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Winamp Purchased By Radionomy

Posted by Soulskill on from the llama's-execution-stayed dept.

Major Blud writes "TechCrunch is reporting that Radionomy has purchased both Winamp and Shoutcast from AOL for $5-10 million and a 12% stake in the company. Radionomy CEO Alexandre Saboundjian said, 'We want to rebuild the story for Winamp. We think the future can be great because the strategy is not just desktop but mobile and cars and so much more.'"

24 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Here's hoping... by msobkow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's hoping they start by PROPERLY supporting FLAC, including 24/192 media.

    The plugins currently available flat out do not work. And I hate using VLC for music.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:Here's hoping... by icebike · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have no problem with VLC for music, but Winamp has been a favorite for years.

      Yeah, its old and funky, and that's exactly why I like it.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:Here's hoping... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You might notice he said "I have no problem". That does not mean it works for everyone else. all of your listed formats are rather obsure, and most people would have no need for a player supporting them. Why do people always have to put down what works for someone else just because it does not support what they want?

    3. Re:Here's hoping... by ClioCJS · · Score: 2

      That's funny, I just played a flac with winamp an hour ago.

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    4. Re:Here's hoping... by rwa2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have no problem with VLC for music, but Winamp has been a favorite for years.

      Yeah, its old and funky, and that's exactly why I like it.

      Same here... Actually Winamp is my favourite player for Android and probably the only Android app I've plopped somewhat serious money for (including the lyric and album-art download plugin)

      Though if you like VLC for music, check out http://www.clementine-player.org/ , which is cross platform, still uses VLC code for the backend, and adds a pretty nice frontend interface with crossfading between tracks and streams. My only complaint is that the interface doesn't shrink down to as small as Winamp / Audacious can.

    5. Re:Here's hoping... by rwa2 · · Score: 2

      But it feels so, so wrong to listen to mod / xm / it files without a FastTracker or at least openCubicPlayer -like interface to visualize the individual channels :P

      Even nectarine streams their demoscene music in aac/mp3/ogg format :P

    6. Re:Here's hoping... by SpankiMonki · · Score: 3, Informative

      My version is using the Nullsoft FLAC Decoder v3.03 and I haven't had any trouble with playing FLAC either. Maybe GP will elaborate...

    7. Re:Here's hoping... by Benski · · Score: 2

      Winamp supports FLAC out of the box, and has for about 6 years now. Perhaps you have an outdated version.

    8. Re:Here's hoping... by Sigma+7 · · Score: 2

      Does VLC play MOD, S3M, XM, IT, or other tracked formats?

      If you want to rate VLC on which obscure music tracks it can support, you should include .MIDI in the list. You have to download a soundfont to play those files, which is no different than downloading a plugin to play the other tracker formats.

      VLC plays the tracker formats, but not Midi. This may have changed since 2.0.8 with some FAQ claiming that nobody listens to tracker formats anymore.

      Still, using a video player to listen to music is using a sledgehammer to swat a fly.

    9. Re:Here's hoping... by bob_super · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > the interface doesn't shrink down to as small as Winamp / Audacious can

      And this is most of the reason why I use winamp on all my machines, and have for over 15 years. Winamp in shrunk mode, with the shrunk playlist attached to it, always sits in the top left corner of my screen. All the important controls are visible, time left to end of song, and the playlist gives the title if I skip forward (or forget what that song is called). From there it's only a couple clicks for >99% of my needs.
      Need me? Wrist twitch sends mouse top left corner - click - press C to pause ($5 keyboards, no fancy buttons) - "how can I help?" (probably reliably under 2 seconds from disruption to mute, by now)
      All that convenience and it doesn't even cover a third of the top icon row. I don't need to shrink other windows to fit my full-featured player.

      Can you name another player that small? (I'm assuming single-key shortcuts are common.)

      the other main reason to keep winamp is that I have my own filing system and too many players want "libraries". Winamp just plays the files wherever they are, and doesn't make catalogs or whatever.

    10. Re:Here's hoping... by msobkow · · Score: 2

      Luddite.

      Try a good audio card and good headphones or a *real* stereo.

      If you can't hear the difference, it's because you're deaf or have never listened to live music to know how snares, cymbals, triangles, and brass should sound.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  2. What about the Llama by ChadSmith4920 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does the 12% include the Llama Ass?

  3. There's nothing that makes winamp great or unique by t0qer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hang out with the old nullsoft guys in IRC. General consensus for most of them is "We've moved on" The other concensus is, "There are so many good media players these days"

    There was a time when Winamp mattered. There was no decent media players (in some regards, it was a new concept) Winamp brought skinning, plugins, visualizations and a whole slew of things that most folks never even knew they wanted or needed.

    Funny that they mention Songbird today. One Nullsofter went there after the AOL buyout. He's now at google.

    As far as Frankel, he started working on a DAW called Reaper. It's a swiss army knife for audio.

  4. Anyone know anything about Radionomy? by Bo'Bob'O · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anyone know anything about Radionomy? I still use win-amp at work, despite the bloat. I like the small 'strip' interface I can put up at the top of my window and I really haven't found a replacement, so I'd like to know if I can expect things to get better.. or worse.

