Winamp
Winamp is a media player for Microsoft Windows originally developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev[7][8][9] by their company Nullsoft, which they later sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million. It was then acquired by Radionomy in 2014, now known as the Llama Group. Since version 2 it has been sold as freemium and supports extensibility with plug-ins and skins, and features music visualization, playlist and a media library, supported by a large online community.
Version 1 of Winamp was released in 1997, and quickly grew popular with over 3 million downloads,[10] paralleling the developing trend of MP3 (music) file sharing. Winamp 2.0 was released on September 8, 1998. The 2.x versions were widely used and made Winamp one of the most downloaded Windows applications.[11] By 2000, Winamp had over 25 million registered users[12] and by 2001 it had 60 million users.[13] A poor reception to the 2002 rewrite, Winamp3, was followed by the release of Winamp 5 in 2003, and a later release of version 5.5 in 2007. A now-discontinued version for Android was also released, along with early counterparts for MS-DOS and Macintosh.
After a five-year hiatus, Winamp 5.8 (written as Winamp 5.) was leaked to the public in 2018[14] before its eventual release by Radionomy;[15][16] development has since resumed[17][18] with the latest version 5.9.2 released on April 26, 2023. Its developer Radionomy has since turned into the Llama Group in 2023 and launched a new Winamp streaming service, which includes a feature called Fanzone which allows users to support artists by buying perks or NFTs.[19][20][21] The service launched on the web in April 2023 followed by Android and iOS beta apps in July 2023.[22]
On other platforms[edit]
Android[edit]
Winamp for Android is a mobile version for the Android (version 2.1) operating system, released in beta in October 2010 with a stable release in December 2010.[100] It includes syncing with Winamp desktop (ver. 5.59 beta+) over USB or Wi-Fi.[101] It was received with some enthusiasm in the consumer blog press.[102][103][104] The app was removed from the Play Store in 2014.
It was reported in 2018 by TechCrunch that a redesigned Android app was planned alongside the announcement of the development of Winamp 6.[97]
An app for the Winamp service was released in beta for Android in July 2023.[105][106]
Macintosh[edit]
In 1997, Nullsoft also released MacAmp, an Apple Macintosh equivalent of Winamp.
In October 2011, Winamp Sync for Mac was introduced as a beta release. It is the first Winamp version for the Mac OS X platform and runs under version 10.6 and above. Its focus is on syncing the Winamp Library to Winamp for Android and the iTunes Music Library (hence the name, "Winamp Sync for Mac"). Nonetheless, a full Winamp Library and player features are included. The developer's blog stated that the Winamp Sync for Mac Beta would pave the way for future Winamp-related development on Mac[107] and a fully featured media player as Winamp on Windows.[108] However no further development occurred.
iOS[edit]
In July 2023, a beta version of a Winamp service was released via TestFlight for the iOS mobile platform.[110][106]
Easter eggs[edit]
Winamp has historically included a number of Easter eggs: hidden features that are accessible via undocumented operations. One example is an image of Justin Frankel, one of Winamp's original authors, hidden in Winamp's About dialog box.[111] The included Easter eggs have changed with versions of Winamp, and over thirty have been documented elsewhere.[112]
Derivative works[edit]
Unagi is the codename for the media playback engine derived from Winamp core technologies. AOL announced in 2004 that Unagi would be incorporated into AOL Media Player (AMP), in development.[113] After beta testing, AMP was discontinued in 2005, but portions lived on in AOL's Web-based player.[114]
XMMS, xmms2, qmmp and Audacious are free and open source music players created as clones of Winamp. Some of these even support skins and plug-ins designed for Winamp.[115]
An HTML5 and JavaScript-based web player resembling the graphical user interface of Winamp 2 has been developed by a programmer named Jordan Eldredge in 2018.[116]