This is one of my must-install’s whenever I’ve installed Ubuntu. It’s a simple Gnome panel applet that lets you control most popular music players without having to open said player up!
The music applet provides easy access to information about the current song, ratings and the most important playback controls.
Grab the deb from getdeb.net by clicking here.
Once you’ve installed it, add it to your panel by right clicking > add applet > music applet. Then right-click on it and select your player and which controls you’d like displayed. (For Example: In the image above, i have disabled the ‘ratings’.)