(Not) Fixing Banshee Notification Area Icon in Ubuntu

I've been annoyed by the Banshee notification area icon in Ubuntu for a while now. I've changed Ubuntu to use the darker Ambiance theme as opposed to the light (blinding) Radiance theme. I really like it, except that Banshee's notification area icon displays the same with either theme, so it appears as a grey icon on an ugly white block.

I finally googled the issue and found these comments on the Ubuntu Forums. The wonderful Ubuntu community has created a replacement Banshee notification area plugin. The downside is that I've lost the notification popups that appear on song changes (which I kind of liked) and can no longer get a quick display/control area by hovering over the icon (which I never used anyway and actually found a little annoying). All-in-all it's a win for me!

Update 11/13/2010: Gah! Just after saving this post, I discovered that closing Banshee with this new notification icon in effect actually closes the program. With the default icon, "closing" the program leaves it running in the background while the notification icon stays in place, allowing you to control the "hidden" program from there. With the new community extension, this is no longer the case. A deal-breaker for me!!!

Update 11/14/2010: After upgrading to Ubuntu 10.10, all is well. The icon matches the rest of the supported notification area, and all functionality is intact. Phew!