Winamp to Be Discontinued on December 20, 2013

[bazmlb]

Winamp, once one of the most popular media players on the market, will be officially discontinued on December 20, 2013, due to yet to be disclosed reasons.

AOL announced the decision in a brief statement on the official Winamp.com website, saying that the webpage and the downloadable media player will be removed on December 20.

“Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release. Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years,” the notification reads.

Update: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy Winamp, so the media player might after all live on beyond the AOL era.

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Softpedia 2013-11-30

[TheAceFace]

GOM player is better imo

[slipperylobster]

Ouch...is this really news? Never used it and never will. Tons of free music players, they all sound the same. I use the a lightweight portable player called spider. In fact, most of my programs are portable and just can run them off a usb thumb drive. Makes any computer I use a cinch, and no installations/hidden programs running.

[Dogbarker]

Ouch...is this really news? Never used it and never will. Tons of free music players, they all sound the same. I use the a lightweight portable player called spider. In fact, most of my programs are portable and just can run them off a usb thumb drive. Makes any computer I use a cinch, and no installations/hidden programs running.

Actually to some this is really news and maybe the significance is lost to many. .. as it was the forefront in portable music ..

Wikipedia states " In the second half of '90s, MP3 files began to spread on the Internet. The popularity of MP3s began to rise rapidly with the advent of Nullsoft's audio player Winamp, released in 1997"

I could not believe the first time I came across MP3 files and the associated player Win amp .. we are talking years before an ipod and a Rio was the must have gadget! ( No not a Kia Rio car! )

It is a sad demise to see this sturdy player disappear.

Yes there are tons of free music player many are seen as significantly better it would run on some versions of Windows 95 so was lightweight by todays standards - but in the earlier years of computing this was it. It was not a question of "never used it and never will" there really was no choice .. we have a lot to thank Nullsoft for but of course many will just see it as history and not consider the significance of the demise of an old faithful .

Please say farewell old friend and thank you.....................................!

[slipperylobster]

Ouch...is this really news? Never used it and never will. Tons of free music players, they all sound the same. I use the a lightweight portable player called spider. In fact, most of my programs are portable and just can run them off a usb thumb drive. Makes any computer I use a cinch, and no installations/hidden programs running.

Actually to some this is really news and maybe the significance is lost to many. .. as it was the forefront in portable music ..

Wikipedia states " In the second half of '90s, MP3 files began to spread on the Internet. The popularity of MP3s began to rise rapidly with the advent of Nullsoft's audio player Winamp, released in 1997"

I could not believe the first time I came across MP3 files and the associated player Win amp .. we are talking years before an ipod and a Rio was the must have gadget! ( No not a Kia Rio car! )

It is a sad demise to see this sturdy player disappear.

Yes there are tons of free music player many are seen as significantly better it would run on some versions of Windows 95 so was lightweight by todays standards - but in the earlier years of computing this was it. It was not a question of "never used it and never will" there really was no choice .. we have a lot to thank Nullsoft for but of course many will just see it as history and not consider the significance of the demise of an old faithful .

Please say farewell old friend and thank you.....................................!

Lol never used it.... Had many, many computers since 1977 (TRS 80). After playing with at least several dozen players, I decided simple is best. I play music all day, I don't need anything fancy, and the less it draws on computer resources, the better off I am.

Again...play a song with winamp or play it with any other player. Sounds the same. Perhaps some spiffy skins and colorful graphics...

Call me mr Minimalistic

[astral]

WinAmp has been a stalwart of the media player market and will be missed

[Dogbarker]

Ouch...is this really news? Never used it and never will. Tons of free music players, they all sound the same. I use the a lightweight portable player called spider. In fact, most of my programs are portable and just can run them off a usb thumb drive. Makes any computer I use a cinch, and no installations/hidden programs running.

Actually to some this is really news and maybe the significance is lost to many. .. as it was the forefront in portable music ..

Wikipedia states " In the second half of '90s, MP3 files began to spread on the Internet. The popularity of MP3s began to rise rapidly with the advent of Nullsoft's audio player Winamp, released in 1997"

I could not believe the first time I came across MP3 files and the associated player Win amp .. we are talking years before an ipod and a Rio was the must have gadget! ( No not a Kia Rio car! )

It is a sad demise to see this sturdy player disappear.

Yes there are tons of free music player many are seen as significantly better it would run on some versions of Windows 95 so was lightweight by todays standards - but in the earlier years of computing this was it. It was not a question of "never used it and never will" there really was no choice .. we have a lot to thank Nullsoft for but of course many will just see it as history and not consider the significance of the demise of an old faithful .

Please say farewell old friend and thank you.....................................!

Lol never used it.... Had many, many computers since 1977 (TRS 80). After playing with at least several dozen players, I decided simple is best. I play music all day, I don't need anything fancy, and the less it draws on computer resources, the better off I am.

Again...play a song with winamp or play it with any other player. Sounds the same. Perhaps some spiffy skins and colorful graphics...

Call me mr Minimalistic

LOL Dear Mr Minimalistic

I never could get music on my Sinclair zx or the Amstrad though , the Olivetti 386 played midi files as I recall using an 8 bit card .. then my wonderfully expensive soundblaster 16 bit isa card in my upgraded os/2 p75 cutting edge to windows 75 .. ohhhh dreams and memories for an old fool like me. I still run an old cyrix 233 notebook on odd occasions with win 98 .. why ? because I can :-) and pumping the sound through decent speakers is just as good as from my itoad ..

all much of a muchness now as you suggest.

[lucifer666]

I have used the old 1.75 version for years and i wouldn't use anything else.