  5. I'm still using version 5 by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As far as I'm concerned, Winamp is still the best music player on Windows. With the Moon Glade skin, mine lives as an always-on-top bar at the top-center of my screen and expands into a playlist when I hover over it. The plugin system decodes every music file I know of and - this is huge for me - it can apply VST filters to the audio output. This is important to me because I play my music through Bose 901 (v6) speakers, which are designed to require a custom Bose equalizer to sound decent. Because I'm running audio into my receiver digitally, I can't use this analog equalizer, so I rely on a chain of VST plugins to mimic (and actually improve on) its functionality. I don't know of another media player that can use VST plugins for sound shaping. Then again, I haven't been looking, because I'm pretty satisfied with Winamp. If anyone knows other media players with VST functionality I would appreciate the info.

  6. Value of a plug-in architecture by tepples · · Score: 2

    Different users have different needs. If one person wants obscure format A, and another person wants obscure format B, and a third person wants obscure format C, then the most efficient way to handle the different needs is to make a player with an input plug-in architecture. Or are you claiming that "most people would have no need for a player supporting" any obscure format?

    1. Re:Value of a plug-in architecture by kelemvor4 · · Score: 2

      Different users have different needs. If one person wants obscure format A, and another person wants obscure format B, and a third person wants obscure format C, then the most efficient way to handle the different needs is to make a player with an input plug-in architecture. Or are you claiming that "most people would have no need for a player supporting" any obscure format?

      True, but I'd hardly call FLAC obscure.

  7. Codec pack == input plug-ins by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Plugins are similarly dying a slow death. Think of video players.. how many have plugins to support some manner of format? Most of them either read them out of the box (think VLC) or rely on a 'codec pack' (with FFDShow or LAV) being installed

    What do you think the "codec pack" is? As I understand it, a codec pack is just a curated set of input plug-ins.

  8. Re:There's nothing that makes winamp great or uniq by toejam13 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There was a time when Winamp mattered. There was no decent media players

    And now there are dozens, with some that focus on audio, some that focus on video, some that handle both: Foobar2000, Songbird, VLC, Media Player Classic, XBMC, Windows Media Center, etc... You even have image viewers like XnView turning into video players. The lines have completely blurred as viewers and players have turned into multimedia centers.

    The question is, which niche would Winamp try to fill? How could they differentiate themselves? The interface? Cataloging? Container support? Codec support? Streaming support? Subtitle support? Time shifting? Post processing? Song recognition? Speed? Size? Cross-platform support?

  9. Lies, I bought it last year. by Brama · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://mp3blaster.sourceforge.net/

    1. Re:Lies, I bought it last year. by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whoa, Brama bought the Llama?

  10. Winamp is still the best player around! by Squallop · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't understand all of this talk about the Winamp developers stating that there are plenty of good audio players out there now... There really isn't! There's iTunes and a majority of people use that because they don't realise that their computers can have non Apple software installed on them too :O. I've recently been trying out many of the top rated audio players, e.g. foobar2000, MusicBee, iTunes.. none of them come even close to being as good as Winamp. Some of Winamp's features that I'm yet to see in other players are, - Excellent Media Library, with the ability to play straight from the library... - Toast Notifications of playing tracks - Great plugin integration - Modular and modern design If anyone knows of any players that can really compare, please let me know. I'd love to see them.

  11. fascinating! by pyrrho · · Score: 2

    fascinating news... I had no idea AOL was still in business. I worked at spinner.com (which streamed music and was not a blog) when AOL bought us and Winamp... I left almost immediately, somewhat as a result.

    --

    -pyrrho

  12. It all comes around again on the big wheel by NoOnesMessiah · · Score: 2

    Having been very close to WinAmp and the AmpDev team in general in its infancy (circa 1996-1999) it's good to see that someone else is taking an interest. When AOL/Time Warner bought it for $100 Million in 1999 we all knew the direction it was going: large, corporate, and stupid. Let's face it, AOL bought WinAmp for the community that came with it. It should be no surprise that they did nothing memorable with it. And I can't fault Justin for taking the money and running.

    I remember well the Stupid Factor being turned up to 11 when AOL ditched FreeBSD for SunOS/Solaris when they moved the hardware off of its "home" network. They practically ended up doubling the hardware to accommodate a (much) less functional OS. I could see the downward spiral start months before that happened. So they bought it for $100 Million and they're selling it for $5-10 Million. Good job, guys. Way to build shareholder value. Go, Team! ...Still, you beat Microsoft to the punch.

    The TAP/WinAmp Memorial Hot Tub still lives and I use it every day. And I still use WinAmp every day, just not a CURRENT version. ( I still keep the pre-brain-damaged versions around despite some known security issues.)

    That little pieces of it survive here and there is a nice reminder of what was, and what could have been, and what still might be. We'll see what Radionomy does with it. I, for one, will be happy to give them a chance to become relevant again.

    Good luck, guys! Whip that llama's ass!