Winamp shutting down after over 15 years

That's a shame. Before renting media through the likes of Spotify and others, it indeed whipped Llama behind and was a treasure to have and use. Unfortunately, a good amount of popularity loss surely came from the unwanted changes such as OpenCandy and others. Oh well, there are very good alternatives such as MusicBee

 

I wonder what happens with the Pro version? Spider Player made their pro version free for everyone once they stopped development.

 

Yeah, I remember Winamp as my first "real" audio player back in 1997 or 98, in the days when 128kbps MP3s were the norm and my Pentium computer took nearly half an hour to encode one track. I pretty much had to leave it on overnight if I wanted to do an album.

I've been on Foobar2000 for, I guess, more than 10 years now. I think I turned away from Winamp when they released a problematic version; I don't remember which number it was, but it was when they added the media library feature. I also kind of got tired of how their low-res application skinning looked worse and worse as resolutions got higher. I'm sure that changed at some point, but back then it was kind of ugly. I had to use the double-size feature just to make it large enough, and then it was really pixellated.

 

We could see the same thing with Winamp and that wouldn't be so bad in my opinion. Either way, the Pro version already is easily found through less legal means. I'm sure it'll just be even easier afterward with no one around to mind the fort so to speak. I don't know how well the other features such as Shoutcast will fare.

 

Indeed I used it in the late 90's early 2000's long time ago now.

 

Winamp was my default music player between 1998-2000. I have fond memories of that time. However, after that I switched to Real Player pro, then windows media player and then since 2004 onwards to VLC.

I was surprised to read in the article that Winamp was acquired by AOL in 2002, I did not know that. Maybe this was the reason it fell behind other media players, as AOL since 2000 onwards has been run by some very unimaginative people.

 

Cya Winamp...much better stuff out there

 

It seems that AOL doesn't do much good for any company or service they acquire unfortunately. They are certainly held accountable for the slow demise of this particular program. I must be one of the very few who don't care so much for VLC, though I have used it on a few troublesome files before when all else failed.

 

Quite arguable in my opinion. Though I will certainly give Jaangle and AIMP their deserved due.

 

I remember when Winamp came bundled with AOL (2002). I used Real Player back then (which was also bundled with AOL), until I discovered Real Alternative and later, VLC Player. AIMP also works pretty well as a radio and music player.

 

I havent used Winamp since i switched from XP to Vista.
So i'd say that i used Winamp until mid 2000's.

 

Am I the only one who hasn't used Winamp? The only mention of it I've seen are online news and bundleware.

 

Yes, you are the only one.

 

No he's not. There are two of us.

 

For some people, it may depend on when they got into computers. When Winamp was "the" player to get in the late 90s, it was before many of today's popular players existed. There was no iTunes, no Foobar2000, no VLC, no XBMC, no MediaMonkey. Windows Media Player hadn't come into its own yet.

I'm sure there were decent alternatives, but I can't remember what they were.

 

Make that three
AIMP for me!

 

AOL reportedly wants to sell Winamp to Microsoft
http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/21/5130536/microsoft-aol-reportedly-working-on-winamp-sale

 

Source: Microsoft In Talks To Buy Shoutcast And Winamp From AOL
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/21/so...to-buy-shoutcast-and-winamp-from-aol/?ncid=fb

Hopefully, the Microsoft deal will fall through and a much more respectable company will acquire these assets and take them forward.

 

Why would MS want Winamp?

 

That's strange. As I had understood from reading more online, AOL was approached at least a couple of times before and refused to entertain any offers. I too question a deal from Microsoft. I fear what this old, wonderful workhorse of a program would become in their hands. Of course if they plan on bringing the best of WinAmp to Windows Media Player, I don't believe I'd mind that at all. If it's just going to be turned into a shell of itself and dumped into the atrocity that is XBox, then I say just let it die peacefully and give it a proper burial.

 

Which player did you use to play MP3s on your PC in 1997? If I recall correctly there were only a handful of choices then, windows media player, Realplayer or Winamp. And at that time Winamp offered the best gui for playing and managing your music files. It also had different skins, so it was fun to use it and play.

 

It has to do with the management. AOL's management failed to adapt to the rapidly changing market and paid the price.

 

Exactly, what would MS want with Winamp?

 

Speaking of Winamp - has anyone used Nero or late ? None that I know of. Just my .02