Rhythmbox 3.5 Arrives After Nearly a Decade: Better Lyrics Search, Podcast Sync, and New Playback Engine

After nearly a decade running on the 3.4 series, the venerable open-source audio player Rhythmbox 3.5 has officially landed. Built for the GNOME desktop ecosystem and powered by the GStreamer multimedia framework, this landmark update brings a long-awaited refresh to one of Linux's most classic music managers.

Whether you rely on local audio files, stream internet radio, or follow dozens of weekly podcasts, Rhythmbox 3.5 introduces modern conveniences that make managing your media library smoother than ever.

A Decent Leap: Moving Beyond the 3.4 Era

Rhythmbox 3.4 originally debuted back in August 2016. While it received minor maintenance patches over the years—ending with version 3.4.9—this new 3.5 milestone marks its first major feature branch transition in nearly ten years.

The biggest under-the-hood change is the default activation of a completely new playback backend. First introduced as an experimental option in 3.4.9 to replace the legacy crossfading engine, this modern backend is now enabled out of the box. The development team also addressed critical edge-case bugs, including a crash triggered when crossfade duration was set to zero and a fix for the impending Year-2038 timestamp issue.

Smarter Lyrics Search and Enhanced Podcast Management

Finding track lyrics on Linux desktop players can often be hit-or-miss, but Rhythmbox 3.5 significantly narrows that gap. The player's lyrics plugin now connects directly to lrclib.net, reads local sidecar .lrc files saved alongside your tracks, and extracts embedded lyrics directly from Ogg Vorbis files.

Podcast enthusiasts also have plenty of reasons to celebrate this update:

• gPodder.net Synchronization: A brand-new built-in plugin integrates the gPodder.net API, allowing you to sync podcast subscriptions and episode progress across multiple devices and apps effortlessly.
• Redesigned Episode View: The episode interface has been overhauled to clearly highlight which episodes you have already played.
• Reworked Notifications: Feed update checks and download notifications are now cleaner and far less intrusive.

Extending Your Local Setup

Even as cloud streaming dominates, Rhythmbox remains a powerful hub for offline music collection. Thanks to its robust plugin architecture supporting Python and C, users can easily extend the app with features like web-based remote control, Last.fm scrobbling, or cover art lookup.

In addition to playing local tracks, Rhythmbox seamlessly connects to network shares, internet radio stations, external smartphones, and portable media players.

How to Get Rhythmbox 3.5

You can download Rhythmbox 3.5 today on Flathub as a Flatpak package, which runs across virtually any modern Linux distribution. If you prefer native software packages, expect version 3.5 to land in your distribution's stable software repositories in the coming days. Source code tarballs are also available on GNOME's official GitLab repository for those who prefer building from source.

---

Are you still using Rhythmbox to manage your desktop music library, or have you migrated to streaming services? What do you think of the new podcast sync and lyrics updates? Let us know in the comments below!