innate thing is because to become a bard, you have to posses a rare talent, because not every musician can become a bard...it is a rare thing and it is kinda a big deal to become one. It requires hard work and dedication...I would say that it is somewhat midway between the innate and the wizardy path. The other reason why it became innate because bardism is close to the traditional form of art, thus it heavily relies on emotions and that is something that they share with sorcerers or other innate casters.
Quote:
All the information I can find regarding bardic magic is that it's practiced in a way that incorporates artistic talents, and that it's often focused through an instrument.
Not every spell needs a musical components. There are certain spells that need musical components but otherwise, unless it is specified in the spell description, you don't have to do music.
There are certain feats, such as the spellsong feat in pnp where you can burn a higher level song to immediately cast a lower level song in return through music. In that case the effect is instantaneous and you have to burn a bard song for it, however, you don't need other components.