📺 Now Playing View
The Now Playing View displays the currently playing track from MusicBee with rich metadata and album art.
Table of Contents
Overview
The Now Playing View is a sidebar view that shows real-time information about the track currently playing in MusicBee. It updates automatically as the playlist progresses and provides quick access to essential playback controls.
Features
Album Art Display
- Full album artwork displayed prominently
- Automatic updates when the track changes
- Fallback handling for tracks without artwork
Track Information
The view displays comprehensive track metadata:
- Track Title - Name of the current song
- Artist - Performing artist
- Album - Album name
- Year - Release year (when available)
- Duration - Total track length and current playback position
- Progress Bar - Visual indicator of playback progress
Quick Controls
Access playback controls directly from the Now Playing View:
- ⏮️ Previous - Skip to the previous track
- ⏯️ Play/Pause - Toggle playback
- ⏭️ Next - Skip to the next track
- 🔁 Repeat - Toggle repeat mode
- 🔀 Shuffle - Cycle shuffle mode (off, on, Auto DJ)
- 📋 Playlist Toggle - Toggle the playlist control state indicator
- 🔊 Volume - Quick access to volume control
- ⭐ Rating - View and adjust track rating from the album-art overlay
- ❤️ Favorite - Mark track as favorite from the album-art overlay
- ⭐ Mini View Rating - Hover the mini rating star to expand to 5 stars; mini action buttons hide while rating and return when you mouse out or click a rating
Appearance Customization
The Now Playing View supports multiple themes to match your preferences. See Themes for available options.
Popular Themes:
- Material
- Tokyo Night
- Dracula
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Matrix
- Grayscale
- And many more…
Getting Started
- Open the MusicBee Remote extension sidebar (look for the music note icon)
- Ensure you’re connected to your MusicBee instance
- Start playing music in MusicBee
- The Now Playing View will display automatically
Tips & Tricks
- Mini View Mode: For a compact display, you can minimize the view height to show just the essential controls
- Theme Switching: Easily switch between themes through the extension settings to match your VS Code theme
- Auto-Update: The view refreshes automatically as you control playback from other applications
Troubleshooting
View not updating?
- Verify your MusicBee connection is active
- Check that the MusicBee Remote Plugin is enabled
- Try clicking the Refresh button
Album art not showing?
- Ensure the track has embedded artwork
- Try a different track
- Check your MusicBee library metadata