Banshee

Banshee is an open source, complete audio playback and management solution for Linux-based operating systems. This software organizes your entire music collection automatically, and it is fully compatible with the GNOME desktop environment. Also known as Banshee Media Player, the application presents a familiar user interface, especially for those of you who are used with the Rhythmbox software that comes bundled in every GNOME-based Linux operating system.

Features at a glance

First of all, let’s talk a little about its features, as it lets users to easily import, manage, and play selections from their music collection. Additionally, the application allows you to import Audio-CDs, sync your entire music collection to an iPod or Android device, or play music directly from a supported MP3 audio player device or smartphone. You can create playlists with tracks from your music library, create Audio-CDs and MP3 CDs from subsets of your library, keep up with your favorite podcasts, and listen to Internet radio stations.

Supports podcasts, books, video and music files

When you first start the application, it will automatically scan and displays your music library, but you will also have access to other multimedia files that are stored on your computer, such as audio books, videos, and podcasts. If the aforementioned file formats are correctly stored in dedicated folders, such as Music, Podcast, and Audiobooks, they will be automatically recognized by Banshee and placed in their respective categories.

It's a desktop independent application written in Mono

We should mention that Banshee is not only available for the GNOME/Linux platform, as it can be installed on other operating systems or desktop environments as well. By default is supports four online media services, the Amazon MP3 Store, Last.fm, Internet Archive, and Miro Guide.

Bottom line

Sadly, Banshee is not integrated into many Linux distributions, mainly because of its Mono dependencies, which tend to create lots of problems nowadays. But if that is not an issue for you, go ahead and install the Banshee Media Player from your Linux distribution’s default software repositories.

What is new in this release:

• Banshee 2.9.1 is the culmination of five months' work by 17 developers, 21 translators and dozens of bug reporters and testers. It is a development release, the second of the 2.9.x releases leading up to our future stable release Banshee 3.0.
• New Features:
• GStreamer 1.x compatibility. This is the first official upstream release compatible with versions of GStreamer 1.0 or newer.
• Production-ready GStreamerSharp playback-engine backend, now default. Our managed backend (that already allowed us to have playback working in the Windows platform) has been migrated to work with the revamped GStreamerSharp bindings (GObject-Introspection based, and capable of binding GStreamer 1.0 or newer) and is now the default one for all platforms.. This paves the way to finish the long-standing goal of completely removing lower-level languages like C from our codebase, to lower the barrier of entry to new contributors, reduce complexity and increase stability.. You can still use the optional unmanaged GStreamer backend, but before doing so we encourage you to provide us any feedback that you may have about the managed one (reporting bugs or writing to our forums or mailing lists), because we will deprecate this one very soon.
• New "MediaPanel" UI, formerly called "MeeGo MediaPanel". The MeeGo specific UI has been now been renamed to MediaPanel and you can use it in your desktop environment now, just by clicking in the Media Panel option under the View menu (this extension is now enabled by default).
• Enhancements:
• Notifications: use notify-sharp-3.0 in the system if availablebgo#690010: enable tests by default if NUnit dependency is foundWebBrowser: drop dependency on 'libsoup-gnome', which was deprecatedVideo: default smart playlists are now invisible when empty, like Music ones
• Notable Bugs Fixed (35 fixed since 2.9.0):
• bgo#692374: require dbus-glib-1 to make sure to avoid GConf crashesbgo#725870: avoid hang when disconnecting Nexus 5bgo#724635: don't crash at iPod syncbgo#726336: avoid redundancy in submenu label textbgo#725185: avoid importing non-readable filesbgo#696520: avoid pointless long->int runtime castsDBus: don't try to connect in GrabDefaultName() if dbus is disabledbgo#724730: avoid aborting MTP access when busybgo#724678: tracks which were in nested folders under Music/ not shownbgo#724656: fix potential crashers when ejecting DAP sourcebgo#724645: fix crash at shutdown if MTP was mountedbgo#627391: [gapless] fix smooth transition for Repeat-Single modebgo#671221: fix Repeat-All mode if there are less than 3 tracks and Shuffle is ONbgo#724515: fix Repeat-OFF mode when Shuffle is ONbgo#723889: avoid notifications-related warning printed in the logbgo#723040: DapService: avoid freezing Banshee when unmapping devicebgo#679938: [gapless] Repeat always onbgo#674293: [gapless] Banshee ignores "stop when finished"bgo#621222: [gapless] Playcount shouldn't be incremented as soon as song playsbgo#723005: fix path of image referenced in Helpbgo#722731: avoid highlighting wrong track after invalid track was playedbgo#636992: avoid misleading [gapless] token in logbgo#722565: advice about nunit-console not available instead of failingbgo#720359: avoid 'URI too large' errors at LastFM scrobblingbgo#722947: prevent a crash when dealing with Nexus4bgo#722209: avoid crash when connecting Nexus4bgo#722219: avoid crash when disconnecting Nexus4bgo#664887: fail faster if --enable-tests used and NUnit was not foundbgo#721203: CD audio source doesn't show up when inserting itbgo#712656: pkg-config files were still pointing to GTK2 instead of GTK3bgo#710266: PlayQueue: fix another GtkCRITICAL at shutdownbgo#710423: Fix build of the SoundMenu extensionbgo#710475: fix build in Osx by avoiding optional parametersbgo#710266: avoid GtkCRITICAL in the console at shutdownbgo#709717: fix ListView scrolling with mouse wheel (regression from GTK2)

