An iTunes-like music management application designed for the GNOME desktop environment
What’s new in Rhythmbox 3.4.4:
- Support for fetching cover art from coverartarchive.org
- Uses HTTPS for external requests where possible
- New Listenbrainz plugin
- Sendto plugin removed
Rhythmbox is an open source music playing application designed to be distributed along with the GNOME desktop environment. It is powered by the well know GStreamer multimedia framework.
Designed for GNOME
The software will come preinstalled on every fresh installation the GNOME desktop, under any Linux-based operating system. If not, users can easily install it separately from the default software repositories of their distribution.
Features an iTunes-like user interface
It provides users with a graphical user interface (GUI) that is both familiar (iTunes-like) and easy to use. It comprises a music browser, searching and sorting functionality, Internet radio support, play queue and playlists.
Features at a glance
The view mode of the software can be easily customized. If using Rhythmbox under GNOME, you can click on its panel entry to change its look by enabling the party mode or move the Play Queue in a separate container in the side pane.
In addition, the application comes with support for the Libre.fm and Last.fm music platforms, dedicated import functionality, as well as support for podcasts. It also also includes a plugin architecture that makes enhances the app’s functionality.
Additionally, you can also enable or disable the side pane, song position slider, status bar, follow playing track, and album art. Furthermore, the panel entry provides users with quick access to the application’s preferences and plugins.
Among the included functionality provided by the built-in plugins, we can mention support for recording Audio-CDs, support for FM radio broadcasting services, instant messenger integration, remote control support, song lyrics, Zeitgeist integration, and support for Magnatune.
Under the hood and supported desktop environments
Under the hood, we can mention that the application’s GUI is written with the GTK+ tookit, which means that it works well with other GTK-based desktop environments, such as Unity (Ubuntu), Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, or LXDE.
Bottom line
Overall, Rhythmbox is not just GNOME’s default music player, it is also a very good, standalone music organizer and playback application that works well on any other open source desktop environment.
