android/app/src/main/java/com/fabledsword/minstrel/MinstrelApplication.kt

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import com.fabledsword.minstrel.cache.sync.SyncController
 import com.fabledsword.minstrel.di.ApplicationScope
 import com.fabledsword.minstrel.events.EventsStream
 import com.fabledsword.minstrel.events.LiveEventsDispatcher
+import com.fabledsword.minstrel.player.CoverPrefetcher
 import com.fabledsword.minstrel.player.PlayEventsReporter
 import com.fabledsword.minstrel.player.ResumeController
 import dagger.hilt.android.HiltAndroidApp
@@ -70,6 +71,14 @@ class MinstrelApplication :
      */
     @Suppress("unused") @Inject lateinit var playEventsReporter: PlayEventsReporter
 
+    /**
+     * Same construct-the-singleton trick — CoverPrefetcher's init
+     * block subscribes to PlayerController.uiState and warms Coil's
+     * cache with the next track's cover so track changes don't flash
+     * a loading state.
+     */
+    @Suppress("unused") @Inject lateinit var coverPrefetcher: CoverPrefetcher
+
     /**
      * Same construct-the-singleton trick — EventsStream's init block
      * subscribes to AuthStore.sessionCookie and opens / closes the

android/app/src/main/java/com/fabledsword/minstrel/player/CoverPrefetcher.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+package com.fabledsword.minstrel.player
+
+import android.content.Context
+import coil3.SingletonImageLoader
+import coil3.request.ImageRequest
+import com.fabledsword.minstrel.di.ApplicationScope
+import dagger.hilt.android.qualifiers.ApplicationContext
+import kotlinx.coroutines.CoroutineScope
+import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.distinctUntilChanged
+import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.filter
+import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.mapNotNull
+import kotlinx.coroutines.launch
+import javax.inject.Inject
+import javax.inject.Singleton
+
+/**
+ * Warms Coil's memory + disk cache with the *next* queued track's
+ * cover so when the player advances, the on-screen AsyncImage and
+ * the NowPlaying dominant-color extraction both hit a cache instead
+ * of waiting on the network.
+ *
+ * Pulls the next cover URL out of [PlayerController.uiState] every
+ * time the queue or current-index changes, deduplicates, and fires
+ * a Coil enqueue. Fire-and-forget — the request's own Disposable is
+ * discarded; Coil's cache write happens on the loader's background
+ * thread regardless of subscription.
+ *
+ * Constructed at app launch via the construct-the-singleton trick
+ * in [com.fabledsword.minstrel.MinstrelApplication].
+ */
+@Singleton
+class CoverPrefetcher @Inject constructor(
+    @ApplicationContext private val context: Context,
+    private val playerController: PlayerController,
+    @ApplicationScope private val scope: CoroutineScope,
+) {
+    init {
+        scope.launch {
+            playerController.uiState
+                .mapNotNull { it.peekNextCoverUrl() }
+                .filter { it.isNotEmpty() }
+                .distinctUntilChanged()
+                .collect(::prefetch)
+        }
+    }
+
+    private fun prefetch(url: String) {
+        val request = ImageRequest.Builder(context)
+            .data(url)
+            .build()
+        SingletonImageLoader.get(context).enqueue(request)
+    }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Cover URL for `queueIndex + 1`, or null when the player is at the
+ * end of the queue / has no queue. Empty string is preserved so the
+ * caller can filter it; we don't want to prefetch a placeholder URL.
+ */
+private fun PlayerUiState.peekNextCoverUrl(): String? =
+    queue.getOrNull(queueIndex + 1)?.coverUrl