Rhythmbox 3.5: A Music Player That Finally Respects Your Podcasts
Rhythmbox 3.5 is a new update to the long-standing open-source GNOME music player that introduces cross-app podcast sync, a modern playback backend, and upgraded lyrics support, turning a traditional desktop jukebox into a more capable music and podcast hub.
The headline change is blunt and overdue: Rhythmbox 3.5.0 syncs podcast subscriptions and listening progress across apps. For anyone bouncing between a desktop music player podcast section and dedicated mobile podcast apps, that is the friction point that has kept Rhythmbox’s podcast feature feeling like a sidecar. Now, the player plugs into the gPodder.net API so your podcast subscriptions and episode play counts stay aligned between Rhythmbox and other compatible clients and services. In other words, your desktop no longer lives in a silo while your phone knows where you stopped listening. Given that this is the first new feature series in nearly ten years for Rhythmbox, it is telling that developers chose cross-app podcast listening as the flagship improvement.
Cross-App Podcast Sync: From Annoying Silo to Shared Library
The most important thing Rhythmbox 3.5 does is respect that podcasts are no longer locked to a single device or app. The new gPodder.net plugin enables podcast subscription and episode synchronization so that listening activity stays in step between Rhythmbox and other compatible podcast apps and services. You can even use self-hosted sync servers such as oPodSync or PinePods as the glue between clients.
This matters because fragmented podcast listening is exhausting. Without sync, you either keep mental notes about timestamps or scrub aimlessly through episodes you swear you already heard. Rhythmbox now mirrors subscriptions and play counts alongside those other podcast sync apps, so the desktop player becomes a first-class citizen rather than an offline backup. The redesigned podcast episode view helps too, clearly marking which episodes you have listened to so you avoid that “didn’t I hear this already?” déjà vu. For a music player podcast feature that once felt bolted on, cross-app podcast listening transforms it into a realistic daily driver.
A New Playback Engine and Smarter Lyrics: Quiet But Meaningful Upgrades
Podcast sync may steal the spotlight, but the Rhythmbox 3.5 update quietly improves everyday listening in ways that matter over hours of use. A newer multistream playback backend, first introduced in Rhythmbox 3.4.9, is now the default, replacing the older crossfading engine. Rather than building a single audio pipeline and mixing tracks itself, Rhythmbox now runs each track through its own pipeline and lets modern sound servers like PipeWire and PulseAudio handle mixing. That hands off complexity to the system, reduces Rhythmbox’s maintenance burden, and should deliver more reliable playback on contemporary desktops.
Lyrics support finally feels modern as well. Rhythmbox can now search for song lyrics via lrclib.net, read local .lrc sidecar files stored with audio tracks, and extract lyrics embedded in Ogg Vorbis files, provided the system uses GStreamer 1.25.90 or later. This is exactly the kind of low-key quality-of-life improvement long-time users expect from a mature music player: less manual fussing, more time listening and reading along.
Why This Long-Delayed Release Matters for Open-Source Listeners
Rhythmbox 3.5 is the first new feature release after nine maintenance-focused updates in the 3.4.x line, which began back on August 14, 2016 and wrapped with version 3.4.9 in October 2025. The new version lands just 12 days short of a decade after the original 3.4 release and marks the first update in over nine months. That gap matters: it signals that the project is willing to re-engage with meaningful user problems instead of merely keeping the lights on.
Despite no longer being the default desktop music app, Rhythmbox remains a competent local library manager with device sync, internet radio, and plugin support. The podcast redesign, with clearer notifications for feed updates and episode downloads plus visual indicators for listened episodes, shows that the team still cares about refining the experience. Even the unglamorous fixes—such as resolving a Year 2038 time issue and tightening error paths—signal a project thinking about longevity rather than quick patches. In a landscape filled with constantly changing streaming apps, that kind of steady, thoughtful maintenance is rare.
The Bottom Line: Rhythmbox Becomes a Serious Podcast Companion
Rhythmbox 3.5 will not win over everyone who has already committed to a mobile-first podcast app ecosystem, but it does something more important for existing users: it removes the biggest reason not to rely on the built-in music player podcast features. With podcast sync across apps via gPodder.net, a cleaned-up episode view, and redesigned notifications, cross-app podcast listening finally works instead of fighting you.
Combined with the new default playback backend and smarter lyrics handling, this release turns Rhythmbox into a more coherent place for both music and spoken-word content. If you prefer owning your files, running open-source tools, and now, keeping podcast progress consistent between devices, the Rhythmbox 3.5 update is not just welcome—it is the first version in nearly ten years that feels essential.
