Winamp Lives Again!

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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Winamp Lives Again!


Llamas everywhere had better watch their step, because Winamp is back from the dead.

It was a sad day in November [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129845-Winamp-Bids-a-Final-Farewell-In-December] when the word went out that Winamp, the greatest media player the world has ever known, was disappearing forever. But today the news is good, for today, Winamp rises again, even better than it was before. Better - stronger - faster!

The last-minute stay has come about thanks to a deal between AOL and Radionomy, which has acquired Winamp and Shoutcast for a "cash and share deal" worth between $5 and $10 million. The sale will give AOL a 12 percent stake in Radionomy, an online media platform that currently offers more than 6000 amateur and professional internet radio stations. The addition of Shoutcast to its lineup will push that number to around 60,000, representing roughly half the internet radio stations currently in operation.

Despite being effectively abandoned by AOL, Winamp is still downloaded three million times per month, and Radionomy CEO Alexandre Saboundjian told TechCrunch that the plan is to maintain both Winamp and Shoutcast as going concerns. "We want to rebuild the story for Winamp," he said. "We think the future can be great because the strategy is not just desktop but mobile and cars and so much more."

The Winamp website [http://www.winamp.com] still carries a message warning of its December demise and the paid version of the software isn't available at the moment, but those are just fading reminders of dark days now passing. The King is dead - Long live the King!

Source: TechCrunch [http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/14/aol-sells-winamp-and-shoutcast-for-5-10m-to-radionomy-takes-12-stake-in-belgian-digital-audio-company/]


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loa

New member
Jan 28, 2012
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I use vlc for videos and xmplay for music.
Can winamp bring anything to the table but slowness?
Cause the last thing I remember when using winamp years ago is that it is so laden with features, it takes its sweet time to play stuff.
 

schmulki

New member
Oct 10, 2012
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Yea, can I get....what was it, Winamp 3? 4? The version I had in college. That version was AMAZINGLY good. It was small, took nothing to run, and did what it should, fast. LOVED it.
 

martyrdrebel27

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Feb 16, 2009
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these haters just don't recognize the beauty that is Windows Media Player. it does color shit to the beat.
 

UNHchabo

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Dec 24, 2008
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I've been using Foobar2000 for the past several years, but I used Winamp for years before that, so it'll be interesting to see what Radionomy does with it. If they're good enough, maybe they'll even get me to switch back! I enjoy my Foobar skin, but the classic Winamp 2 theme still carries appeal with me.
 

cidbahamut

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Mar 1, 2010
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Is it just me or did Winamp hit perfection back in the late 90s and everything else has been so much bloatware?
 
Mar 26, 2008
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cidbahamut said:
Is it just me or did Winamp hit perfection back in the late 90s and everything else has been so much bloatware?
No it's not just you. Back then it really did whip the llamas ass, but then they tried to slap on too many add ons and plug-ins and it became too cumbersome and a bit of an eyesore.
 

Nimzar

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Nov 30, 2009
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Programmed_For_Damage said:
cidbahamut said:
Is it just me or did Winamp hit perfection back in the late 90s and everything else has been so much bloatware?
No it's not just you. Back then it really did whip the llamas ass, but then they tried to slap on too many add ons and plug-ins and it became too cumbersome and a bit of an eyesore.
Here's the thing you can still (or at least in 5.6 you could) strip away all of the extra crap and get the minimalistic media player that you remember from the late 90s. I know because that's what I have right now. Takes up little RAM (~12500 Kb... that's the smallest non-essential process currently running on my machine right now)& little screen real-estate(smaller than the title bar for windows applications/fits in the space over the tab in Chrome when I have the window touching the top of my screen). Simple, speedy, and all that I want out of a music player.
 

shiajun

New member
Jun 12, 2008
578
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I hope the new acquisition retakes the need to streamline the program. I love Winamp, use it on a daily basis, but darn it has it grown oh so many appendages. Still beats WMP in funtionality and VLC in some features, like you now, a usable media library interface.
 

Denamic

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Aug 19, 2009
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I remember I used Winamp 1 and 2 way back in the day. Must've been like 15 years ago or more now. Good times. I've got my Foobar all set up now, so I'm unsure I'll go though the trouble of setting shit up again. Still, this is good news.
 

Neta

New member
Aug 22, 2013
167
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What's this "AOL" thing?

I vaguely remember winamp. I'd not heard that winamp was "disappearing forever" because I completely forgot it even existed several years ago.
 

Weaver

Overcaffeinated
Apr 28, 2008
8,977
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I love winamp! I'm glad it's been "saved" and I hope they can continue development on it.
 

PoolCleaningRobot

New member
Mar 18, 2012
1,237
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I never listened to music on my computer (thats what phones are for) but recently got new pc and my first thought was to try replacements for Windows' default stuff. Naturally, I installed Winamp and I'm pretty pleased with it. I like the look and the functionality and I have no problems running it on my Celeron netbook. I'm looking forward to what they do with it in the future
 

Arnoxthe1

Elite Member
Dec 25, 2010
3,391
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Holy crap. WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT WINAMP? They may have been good back in the day but that was back in the day. What do they excel in that, say, VLC and/or WMP doesn't?
 
Mar 26, 2008
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Nimzar said:
Here's the thing you can still (or at least in 5.6 you could) strip away all of the extra crap and get the minimalistic media player that you remember from the late 90s. I know because that's what I have right now. Takes up little RAM (~12500 Kb... that's the smallest non-essential process currently running on my machine right now)& little screen real-estate(smaller than the title bar for windows applications/fits in the space over the tab in Chrome when I have the window touching the top of my screen). Simple, speedy, and all that I want out of a music player.
Thanks, I might check it out. I've been using Windows Media Player recently because I've been too lazy to look for a viable alternative.
 

emptyother

New member
Feb 12, 2008
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I think a lot of you have misunderstood Winamps strength. Its a music library manager. If the only thing you are looking for is playing your music, you dont need 90% of Winamps current features. Congratulations on using a bloated beast (which despite its bloat still runs surprisingly well).
I like my music tagged, sorted, playlisted and organized, and Winamp is the best tool there ever was for this.

After the shutdown announcement i tried Mediamonkey. It is better, except its more unstable. A bit slower and have a tendency to freeze.
 

Chaos Marine

New member
Feb 6, 2008
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I went from Winamp to foobar2000 when I found out that you can control foobar2000's volume independently of your system volume. So I can listen to music while playing games and adjust the volume of it so it doesn't drown out the game dialogue.
 

Chaos Marine

New member
Feb 6, 2008
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I went from Winamp to foobar2000 when I found out that you can control foobar2000's volume independently of your system volume. So I can listen to music while playing games and adjust the volume of it so it doesn't drown out the game dialogue.
 

alj

Master of Unlocking
Nov 20, 2009
335
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I too have also just discovered foobar, i had moved to songbird after winamp but that did not exactly work out well. Winamp 2.x was the best and it still works just fine on windows 8.1
 

infohippie

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Oct 1, 2009
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When I heard Winamp was disappearing, I, like so many others, moved on to foobar and have since found it is all that Winamp was not but should have been. I doubt I will go back. I always found library management in Winamp somewhat painful, but foobar handles my library in a much more sensible manner.