How to assign hot-keys to control Rhythmbox?

What do we need...

When rhythmbox is installed, there is a command based application called rhythmbox-client that can be used to control various aspects of Rhythmbox itself.

So how does it do it...

rhythmbox-client uses a process communication protocol called DBUS. Its the same protocol that the Unity Sound Indicator menu uses.

You need to ensure that this plugin is enabled in Rhythmbox

How to I assign a short-cut key...

Launch Keyboard from the Unity Dash.

The important part is the command and assigning the short-cut itself.

The command you need to use is rhythmbox-client --play-pause

So what else can I control...

If you run rhythmbox-client --help this will give you a list of command line options which you can control Rhythmbox.

The most useful options for keyboard control are:

  --quit                                   Quit Rhythmbox
  --next                                   Jump to next song
  --previous                               Jump to previous song
  --seek                                   Seek in current track
  --play                                   Resume playback if currently paused
  --pause                                  Pause playback if currently playing
  --play-pause                             Toggle play/pause mode
  --enqueue                                Add specified tracks to the play queue
  --clear-queue                            Empty the play queue before adding new tracks
  --print-playing                          Print the title and artist of the playing song
  --print-playing-format                   Print formatted details of the song
  --set-volume                             Set the playback volume
  --volume-up                              Increase the playback volume
  --volume-down                            Decrease the playback volume
  --print-volume                           Print the current playback volume
  --set-rating                             Set the rating of the current song

There are other options which you can use in - for example - shell scripts as well.