What is new in version 2.6.2:

• Minor enhancements:
• Add basic AppData file for inclusion in open source app stores
• Notable Bugs Fixed (23 fixed since 2.6.1):
• bgo#724678: Mtp: tracks in nested folders were not being shown
• bgo#724656: Dap: fix several issues with the Disconnect operation (context menu)
• bgo#724645: Dap: avoid NullReferenceException at shutdown if Mtp device was mounted
• bgo#627391: [gapless] fix smooth transition for Repeat-Single mode
• bgo#671221: fix Repeat-All mode if there are less than 3 tracks and Shuffle is ON
• bgo#724515: fix Repeat-OFF mode when Shuffle is ON
• bgo#723889: Notifications: avoid warning printed in the log
• bgo#723040: DapService: avoid freezing Banshee when unmapping device
• bgo#679938: [gapless] Repeat always on
• bgo#674293: [gapless] Banshee ignores "stop when finished"
• bgo#621222: [gapless] Playcount shouldn't be incremented as soon as song plays
• bgo#722947: prevent a crash when dealing with Nexus4
• bgo#722731: avoid highlighting wrong track after invalid track was played
• bgo#722219: avoid crash when disconnecting Nexus4
• bgo#722209: avoid crash when connecting Nexus4
• bgo#721203: CD audio source doesn't show up when inserting it
• bgo#709376: avoid warnings when shutting down
• ArtworkManager: prevent wrong retreival of empty artwork from cache
• bgo#686908: doesn't remember volume setting in Linux
• bgo#700753: crash if 1st transcoding job yields error
• bgo#687495: hang when dealing with Windows Phone
• bgo#699735: hang when mounting a LVM volume
• bgo#698347: configure fails with --disable-gnome (Mac)

What is new in version 2.9.0:

