Musicbox is built for listening to whole albums, not just shuffling singles. Playback flows track-to-track without gaps, loudness stays even, and every album page doubles as a place to explore the record — its artwork, the exact pressing you own, and other releases worth a listen.
Gapless & overlapping playback
When you play from the desktop app (or any device acting as the streamer), Musicbox preloads the next track and hands audio over the instant the current one ends — no silence, no stutter between songs. On continuous records — live sets, DJ mixes, concept albums that bleed one track into the next — the transition is seamless, exactly as the artist intended.
It just works: there's no setting to enable. Clients connected to a streamer hear the same gapless output the streamer produces.
Consistent volume: track vs album gain
Musicbox measures each track's loudness (EBU R128 / ReplayGain) and can level playback so nothing jumps out or disappears. Turn it on under Settings → Playback → Normalize volume.
Underneath it you'll find Album mode. With it off, every track is levelled independently (track gain) — best for a shuffle of unrelated songs. With it on, Musicbox uses album gain: the whole album is levelled as a unit, so the quiet intro and the loud finale keep their intended relationship to each other. Leave it on when you listen to albums front-to-back.
Full-screen artwork
Click an album's cover to open it full-screen. If the release has more than one image, a thumbnail rail lets you flip between them; the arrow keys move through the set and Esc closes it. Great for reading liner notes on a scanned booklet or just admiring a cover at full size.
Release details & alternate covers
Every album page carries a Release info chip. Open it for a bottom sheet describing the specific pressing — format, label, year and the rest of the details Musicbox looks up from Discogs (see the Discogs token page to enable lookups on the free tier).
Not happy with the cover Musicbox picked? Hit Covers to browse candidate artwork from other pressings of the same record and set the one you like as the album's cover.
Similar albums & artists
Each album page suggests related listening — similar albums already in your own library, plus related records surfaced from Discogs. It's an easy way to fall back into your collection instead of reaching for a streaming service's recommendations.
Good to know
- Gapless transitions and loudness normalization are applied by the streamer, so they behave the same on every device you connect to it.
- Album gain is read from ReplayGain / R128 tags when present, and derived from the album's tracks when it isn't — so it works even on untagged rips.
- Release details, alternate covers and similar records all rely on Discogs lookups. On the free tier, add your own Discogs token to turn them on.