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Winamp Media Player To Return as a Platform-Agnostic Audio Mobile App Next Year; Desktop Application Receives an Update (techcrunch.com)
The charmingly outdated media player Winamp is being reinvented as a platform-agnostic audio mobile app that brings together all your music, podcasts, and streaming services to a single location. From a report: It's an ambitious relaunch, but the company behind it says it's still all about the millions-strong global Winamp community -- and as proof, the original desktop app is getting an official update as well. For those who don't remember: Winamp was the MP3 player of choice around the turn of the century, but went through a rocky period during Aol ownership and failed to counter the likes of iTunes and the onslaught of streaming services, and more or less crumbled over the years. The original app, last updated in 2013, still works, but to say it's long in the tooth would be something of an understatement (the community has worked hard to keep it updated, however). So it's with pleasure that I can confirm rumors that substantial updates are on the way.
"There will be a completely new version next year, with the legacy of Winamp but a more complete listening experience," said Alexandre Saboundjan, CEO of Radionomy, the company that bought Winamp (or what remained of it) in 2014. "You can listen to the MP3s you may have at home, but also to the cloud, to podcasts, to streaming radio stations, to a playlist you perhaps have built. People want one single experience," he concluded. "I think Winamp is the perfect player to bring that to everybody. And we want people to have it on every device."
"There will be a completely new version next year, with the legacy of Winamp but a more complete listening experience," said Alexandre Saboundjan, CEO of Radionomy, the company that bought Winamp (or what remained of it) in 2014. "You can listen to the MP3s you may have at home, but also to the cloud, to podcasts, to streaming radio stations, to a playlist you perhaps have built. People want one single experience," he concluded. "I think Winamp is the perfect player to bring that to everybody. And we want people to have it on every device."
From the article:
"What I see today is you have to jump from one player to another player or aggregator if you want to listen to a radio station, to a podcast player if you want to listen to a podcast — this, to me, is not the final experience,” he explained. It’s all audio, and it’s all searchable in one fashion or another. So why isn’t it all in one place?"
Kinda the reason I use WinAmp is because it is not this.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
And most of my geek friends still use it too.
Since there are so many better options now, who is actually still using Winamp?
Any updates on the llama?
it really whips the llama's @$$
So long as they keep it simple like it was and don't "modernize" the UI experience. I always liked the low requirements it had to do all the things it did. Audacious runs on my Linux machines in it's WinAmp mode quite nicely.
It really Whip The Llama's Ass.
Winamp doesn't support XSPF.
Not interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaF-nRS_CWM
“You can listen to the MP3s you may have at home, but also to the cloud, to podcasts, to streaming radio stations, to a playlist you perhaps have built.”
"While Saboundjan declined to get into the specifics of which services would be part of the new Winamp or how the app would plug into, say, your Spotify playlists, your Google Music library, your Podcasts app, Audible, and so on, he seemed confident that it would meet the needs he outlined."
Yeah, so basically everything has gone to either Spotify or Apple Music streaming services now. I'd like to say people still use their MP3/AAC/FLAC collections but not really on their phones anymore.
Without any specifics about what the new Winamp supports other than the same stuff it supported back in the early 2000s this is a whole lot of who cares.
...it's going to be 2.1 gig d/l, require a credit card to sign in (we will never charge you, ever!), and gather every single personal data point resident on your system.
And still won't perform the basic function of playing mp3s as well as 2013 version.
-Styopa
The real reason winamp disappeared - #metoo stepped in and saved those poor llamas.
...for you llama, Obama, and your baby momma.
But I have foobar2000.
I loved winamp, and would love to get it back. I don't really have faith that this won't be a terrible cloud heavy version with the old Winamp name. But, here's hoping it's a lightweight music player that doesn't connect to the internet unless I direct it to.
It really whips the lamma's ass.. *baaah* *bahhh*
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
Audacious, a descendant of XMMS (which was a clone of Winamp), works wonderfully. Its "Winamp Classic Interface" looks exactly like Winamp and even (iirc) supports Winamp skins.
That said, I do miss the old (original) Whitecap visualization (one of the very few in which you could really see the music in what was still a visually stunning display), which only works on Winamp on Windows. (...not that Winamp's return would allow me to run this again.)
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
From a layman's perspective, all it really seems to need updates for is the method of getting playlists and the associated files onto other devices.
The actual playing of music and the way one creates playlists seems just fine. If the idea is start integrating other streaming services, that's fine I suppose, as long as this doesn't somehow lock down any ability to manage local files / audio. If it means DRM enters the program, that will be immediately highly concerning..
I would, indeed, be nice to have mobile app version to rival poweramp and others, again as long as the workings of winamp remain open, in the sense of easily parseable playlists and online-media access.
