"running" means that the application process is running and exposing the MPRIS interface. It has nothing to do with the play status (that's "state") or whether something's loaded into the player (that's "title" / "artist" / "album").
** Changed in: indicator-sound Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Unity API bugs, which is subscribed to The Sound Menu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1373319 Title: Indicator sound menu always showing media player in "running" state Status in Sound Menu: Invalid Status in Media Hub: New Status in “unity8” package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: Even if nothing is playing or loaded into a music player, the player still shows in running state. Partial output of actions shows "running=true" dbus-send --print-reply --session --dest=com.canonical.indicator.sound /com/canonical/indicator/sound org.gtk.Actions.DescribeAll dict entry( string "mediaplayer-app.desktop" struct { boolean false signature "" array [ variant array [ dict entry( string "running" variant boolean true ) dict entry( string "state" variant string "Stopped" ) ] ] } ) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-sound/+bug/1373319/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~unity-api-bugs Post to : unity-api-bugs@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~unity-api-bugs More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp