Playing and Managing Your Music with Banshee

Contents

20.1. Listening to Music
20.2. Managing Your Music Library
20.3. Using Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player
20.4. Creating Audio and MP3 CDs
20.5. Sharing Your Music
20.6. Configuring Banshee Preferences

Banshee™ is a GNOME media management and playback application that lets you import CDs, sync your music and video collection to a digital audio player, play music directly from a digital audio player, create playlists with songs from your library, create audio and MP3 CDs from subsets of your library, and subscribe to, download, and listen to your favorite podcasts. Banshee also supports streaming audio through its Internet Radio plug-in.

To open Banshee, click Computer+Banshee Media Player.

The first time you open Banshee, the Musik Library window opens ready to import music and videos, or add Internet radio stations.

Figure 20.1. Banshee Media Player

Banshee Media Player

Listening to Music

To listen to music, Banshee needs to know what is available to listen to. You can listen to music in your library, which means that you will need to import music from an external source such as a file, folder, or CD, or you can listen to music directly off a CD. You can also listen to music from Internet radio stations, podcasts, and your digital audio player (see Section 20.3, “Using Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player” for more information).

Banshee also comes with MP3 support. If your music collection consists of both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files, you need not convert any files to a different format. Just open Banshee and start listening.

If the format you are trying to play is not supported by the player's engine, Banshee lets you search for a suitable codec which you can then install with YaST.

Importing Music

Banshee can import music from a file, folder, CD, or an alternate music source (such as a digital audio player).

Figure 20.2. Import Music Library

Import Music Library

  1. In Banshee, click Media+Import Media.

  2. Select an import source.

  3. Click Import Media Source.

Playing Your Music

To play a song, simply select the song in the library and click the play button in the upper left corner. Use the other buttons to pause a song or play the next or previous song. Use the loudspeaker button on the right to adjust the volume. You can also use the items on the Playback menu to repeat or shuffle songs.

Banshee has an integrated CD player. When you insert a music CD, your CD title appears in the left panel. Select the title and click the play button to play your full CD.

Notification Area Icon

You can keep Banshee hidden in the notification area when you are not interacting with it by minimizing the Banshee window. You will only see pop-up bubbles identifying the current song when track changes happen.

If you do not want to see the pop-ups, click Edit+Preferences+Extensions+Notification Area Icon+Disable.

Music Recommendations

Banshee automatically recommends music that you might like, based on the currently playing song. It finds artists and popular songs that people with similar musical tastes enjoy.

Figure 20.3. Banshee Music Recommendations

Banshee Music Recommendations

If you do not want to receive recommendations, click View, then deselect Show Recommendations.

Ripping Your Music

To rip music from a CD and add it to your library:

  1. Insert a CD into your CD or DVD drive.

    Banshee automatically lists the CD as a source on the left sidebar.

    Ripping Music in Banshee
  2. Select the CD title in the source list on the left, then click Import CD in the upper right corner.

Listening to Internet Radio

You can use Banshee to listen to Internet radio stations and streaming audio. Add your own stations.

Listening to an Internet Radio Station

To listen to Internet radio stations, select Radio in the source list on the left, then double-click the station you want to listen to.

Figure 20.4. Internet Radio Stations in Banshee

Internet Radio Stations in Banshee

Adding a New Internet Radio Station

  1. Right-click Radio in the source list, then click Add Station.

  2. Enter the stream details in the Add new radio station dialog box, then click Save.

    The new station is added to your list.

Listening to Podcasts

Banshee lets you subscribe, download, and listen to your favorite Podcasts.

Subscribing to a Podcast

  1. Click Media+Subscribe to Podcast.

  2. Enter the URL of the podcast you want to subscribe to.

  3. Select from the pull-down menu what happens when new episodes of this podcast are available.

  4. Click Subscribe.

    The new podcast is added to your list.

Listening to a Podcast

To listen to a podcast, select Podcasts in the source list, then double-click the podcast you want to listen to.

Figure 20.5. Podcasts in Banshee

Podcasts in Banshee

Right-click Podcast in the source list to update a podcast, subscribe to other podcasts, or find new podcasts.