Panel indicator for Totem (default movie player) or for audio playing?

Question

Sometimes I mute the volume and forget a song or internet radio station is playing. I need a visual cue to tell me the song is playing in the background while in mute.

Is there an indicator for audio/sound that is playing?

Answer 1

In case you use Gnome Shell, there is this extension that might do what you want.

The version 6 of that extension should provide a volume control per application, but it has not been released (as of today).

Answer 2

Here is another method I found using Unity: Install the indicator-sysmonitor indicator and have it run a script that checks the sound.

I haven't written a script yet, but here is how to do it if you use pulseaudio: http://superuser.com/questions/393448/detecting-audio-playing-in-a-bash-script

Run the custom script with indicator-sysmonitor: http://www.tuxgarage.com/2011/10/system-monitor-multiload-appindicators.html (second half of the article)