• New Features:
• GTK3:
• This is the first release using the 3.x version of GTK+, thanks to work that has been done in Gtk# to bind this version.
• Device synchronization for Symbian:
• Banshee can now sync media to Symbian devices like Nokia N95. Please help testing this new feature so we can mention more Symbian devices in our release notes for Banshee 3!
• Enhancements:
• Add basic AppData file for inclusion in open source app stores
• Add keywords to .desktop entry for easy find in Unity & GNOME Shell (bgo#700524)
• Main UI: make Search textbox remember its size (bgo#653819)
• Lastfm: avoid unnecessary wait when submitting successful scrobbles
• DatabaseImportManager: Add .amr to import whitelist
• PlayerEngine: Add support for accurate seek
• GSettings: implement new, still unused, SchemaExtractor for GSettings
• build: use the gui-thread-check profiler module by default when debugging
• configure: better guess for the C# compiler available
• AppleDeviceSource: use progressUpdaters for all sync operations
• Notable Bugs Fixed (37 fixed since 2.6.0):
• bgo#709376: SourceManager: avoid warnings when shutting down
• ArtworkManager: prevent wrong inclusion of null artwork_id in cache
• bgo#686908: libbanshee: Only call volume set callback on Mac
• bgo#706173: Feed: Avoid loop when podcast has date values in the future
• bgo#700753: PrimarySource: fix crash if 1st track had a Dap transcoding error
• bgo#687495: MtpSource: prevent a freeze when dealing with Windows Phone
• bgo#696520: Handle all values from a rowid database column as long
• bgo#699735: Gio: prevent a freeze when mounting a LVM volume
• bgo#692153: InternetRadio: refresh UI after editing station
• bgo#679769: StatisticsPage: Fix crash when no tracks are selected
• bgo#696700: DapPropertiesDialog: Make sure progress bar value is valid
• bgo#696877: PlaylistFileUtil: Only import playlist items that are files
• bgo#692374: Avoid race when using GConf and DBus with threads
• bgo#696111: ListView: when initializing a11y, disable instead of hanging
• bgo#691532: LastFM: display progress for multiple-track scrobbles
• bgo#691696: build: Improve MSBuild experience without autotools
• bgo#689123: DatabaseTrackInfo: don't default to MusicFilePattern when null
• bgo#689018: Audioscrobbler: avoid 414 Request-URI Too Large
• bgo#691971: PrimarySource: Allow cancelling track delete job
• bgo#665268: InternetRadio: Previous should never mean a restart
• bgo#686657: InternetRadio: UI to correctly update status indicator columns
• bgo#658142: Dap: better check for the playing track before ejecting
• bgo#684089: PrimarySource: prevent AddTrackJob respawn if cancelled
• bgo#689016: LastFm: Avoid crashing if scrobbling response is not JSON
• bgo#653282: Dap.MassStorage: not import dirs twice for case-insensitive drives
• bgo#691694: configure: stop using obsolete AutoMake macro
• bnc#798267: build: test dmcs before gmcs when trying to find the compiler
• bgo#577225: RescanPipeline: warn about removal of many tracks
• bgo#688540: Mtp: Fix file type in sync with libmtp > 1.1.0
• bgo#690300: Dap: Settings of DAP sources are not remembered between sessions
• bgo#639947: Dap: Use Unicode codes for quotation marks
• bgo#686584: build: Make gio-hardware be enabled by default
• bgo#686584: build: make GIO backend be enabled by default
• bgo#686582: YouTube: advice about --disable-youtube configuration flag
• bgo#686671: configure: earlier check for glib
• bgo#685920: LastFm: Null check for scrobble parameters
• bgo#685131: Add GTK category in .desktop files to comply with spec

What is new in version 2.6.1:

• DatabaseTrackInfo: don't default to MusicFilePattern when null
• DapPropertiesDialog: Make sure progress bar value is valid
• PlaylistFileUtil: Only import playlist items that are files
• Avoid race when using GConf and DBus with threads
• ListView: Do not enable a11y when it would cause freezes
• Dap: better check for the playing track before ejecting
• PrimarySource: prevent AddTrackJob respawn if cancelled
• LastFm: Avoid crashing if scrobbling response is not JSON
• configure: stop using obsolete AutoMake macro
• Docs: Removed "Common Problems"
• Mtp: Fix file type in sync with libmtp > 1.1.0
• Dap: Use Unicode codes for quotation marks
• LastFm: Null check for scrobble parameters
• Add GTK category in .desktop files to comply with spec
• StatisticsPage: Fix crash when no tracks are selected

What is new in version 2.6.0:

