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.
Winamp was a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.
Winamp was developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev,and its popularity grew quickly, along with the developing trend of MP3 file sharing.
On November 20th 2013, AOL announced that Winamp.com would shut down on December 20th 2013, and the software would no longer be available for download after that date.
Winamp was first released in 1997, when Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev,formerly students at the University of Utah, integrated their Windows user interface with the Advanced Multimedia Products "AMP (MP3 Technology)" MP3 file playback engine.The minimalist WinAMP 0.20a was released as freeware on 21 April 1997.Its windowless menubar-only interface showed only play (open), stop, pause, and unpause functions. A file specified on the command line or dropped onto its icon would be played. MP3 decoding was performed by the AMP decoding engine developed by Advanced Multimedia Products co-founder Tomislav Uzelac, which was free for non-commercial use
WinAMP 0.92 was released as a freeware in May 1997. Within the standard Windows frame and menubar, it had the beginnings of the "classic" Winamp GUI: dark gray rectangle with silver 3D-effect transport buttons, a red/green volume slider, time displayed in a green LED font, with trackname, MP3 bitrate and "mixrate" in green. There was no position bar, and a blank space where the spectrum analyzer and waveform analyzer would later appear. Multiple files on the command line or dropped onto its icon were enqueued in the playlist.
In October 2010, the Android version for OS 2.1 includes syncing with Winamp desktop (ver. 5.59 beta+) over USB or WiFi. It was received with some enthusiasm in the consumer blog press.
In October 2011, Winamp Sync for Mac was introduced as a Beta release. It is the first Winamp version for the Apple Macintosh platform and runs under Mac OS X 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 states that the Winamp Sync for Mac Beta will pave the way for future Winamp-related development under Mac OS X.
Winamp has proved so popular that there have been quite a few Linux music programs which function in a similar way and can also use Winamp WSZ skins so that in effect one has a player that looks like Winamp. Those players are Xmms, Audacious and Qmmp. Qmmp comes natively with projectM, an implementation of MilkDrop.
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.The included easter eggs have changed with versions of Winamp, and over thirty have been documented elsewhere
Winamp was a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp was developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev,and its popularity grew quickly, along with the developing trend of MP3 file sharing.
On November 20th 2013, AOL announced that Winamp.com would shut down on December 20th 2013, and the software would no longer be available for download after that date.
Winamp was first released in 1997, when Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev,formerly students at the University of Utah, integrated their Windows user interface with the Advanced Multimedia Products "AMP (MP3 Technology)" MP3 file playback engine.The minimalist WinAMP 0.20a was released as freeware on 21 April 1997.Its windowless menubar-only interface showed only play (open), stop, pause, and unpause functions. A file specified on the command line or dropped onto its icon would be played. MP3 decoding was performed by the AMP decoding engine developed by Advanced Multimedia Products co-founder Tomislav Uzelac, which was free for non-commercial use
WinAMP 0.92 was released as a freeware in May 1997. Within the standard Windows frame and menubar, it had the beginnings of the "classic" Winamp GUI: dark gray rectangle with silver 3D-effect transport buttons, a red/green volume slider, time displayed in a green LED font, with trackname, MP3 bitrate and "mixrate" in green. There was no position bar, and a blank space where the spectrum analyzer and waveform analyzer would later appear. Multiple files on the command line or dropped onto its icon were enqueued in the playlist.
In October 2010, the Android version for OS 2.1 includes syncing with Winamp desktop (ver. 5.59 beta+) over USB or WiFi. It was received with some enthusiasm in the consumer blog press.
In October 2011, Winamp Sync for Mac was introduced as a Beta release. It is the first Winamp version for the Apple Macintosh platform and runs under Mac OS X 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 states that the Winamp Sync for Mac Beta will pave the way for future Winamp-related development under Mac OS X.
Winamp has proved so popular that there have been quite a few Linux music programs which function in a similar way and can also use Winamp WSZ skins so that in effect one has a player that looks like Winamp. Those players are Xmms, Audacious and Qmmp. Qmmp comes natively with projectM, an implementation of MilkDrop.
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.The included easter eggs have changed with versions of Winamp, and over thirty have been documented elsewhere
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