[bazmlb]

Shoutcast is also being discontinued too, but Microsoft looks like buying both from AOL

[kkerry]

Winamp has been pretty good. Still use it on my computers and phone. I still even use Real Player on my phone...

GOM was good but then they kept trying to bundle other things when you downloaded it, got caught out a couple of times even though I was sure I hadn't ticked anything else to download. VLC is still good as a one off play anything solution.

[sunshine51]

I'm gonna miss Winamp. Been using it since Day One...as Nullsoft says...Gool Old Winamp.

It's never let me down. Never been a bloatware issue. Skins from the original to the latest

work. Decent equaliser. Sure...it's not iTunes...thank the Gods for that. But it works just

fine all the time. Just my opinion fyi....Sadly...Mr. Gates & Co. seem to be on a buying spree

lately....then I wonder just how much bloat MSWinamp will have?

[bendejo]

Been using Winamp since the 1990s, still use just the basic skin. These days I use it for web-based radio as well as for music files.

The thing I like about it is you can define your own equalizer presets and save them, something I've found lacking in other players.

While I appreciate being able to diddle the sound quality, having to adjust the settings all the time drives me nuts. Wish VLC has this ability.

[zyphodb]

I will miss Winamp because it does the best visualizations of any of the media players that I've tried out there, & sitting in the dark playing your favorite music while watching visualizations on a 40+inch screen is one of the most relaxing things that you can do with a PC in my opinion....

[edwardandtubs]

Really annoying piece of software. VLC is the only media player you'll ever need.

[Dogbarker]

Really annoying piece of software. VLC is the only media player you'll ever need.

VLC is very good, agreed and probably "VLC is the only media player you'll ever need" NOWDAYS but can one ask :

What did you use for playing mp3 files back in 1997?

VLC is the main player I use for video these days .. but remember VLC was not around in the 90's when all the audio compression was new and winamp was the only main player and you had no option but to be really grateful for it and excited about the future - you maybe you consider it annoying ( do you really mean obsolete / old fashioned ?) but please remember it was the forerunner of players like VLC .

Maybe will you be posting the same thing about VLC in 16 years as you have for winamp? ;-)

[zyphodb]

I use VLC for videos but no match to winamp for visualizations...

[thaimite]

I used to use WinAmp back in the days before AOL bought it and added the bloat. I have Fond memories of the pioneering program.

sent from my Internet aware non fruity mobile device

[slipperylobster]

Ouch...is this really news? Never used it and never will. Tons of free music players, they all sound the same. I use the a lightweight portable player called spider. In fact, most of my programs are portable and just can run them off a usb thumb drive. Makes any computer I use a cinch, and no installations/hidden programs running.

Actually to some this is really news and maybe the significance is lost to many. .. as it was the forefront in portable music ..

Wikipedia states " In the second half of '90s, MP3 files began to spread on the Internet. The popularity of MP3s began to rise rapidly with the advent of Nullsoft's audio player Winamp, released in 1997"

I could not believe the first time I came across MP3 files and the associated player Win amp .. we are talking years before an ipod and a Rio was the must have gadget! ( No not a Kia Rio car! )

It is a sad demise to see this sturdy player disappear.

Yes there are tons of free music player many are seen as significantly better it would run on some versions of Windows 95 so was lightweight by todays standards - but in the earlier years of computing this was it. It was not a question of "never used it and never will" there really was no choice .. we have a lot to thank Nullsoft for but of course many will just see it as history and not consider the significance of the demise of an old faithful .

Please say farewell old friend and thank you.....................................!

Lol never used it.... Had many, many computers since 1977 (TRS 80). After playing with at least several dozen players, I decided simple is best. I play music all day, I don't need anything fancy, and the less it draws on computer resources, the better off I am.

Again...play a song with winamp or play it with any other player. Sounds the same. Perhaps some spiffy skins and colorful graphics...

Call me mr Minimalistic

LOL Dear Mr Minimalistic

I never could get music on my Sinclair zx or the Amstrad though , the Olivetti 386 played midi files as I recall using an 8 bit card .. then my wonderfully expensive soundblaster 16 bit isa card in my upgraded os/2 p75 cutting edge to windows 75 .. ohhhh dreams and memories for an old fool like me. I still run an old cyrix 233 notebook on odd occasions with win 98 .. why ? because I can :-) and pumping the sound through decent speakers is just as good as from my itoad ..

all much of a muchness now as you suggest.

Ever notice those people with ten dollar speakers and 1000 dollar computers?

[slipperylobster]

Most are got out of my TRS80, Commodore 64 and 128, Atari ST, Apple II, Apple IIC, Apple III, Toshiba, IBM, laptops prior was a bunch of clicks and beeps...perhaps 4 voices for games. Yeah sure....been there. Sound Cards sure do improve quality. A music player just adds switches to operate the sound card. On, off, advance, sort, shuffle, etc. Its pretty simplistic. Can make your own with AutoIT.

[slipperylobster]

Just hate software that automatically connects to the internet, tries to update my tags and look for licenses, reports useage, reassigns Icons, and takes away all my cpu power with silly, useless graphics. Cannot apologize for that. Most people hardly worry about that, and are happy with the bloat, and useless connections.

[ultimate weapon]

I am always a winamp user. Love it cos i am used to it i guess. I even use the old version skin and not the new skin. I also love their screen saver moving design plug ins i think it's called milk something. It's much nicer than the windows version. It's sad that it's getting discontinued but to tell you the truth all the latest versions of winamps have been the same more or less with very few changes i do like their shoutcast stations and i don't think those stations are under winamp but their own stations.