• New Features:
• Lots of improvement on OS X:
• Hardware support for USB mass storage devices.
• Handle opening files directly in Finder.
• Use native file chooser dialogs for importing files.
• Improve keyboard shortcuts.
• Fix various volume issues and inconsistencies.
• Switch to gtk-mac-integration and move to cocoa API.
• Add debug and logging facility to OS X launcher.
• LastFM: Add device scrobbling support:
• Enable Last.fm scrobbling of recent plays from a connected device.
• Currently only available on devices supported by the AppleDevice extension.
• File management options are now specific to each source:
• The "Copy files when importing" and "Update file and folder names" settings can now be set independently for Music and Videos.
• Enhancements:
• LargeTrackInfoDisplay: Display track rating in "Now Playing" view
• MassStorage: Support the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android phone
• Re-enable the AAC audio profile
• ThickClient: Append 'Banshee' to window title
• MassStorage: Support reading playlists from multiple folders
• Last.fm: Switch to 2.0 API for scrobbling and improve error handling
• LastFM: Remove invalid tracks from the queue after a scrobbling error
• Mpris: Add CanSetFullscreen and Fullscreen properties
• Replace custom volume widget with gtk's VolumeButton
• Improved threading in some areas around GUI manipulation
• Notable Bugs Fixed (69 fixed since 2.4.0):
• Migo.Syndication: Handle feeds with malformed enclosure URLs
• AmazonMp3.Store: Fix URL redirection for sign out action
• bgo#577396: AppleDeviceTrackInfo: Fix reading and writing rating values
• bgo#587756: MassStorage: Save playlists relative to BaseDirectory
• bgo#615219: Don't increment skip counter when restarting current track
• bgo#623974: BasicTrackDetailsPage: Blank year spin button when 0
• bgo#624976: Gui.Canvas.Rect: log invalid values for Width/Height
• bgo#626659: ServiceManager: check properly if a service is required
• bgo#634063: FileSystemQueueSource: Reload when tracks are imported
• bgo#634758: PlaylistSource: Make sure the right tracks are removed
• bgo#636450: PathPattern: Limit filename length to 200 characters
• bgo#642830: AppleDevice: Fix device loading if invalid tracks are present
• bgo#657769: PrimarySource: Make sure AddTrackJob is marked as finished
• bgo#661112: Gui.Canvas.Size: log invalid values for Width/Height
• bgo#662909: PlaylistParser: Retry HTTP request after timeout
• bgo#666696: DapSource: Flush pending changes when quitting
• bgo#671948: DapSource: Put the playlists below the default sources
• bgo#672744: UPnPServerSource: Fix crash when getting the root object
• bgo#673037: libossifer: Fix certificate validation with libsoup 2.38
• bgo#673416: DbIteratorJob: Abort job after several consecutive failures
• bgo#676144: PlayQueueSource: Fix high memory usage when shuffling
• bgo#677288: PrimarySource: Fix pruning of artists from the database
• bgo#679260: AppleDevice: Postpone invalid tracks drop to the sync cycle
• bgo#680679: PlayerEngine: Fix reporting of playback errors
• bgo#682510: Mpris: Only raise PropertiesChanged signal if value changed
• bgo#682996: Dap.MassStorage: PlaylistPaths to return empty array
• bgo#683359: SourceView: log errors in SetCellDataFunc to avoid crashing
• bgo#683498: a11y: Fix a NullReferenceException in ListViewAccessible

What is new in version 2.3.6:

• Allow primary sources to marked as temporary
• LibraryWatcher: avoid importing incomplete files

What is new in version 2.3.1:

• New Features:
• DVD playback support
• You can now watch your DVDs with Banshee. You can navigate in the DVD's menus using the mouse or the keyboard.
• Enhancements:
• Several improvements to Muinshee, our alternative UI:
• Add a Clear button to the toolbar
• Make double-click on an album do the same as the Play button
• Don't close the dialog when pressing Enqueue
• Make the Esc key close the dialog if there is no search text
• Use better icons for the Play and Enqueue buttons
• Add separate options for writing ratings and play counts to files
• Update values for the Smiley Face equalizer preset
• Set the PulseAudio media.role property
• Notable Bugs Fixed (36 fixed since 2.2.0):
• UbuntuOneMusicStore: Ensure u1ms URIs passed at startup get loaded
• Daap: Fix crash while resolving the address of a DAAP service
• DatabaseImportManager: Support importing .mka files
• Notify playlists on rating change through d-bus or command line
• bgo#661467: AmazonMp3: Handle plain text AMZ files now sent by Amazon
• bgo#662906: AudiobookLibrarySource: Fix crash when adding tracks
• bgo#659841: GnomeBackend: Be more robust against GConf failures
• bgo#656533: Notification: Fix application name used in internal notify#
• bgo#649277: NotificationArea: Only use supported tags in the notification message
• bgo#647898: Try to fetch coverart without an internet connection
• bgo#658803: Prune CoverArtDownloads table when removing tracks
• Packaging Changes:
• Mono.Addins >= 0.6.2 required

