I posit that the "just work on X," where X is the dominant player does not contribute anything to the discussion. Why can't we trust people to have investigated this possibility ahead of time?
Given the author's level of gumption, I'm glad he's not hacking on Rhythmbox. Rhythmbox is probably my favorite music player, but it's good to shake things up.
He's certainly within his right to work on whatever he wants. From an effort vs impact perspective however, it is usually better to build on something than reinvent.
In fact I would say this is major drawback on the Linux platform where there's a lot of duplication of effort that ends in half-baked solutions.
In any case, I merely asked; as I said the OP is free to pursue his interest as he sees fit.
Given the author's level of gumption, I'm glad he's not hacking on Rhythmbox. Rhythmbox is probably my favorite music player, but it's good to shake things up.