I guess a final point I can think of for an update, would be llama ass beat mode, where the bass beat causes a llama's ass to be whooped graphically instead of having a bass meter.
"People want one single experience."
A lot of software has gone down to tubes because of this idea. People don't want one single experience. They want different experiences for different circumstances. They want software with features optimized for how they listen to music, how they listen to streaming radio and how they listen to podcasts. Combining them into one app is both unnecessary and creates undesirable side effects.
The same thing happened with social media apps tried to be the be-all and end-all of all media, when users want to keep things nice and compartmentalized.
Aw lol some poor AC doesn't know about themes! And thinks that a tool used to manage and play music needs to be 'pretty'! Ahahahahaha!
I'm still using Winamp 2.95 for music, and there's nothing that needs to be updated about it. It plays music, has a playlist, volume control. There's also a "browser" which thankfully can be turned off. I suspect this new version will have even more amazing shiny new features that need to be turned off, so basically, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Why use anything else?
As one of those people who helped build the WinAmp ecosystem and watched its subsequent AOL implosion I have to say, "Good!", and "It's about time, Radionomy." So, ya know, if you need the original sources for the 2.65-ish build... I still have them hanging around somewhere on an old CD. Justin and Tom were always messy and I was always cleaning up after them. But, by all means, I hope you improve on it somehow. I still rock out with WinAmp sometimes.
I hope they continue development of that. With modern GPU it should be possible to do some really amazing real-time beat synced effects.
I still use it and it is running right now.
Usually listening to the MP3-stream of local FM-radiostations.
(Although finding the URL for the streams can be hard to find...)
Why on earth people want to listen to radio through a webbrowser is beyond me.
Putting WinAmp in the system tray makes it go away and not take up space in the TaskBar.
So, hopefully this "new" development will not make things worse.......
I know there are 'clones' but I haven't found them to be very useful.
I've tried nearly every player on Linux, and they are either wayyyy too simple or wayyyy to complicated. I don't need a music manager, everything I have is organized by file structure. I don't need a database. I don't need links to album art, or streaming sites, or scrotobobbler, or last.fm, or any of that. I need a decent music player for mp3s. A decent EQ would be nice, and maybe some visualizations if the mood strikes me. That's it.
I've just been using VLC for the past umpteen years, and it works just fine. An actual Winamp would be pretty cool though.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Winamp is a tool. It does the job. And things like iTunes aren't really a substitute, and weirdly even on my multi-GHz system iTunes likes to spin and wait at random times.
The Winamp is like the Nokia brand for Europeans. There is a mix of nostalgia and trust associated with the brand.
Fear is the mind-killer.
If it doesn't whip the llama's ass on the first open, it's not Winamp.
I need a program that plays mp3 files. Winamp works just fine. At some point there is no room for improvement. A hammer from 1000 years ago looks like a hammer from today.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
dont worry, your year of the linux desktop will happen ANY DAY NOW
Llama asses have never been so safe.
Winamp never went anywhere. Unlike most modern software, it didn't require to check in over the Internet to work, so it still works just fine today. I've been happily using Winamp for a few decades, and hopefully, I'll continue to use it for the foreseeable future. The last version is version 5.666, and it was released as a final "thank you, goodbye" with *all* of the "pro" (formerly paid) features, and none of the crapware. I use it for playing all of my media, for ripping and burning CD's, and all sorts of neat stuff.
Sometimes, software works as intended, with no problems, and simply doesn't need to be "upgraded" any more. I think this is one of those cases.
I don't respond to AC's.
What's a better option for listening to music than Winamp? Seriously?
I don't respond to AC's.
It is already there. Including skin support.
https://webamp.org/
Winamp really whips the llamas ass!
My old college roommate swears he is going to create a revamped BBS.
Woops you're wrong LMAO I bought Win8 and accepted the free upgrade to Win10, even. I pay a monthly subscription to Office365 and would enjoy an option to subscribe to Windows as well. I gave up on desktop Linux 15 years ago.
I'm a daily user of Audacious so it doesn't matter much to me, but it would be great for them to ensure modern open source codecs like opus (either encapsulated in ogg or not, streamed or file-based) is as well supported as possible.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
headline says it all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonique_(media_player)
and I'm old.
I remember Winamp back in the day. I miss Powow too.
foobar2000 looks and works like anything that the individual user wants it to. It's also more resource efficient and less bloated than any other player. There is a reason why it's known to be the best music player for PC.
I never jumped on the winamp bandwagon, was more of a Sonique user. (Which still works on Win10)
Please don't make it spy on you or have forced telemetry like so many other evil pieces of software.
Sonos
I *like* the old version, and still use it. What I like most is the fact that it doesn't have to be updated a few times a month. It might have some vulnerabilities, but I only use it to play local files. If I know some update is available to address some unknown issue, I know I *will* download it. I'm sick of that churn.