The popular media player Winamp was first released in 1997 and quickly rose to prominence as a must-have tool for music lovers. However, in recent years Winamp has faced increasing competition from other media players and streaming services, and its once-loyal user base has dwindled. This is the story of Winamp's fall from grace.
In the late 1990s, Winamp was the media player of choice for millions of PC users. It was lightweight, unassuming, and could play just about any audio file you threw at it. Winamp was simple, reliable, and did its job well.
Winamp was first released in 1997 when former University of Utah students Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev integrated their Windows user interface with the Advanced Multimedia Products ("AMP") MP3 playback engine. Created by Nullsoft in 1997, the highly customizable Winamp has become the standard by which all other desktop music players are judged. Winamp is lightweight, customizable, and easier to listen to music than any previous player.
Early versions of Winamp - WinAMP styled as a combination of "Windows" and "AMP" (short for its advanced MP3 multimedia playback engine) - offered rudimentary controls, but when version 1.006 came out just a few months later, its iconic graphics the interface has really begun to take shape.
This first version was very basic, but version 0.92, released as free software in May 1997, was much more recognizable as the iconic Nullsoft Winamp media player with the standard Microsoft Windows frame and menu bar and bright green lights. Version 1.0 was released in June 1997 and enhanced the classic look of the iconic Nullsoft Winamp media player with the addition of a graphic equalizer, a playlist editor and a simple frequency analyzer.
Additionally, users had access to a playlist to assist organize tracks and an equalizer to change frequency responses. The GUI, which resembled an aftermarket stereo head unit, felt completely correct, but the true pleasure was in personalizing the player's appearance and feel with skins and plugins.
Skins have been used to customize the Winamp GUI's appearance. They gave the player functionality by using scripting. There was a sizable community that supported Winamp modifications, and there were numerous high-quality Winamp skins available. Some of the most memorable are Winamp ClassicPro, Slade, Aero Compact 1.5 or D-Reliction which was the Gold winner in the “Best Overall Winamp skin” category and Bronze in the “Most Usable Winamp skin” category in 2004. One thing was clear, no matter your preference, there was definetly a skin out there for you.
"Winamp, it really whips the llama's a##"
Nullsofts was officially registered in 1998, and due to Winamp's reputation as the most complete mp3 player on the market, Winamp software began to provide good financial benefits to its developers. The following year, Winamp became a $10 shareware when its parent company Nullsoft went public. In June 1999, AOL acquired Nullsoft (the company behind Winamp) for $80 million.
Winamp pioneered features like drag-and-drop playlists and took the Napster wave by storm—if AOL hadn't bought the software, it might have survived and provided more innovation for music lovers. Although Winamp 1 (the first version, released in June 1997) was used by early adopters of the MP1, MP2, and MP3 formats, it wasn't until the release of Winamp 2 that it became widely used and became one of the most downloaded PCs program.
The first music player -- and another of Justin Frankel's creations, Shoutcast -- was sold to AOL in 1999 for tens of millions of dollars, and AOL squandered the software until it's gone today exist.
Under AOL's ownership, Winamp underwent a major redesign. The new version was widely criticized by users for its cluttered interface and bloatware. In addition, AOL began bundling the player with various AOL products, which further annoyed users.
As competition from other media players increased, Winamp struggled to keep up. Apple's iTunes, first released in 2001, quickly became the default media player for many users. In 2006, Microsoft released its own media player, Zune. These two competitors proved to be tough competition for Winamp.
In an effort to stay relevant, Winamp introduced several new features over the years including support for podcasts and internet radio. However, these additions failed to win back users and Winamp continued to lose ground to its competitors.
AOL finally sold Nullsoft (and with it, Winamp) to Radionomy in 2014. However, by this time it was too late; Winamp had already been eclipsed by other media players and streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. Radionomy announced plans to discontinue development of Winamp in December of 2017; on December 20th, 2017, Winamp officially shut down.
This came as a shock to the many loyal Winamp users out there. For many, Winamp was not just a media player; it was a part of their lives. It was a tool that they had used for years to enjoy their music collections.
And so, when Radionomy announced that they were shutting down Winamp, there was an outpouring of support from the community. A petition was started to try and save Winamp but it was too late. The damage had been done. In fact, the company Radionomy no longer exists and has been rebranded as Shoutcast.
While once it was the go-to media player for millions of music lovers around the world, today Winamp exists only as a memory. It's a sad story, but it's also a reminder of how quickly things can change in the tech world. Winamp was once on top, but it couldn't adapt to the changes and ended up disappearing.
