Chapter 21. Banshee: Playing and Managing Your Music

Contents

21.1. Listening to Music
21.2. Managing Your Music Library
21.3. Using Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player or Smart Phone
21.4. Creating Audio and MP3 CDs
21.5. Sharing Your Music
21.6. Configuring Banshee Preferences
21.7. For More Information

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 Banshee displays a list of sources on the left. Select the respective entry to import music and videos, or to add Internet radio stations.

Figure 21.1. Banshee Media Player

Banshee Media Player

21.1. Listening to Music

At first start of Banshee, the music library is empty. To listen to music, you need to import music from sources such as files, folders, or a CD. You can also listen to music from Internet radio stations, podcasts, and your digital audio player. For more information, see Section 21.3, “Using Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player or Smart Phone”. Alternatively, you can use Banshee's CD player function and listen to music directly off a CD.

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

21.1.1. Importing Music

Banshee can import music from a file, folder, CD, or an alternative music source (such as a digital audio player): Click Media+Import Media and select where to import the media from.

21.1.2. Playing Your Music

To play a song, 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, the CD title appears in the left panel. Select the title and click the play button to play the CD.

21.1.2.1. 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.

21.1.2.2. Music Recommendations

You can enable additional panes in Banshee to get more information about a song, it's artist or similar artists. Click View and enable Context Pane to show additional information from Wikipedia, related YouTube videos, or to receive recommendations on music that you might like, based on the currently playing song. (For information on configuring the context pane, refer to Section 21.6, “Configuring Banshee Preferences”).

Figure 21.2. Context Pane: Music Recommendations

Context Pane: Music Recommendations

21.1.3. Ripping Your Music

Banshee also allows you to rip music from an audio CD into various formats: Ogg Vorbis, or FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) for example. You can set general preferences for ripping audio CDs as described in Section 21.6, “Configuring Banshee Preferences”. Ripping an audio CD automatically adds the tracks to your music library.

  1. Insert an audio 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 entry in the source list on the left, and activate or deactivate tracks to rip as desired.

  3. To start the ripping process, click Import CD in the upper right corner.

21.1.4. Listening to Internet Radio

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

21.1.4.1. 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.

21.1.4.2. 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.

21.1.5. Listening to Podcasts

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

21.1.5.1. Subscribing to a Podcast

  1. Select Podcast in the source list on the left.

  2. Click Media+Add Podcast.

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

  4. Select what you want to happen when new episodes of this podcast are available. You can change the selected options later by right-clicking on the name of the podcast in the main window.

  5. Click Subscribe.

    The new podcast is added to your list.

21.1.5.2. 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.

To manage a single podcast you are subscribed to, right-click its name in the main window, and select one of the offered actions such as episode handling, visiting the podcast homepage, unsubscribing and deleting, and checking or setting properties.

To update all podcasts that you are subscribed to, manage podcast playlists, or set podcast related preferences, right-click Podcasts in the source list.

21.2. Managing Your Music Library

Banshee gives you several ways to organize your music. You can create playlists, and sort and rate songs. You can also view a variety of information about your music collection, including playback statistics (when a song was last played and how many times).

21.2.1. Organizing Your Music

Procedure 21.1. Managing Playlists

  1. To create a new music playlist, select Music in the source list on the left side.

  2. Click Media+New Playlist (or press Ctrl+N). A new playlist is displayed below Music in the left panel. Enter the name you want.

  3. To fill the new playlist, drag songs from the right-hand side of the window to the relevant playlist entry and drop them.

  4. Use the options on the Edit menu to remove or delete songs and rename or delete playlists.

  5. To sort the current playlist according to a column, click the title of the column. Click the column title again to reverse the sort order. You can also right-click Music, then click Sort Playlists.

Procedure 21.2. Editing Track Information and Viewing Track Details

You can edit the name of the artist, album, and title, as well as the track number and track count:

  1. Select a song, then click Edit+Edit Track Information (E). Alternatively, in the main window right-click the song and select Edit Track Information.

  2. To rate a song, select the number of stars you want to assign in the Rating field. This enables you to play only songs with a certain rating.

    Figure 21.3. Track Editor

    Track Editor

  3. If you want to set all fields in a group to the same value, select multiple songs in a playlist and click Edit+Edit Track Information. Make the changes you want, then click Sync All Field Values. You can also use the Back and Forward buttons to cycle through the selected songs.

  4. The track editor also lets you view detailed information about the selected song, including the bit rate, the sample rate, when a song was last played, when it was imported, how long the song is, how many times the song has been played, and where it is stored in your file system. To access the information, click the Properties tab.

21.2.2. Creating Smart Playlists

You can create playlists that automatically add and remove songs based on criteria you specify. For example, a smart playlist can contain songs you rated as five stars but that you have not listened to for six months. Another smart playlist can contain all songs published in 2010 that you have labeled with the Classical genre.

Banshee automatically updates all smart playlists when a change is made to your music library. If you import new songs, Banshee checks to see if they match any of your available smart playlists. When applicable, Banshee also updates your smart playlists if you just listened to a song or updated a song's metadata.

21.2.2.1. Creating a Smart Playlist

  1. Select Music in the source list on the left side.

  2. In the menu bar, click Media+New Smart Playlist.

  3. Specify a name for the smart playlist, then select the criteria for songs in this playlist to match.

    Use the plus and minus symbols to add or remove criteria.