What is new in version 2.1.3:

• ===============================================================================
• New Features:
• New custom support for the Barnes & Noble Nook
• Support default internet radio stations. At first start, XSPF playlists in $datadir/banshee/stations/ are imported automatically. We don't provide default radio stations ourselves but this allows distros or other third parties to do so.
• Enhancements:
• bgo#549173: Add "Stop when finished" option in the notification popup menu
• bgo#636071: Get info from the database or the file when opening a URI
• bgo#639805: Hide labels in the source pane when the group is empty
• bgo#647306: Add support for the Notion Ink Adam tablet
• bgo#651497: Motorola Atrix support
• bgo#653255: Samsung Galaxy S2 support
• bgo#653284: Remove keyboard shortcut for toggling scrobbling
• bgo#653997: Samsung Galaxy Ace support
• bgo#656526: Add "Smiley Face Curve" default equalizer
• bgo#656670: Cache the ArtworkID in the database for faster startup
• Various enhancements to our experimental GStreamer# backend, bringing it close to feature parity with our current C backend. It is still not built by default and not recommended for daily use, but testing is welcome.
• Notable Bugs Fixed (39 fixed since 2.1.0):
• bgo#587264: Fix metadata fetching from MusicBrainz
• bgo#647111: Put the Audio CD source label in the right place
• bgo#647202: Fix space usage reporting for some DAP devices
• bgo#648498: Make sure the MPRIS sends the new metadata on track change
• bgo#650011: Fix items disappearing in playlists when re-connecting iPod
• bgo#650184: Fix XSPF playlist importing error
• bgo#651914: Fix "Least Favorite" smart playlist to not pick unrated songs
• bgo#654524: Fix the SetPosition method in the MPRIS interface
• bgo#656176: Don't ignore the last value of the .is_audio_player file
• bgo#656246: Fix random crash while changing tracks

What is new in version 2.1.0:

• New Features:
• eMusic Store
• Enhancements:
• ArtworkManager: add --fetch-artwork argument
• bgo#647754: Xperia X12 support
• bgo#508713: MiniMode: Reduce height of window
• bgo#648941: Support .spc files
• bgo#649401: Set UserAgent when doing MusicBrainz queries
• Notable Bugs Fixed (51 fixed since 2.0):
• Windows installer fixes
• bgo#647059: Fix Remote Daap crash
• bgo#647089: Daap: Bind to IPAddress.Loopback instead of Any
• bgo#644648: libbanshee fixes
• bgo#642113: Change Remote dialog's button from Ok to Add
• bgo#647144: StreamPositionLabel fixes
• AmazonMp3.Store: Fix signed-in detection for UK store
• bgo#633552: AppleDevice: Ensure m4a/mp3 are supported
• bgo#634647: Have ctrl-a select text in SearchEntry
• bgo#642140: Last.fm: Close HTTP streams when finished with them
• bgo#648133: build: Don't delete gnome-doc-utils.make during distclean
• bgo#647932: DatabaseSource: Fix NRE in SkipTrackIfRemoved
• bgo#646991: AlbumListView: Fix disappearing option in Preferences
• bgo#647024: Lastfm: Fix NRE crash
• bgo#636057: Fix rendering glitch
• PodcastFeedPropertiesDialog: Fix display of feed URL
• bgo#648458: PlsPlaylistFormat: Make parsing the header case-insensitive
• bgo#611489: GStreamer: Use Banshee.IO instead of System.IO
• bgo#641748: ViewActions: enable eq once we know backend supports it
• bgo#638889: Banshee.Services: Avoid creating dupes after moves
• Packaging Changes:
• HAL dependency dropped
• ipod-sharp and podsleuth dependencies dropped
• NDesk.DBus dependency dropped
• dbus-sharp >= 0.7 and dbus-sharp-glib >= 0.5 required (available from http://mono.github.com/dbus-sharp/)
• Gtk# >= 2.12.10 required
• Mono >= 2.4.3 required
• GStreamer >= 0.10.26 required
• Various configure flags removed:
• --disable-ipod
• --disable-hal
• --disable-podcasts
• Banshee releases now hosted on ftp.gnome.org

Requirements:

• Mono Project
• Gtk#
• HAL 0.5.2+
• MusicBrainz