CoverArt Browser is basically more than a plugin and using it, Rhythmbox becomes a new music player. Among the plugin features are:
- multiple views: tiles, coverflow, carousel or roundabout;
- configurable search (all fields, albums, artists, etc.);
- display all your music or only the play queue, top rated, recently added or recently played;
- it integrates with another plugin to allow downloading cover art for all your albums;
- export albums art in the tracks, useful to display cover art on mobile devices;
- an optional tracks pane is available so you can easily view the tracks available in an album;
- can be set to start automatically when launching Rhythmbox;
- highly customizable;
 |
| Coverflow view |
 |
| Artist view |
Rhythmbox CoverArt Browser 1.0 was released recently, this being the first stable release. Some of the changes compared to the previous (unstable) release include:
- added new artist view that comes with features such as displaying artist albums in tree-view, artist cover download via Last.fm and much more
- new lighter icon-theme;
- Rhythmbox v3 style toolbar and button popup menus;
- new toolbar menu-button to switch between views including Rhythmbox's own library view;
- new toolbar menu-button in RB’s library view to switch to plugin views (Rhythmbox v3 and later);
- option to export and embed coverart from most file-formats to MP3;
- remember quick artist filter between Rhythmbox sessions;
- support drag-and-drop of albums onto playlists or external devices for Rhythmbox v2.99 and later;
- rework Album & Playlist favourite supports – this declutters menus and now can be optionally enabled through properties button;
- right click support for the external plugin Repeat One Song;
- tooltip support to display cover name and artist only if album information is not already displayed;
- more!
Install Rhythmbox CoverArt Browser plugin in Ubuntu
Ubuntu (and derivatives such as Linux Mint, etc.) can install the latest Rhythmbox CoverArt Browser plugin by using a PPA. Add the PPA and install it using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox-plugins
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rhythmbox-plugin-coverart-browserImportant: if you're using Ubuntu 13.10 and have upgraded to Rhythmbox 3.0, replace "saucy" with "trusty" in the PPA source list to install the Rhythmbox 3.0 compatible plugin. More info about that, HERE.
In the same PPA as CoverArt Browser, you'll find many other Rhythmbox plugins, including an equalizer, an enhanced last.fm plugin more, so check out: Rhythmbox Third-Party Plugins Ubuntu PPA.
Arch Linux users can install Rhythmbox CoverArt Browser plugin via AUR.
For other Linux distributions, see the CoverArt Browser GitHub page for instructions.