  4. To use an already defined smart playlist, click Predefined Smart Playlists, select the playlist you want and click Open in Editor. Modify the criteria according to your wishes.

  5. Click Save. The smart playlist is added to your music library.

21.3. Using Banshee with Your Digital Audio Player or Smart Phone

Banshee supports several digital audio players, including Apple* iPods, Creative* Nomads*, Dell* DJs, Nokia* N810, and almost any other generic USB Mass Storage devices (like Android phones, or Nokia* N900). Instead of having to use separate applications to get support for your audio devices, Banshee gives you integrated support and lets you copy your music to or from your device, no matter what format the music is in.

21.3.1. Playing Music from your Digital Audio Player or Smart Phone

To play music from your digital audio player, simply plug your device into your system. After the system recognizes the device, an icon is displayed in the left panel in Banshee.

Select the icon to display the music on your device in the right panel. Double-click the song you want to listen to.

Figure 21.4. Banshee MP3 Playback from a Nokia N810

Banshee MP3 Playback from a Nokia N810

To view or change device properties, right-click your device, then select Device Properties. From there, you can view various pieces of information. For example, if you have an iPod, you can update the owner's name.

Figure 21.5. Banshee iPod Device Properties

Banshee iPod Device Properties

21.3.2. Adding Music to Your Digital Audio Player or Smart Phone

To add tracks to your player or phone, simply drag them from your music library to your device.

Banshee transparently supports the transcoding of your songs for any device. You can have your music library in any number of formats (including, but not limited to, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and AAC), and it will be transparently transcoded before it is sent to your digital audio player.

To remove tracks, select your device in the list of sources, right-click the song you want to delete, then click Delete from <device_name>.

21.3.3. Copying Music from Your Digital Audio Player or Smart Phone to Banshee

Banshee supports the importing of music from a digital audio player or smart phone to your music library. Simply drag and drop the songs from the device to your music library. You can also import all of the music on your device by right-clicking your player in the source list and selecting Import to Library.

Figure 21.6. Importing Music from Your Digital Audio Player to Banshee

Importing Music from Your Digital Audio Player to Banshee

21.3.4. Synchronizing With Digital Audio Players or Smart Phones

Banshee offers several options to keep your external devices up to date with your Banshee library: you can either synchronize music, audiobooks, videos, or podcasts manually or choose automatic synchronization, for example, on first plug-in or after any changes to your Banshee library.

To set the synchronization options, plug in your device, select the device entry in the source list on the left and select the respective options on the right.

Banshee also synchronizes the ratings and cover art in your tracks to your iPod.

21.4. Creating Audio and MP3 CDs

  1. Insert a blank CD into the CD or DVD drive.

  2. Select the songs you want to burn.

  3. Click Edit+Write CD.

  4. Click Burn to start Brasero where you can set any additional options. For more information about Brasero, see Chapter 24, Brasero: Burning CDs and DVDs.

  5. Start the burning process. You can track the status of the burn the Brasero pop-up window. A message box appears when the burn is complete.

21.5. Sharing Your Music

Banshee contains a plug-in for Last.fm, a popular Internet radio and music community Web site. You can automatically update your online http://www.last.fm profile with the music you listen to in Banshee. This lets others see what you are listening to, and gives you access to charts detailing your listening history. If you join groups such as the Banshee Group, you can also see what other people are listening to.

To scrobble your music to Last.fm and to share your music, you need to have a Last.fm account. Then you can activate the Last.fm plug-in in Banshee, enter your Last.fm credentials, and enable song reporting:

Procedure 21.3. Scrobbling Your Music to Last.fm

  1. To enable the plug-in, select Edit+Preferences+Extensions, activate Last.fm Scrobbling and close the dialog.

  2. In the source list on the left, select the Last.fm entry and click Account Settings in the right pane.

  3. If you have already registered with Last.fm, enter your Last.fm username and click Log in to Last.fm which takes you to the Last.fm Web site. Follow the instructions on the screen to allow Banshee to connect to your Last.fm account.

    If you have not previously registered with Last.fm, click Sign up for Last.fm. This takes you to the Last.fm Web site where you can register. Follow the instructions on the screen.

  4. After having entered your Last.fm credentials, activate Enable Song Reporting and confirm your changes. Banshee starts reporting with the next song you play.

21.6. Configuring Banshee Preferences

  1. Click Edit+Preferences.

    Banshee Preferences dialog box
  2. For example, choose from the General tab whether to write metadata to the imported files or disable features requiring Internet access.

    Click Copy Files to Music Folder When Importing to place a copy of the files you import in your Banshee music folder.

  3. On the Source Specific tab, you can define a number of settings for each source that you can select in the source list on the left. The available options depend on the entry you select from the Source drop-down list:

    • For example, for the source Music you can define the following settings: the location that is used when you import music (Music Folder), or the folder hierarchy in the music library, and how filenames are displayed (File Organization).

    • For Videos and Podcasts you can also specify the location that is used when you import videos or download podcasts.

    • For Audio CDs, define the Import Format you want to use for CD ripping. Click Edit to configure advanced options for that format.

    • For Last.fm access, enter your Last.fm credentials.

  4. On the Extensions tab enable or disable features such as Cover Art Fetching, Internet Radio, Last.fm Scrobbling, or support for Amazon MP3 Store. This also defines which entries appear in the source list on the left.

  5. Click Close to save your changes.

21.7. For More Information

For more information about Banshee, including a section with FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and updates about new features, refer to the project's home page at http://banshee.fm.