[Article] Death Knell Sounds for Winamp

aidan_walsh

Link.

The last members of the original Winamp team have said goodbye to AOL and the door has all but shut on the Nullsoft era, BetaNews has learned.

Only a few employees remain to prop up the once-ubiquitous digital audio player with minor updates, but no further improvements to Winamp are expected.

Winamp's abandonment comes as no surprise to those close to the company who say the software has been on life support since the resignation of Nullsoft founder and Winamp creator Justin Frankel last January.

The marriage of Nullsoft and AOL was always one of discontent. After AOL acquired the small company in 1999 for around $100 million, the young team of Winamp developers was assimilated into a strict corporate culture that begged for rebellion. Although Nullsoft was initially given a long leash by AOL, It wasn't long until the two ideologies collided.

Frankel and his team were accustomed to simply brainstorming ideas over coffee and bringing them to the masses without approval. So when Frankel and fellow Nullsoft developer Tom Pepper devised a decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing system, dubbed Gnutella, parent AOL was left in the dark.

Gnutella was unveiled in March 2000, much to the chagrin of an unprepared AOL; executives feared the program would encourage copyright infringement and damage the company's pending merger with Time Warner. AOL quickly clamped down on Gnutella, but not before the software's source code leaked. Gnutella-based alternatives soon followed, igniting a peer-to-peer land grab that has yet to subside.

But AOL knew it had to protect its investment and turn a profit from the freely available Winamp. Frankel and crew found themselves in hot water numerous times, but always escaped with little more than a proverbial slap on the wrist.

However, growing displeasure reached a boiling point with Nullsoft’s unsanctioned release of WASTE -- an encrypted file-sharing network -- in June 2003. Frankel threatened to resign after AOL removed WASTE, but remained with the company long enough to finish Winamp 5.0.

Frankel's departure followed AOL layoffs and the closure of Nullsoft's San Francisco offices in December 2003.

With AOL struggling to stave off declining subscriber numbers and 700 additional layoffs planned for next month, the company’s focus has shifted away from supporting acquisitions such as Winamp.

Despite the somber farewell, Nullsoft's former masterminds are proud of their accomplishments. Winamp helped start a digital audio revolution and boasts an incredible 60 million users per month.

After a disappointing Winamp3, Nullsoft developers returned to the drawing board and completed long-standing goals with the release of Winamp 5.0 in late 2003.

Nullsoft's Shoutcast, which pioneered audio streaming over the Internet, is called "the Net's best secret" by its creator Tom Pepper and has reached 170,000 simultaneous users accounting for 70 million hours of listening each month.

For its part, AOL says it remains committed to Winamp, stating it is "a thriving product that AOL continues to support and will continue to support."

But without those who poured their heart and soul into building the software, Winamp seems destined to meet a fate similar to fellow audio player Sonique, after Lycos saw the departure of its development team. Sonique has stagnated for years, and development ceased altogether last March.

So the program that has become the desktop defacto, and something of an icon, is left to die. Personally, I'm rather sad to see it go, even if it had lost its way after the 2x series, though I blame AOL for that more than Nullsoft.

So, pretender to the throne, please step up...

Standard Toaster

Aye...read that yesterday. Best audio media player imho. Switch to the classic skin and it's as quick as 2.x. I might give foobar another look now......

Prior Of Taize

Winamp 2.x was really excellent...much like yourselves wasnt a fan of 3.

Foobar200 is a solid alternative if you lose you winamp wants. Good program.

Also: WINAMP 5 PRO??????????????????

Japseye

Anyone use Windows Media player anymore?

Standard Toaster

mplayer2 sometimes but even MPC has replaed that
Media player 8 & 9 can sling but I do like the look of 10

Lump

Hmmm, That's odd, downloaded version 5.05 tonight. Nothing major but wierd how I downloaded it before reading this.


John

aidan_walsh

Japseye wrote:

Anyone use Windows Media player anymore?

Only for wmv/wmas that Winamp can't decode...

parsi

Used use winamp a few years ago but started using it again having bought a Netgear MP101 - twonkyvision (which is a better media server than the one supplied by netgear) has a plugin for winamp which is useful..

mike65

2.81 rules!

Mike.

aidan_walsh

I used to stick with 2.9 I think it was... Had tried the beta for 3, and liked it as it was. Downloaded the full version of 3, and found I had downloaded pretty much the same thing, same problems and all. Got 5 about a year ago, switched on the classic skin and been using it happy since...

/nostalgic sigh...

Stephen

Winamp5 is the shizzle. Pity to see the end of it.

weemcd

i think thats sad news tbh

aidan_walsh

There seems to be quite an argument going on over at the official forums, with nobody really knowing whats going on. Some say Winamp will live on as the report is incorrect in a number of ways, others say that its due to die a death owing to its internal architecture and reliance on legacy support, so its dead in the water even if the report is wrong...

Curiouser, and curiouser thought Alice...

seamus

The problem being that the development team and the Creator can't go off and continue to update it as Open Source without AOL deciding to release their copyright on it (unlikely after spending $100 mill to acquire it). AOL could hire a new team to continue work on it, but that's also highly unlikely.

Something will come in to fill the void. No doubt about that.

There's a software revolution on the way. Many people have become so accustomed to free software, that a lot of people have a full-functioning machine with no software costs whatsoever. Certainly, look at the Linux/UNIX community.

These days anyone with an inquisitive mind, a passion for coding and a compiler can whip up a custom app to fill the spaces currently occupied by paid-for software. And there a *lot* of people out there like that. Personally, I can see the end of paid-for software (excluding OSs, corporate software and specialist apps) not too far off.

aidan_walsh

seamus wrote:

AOL could hire a new team to continue work on it, but that's also highly unlikely.

I don't know, one of the things mentioned on the Winamp forum is that AOL are (going to be?) using Winamp technology for their own re-branded player. Why bother with that now when they have this one lock, stock.

seamus wrote:

There's a software revolution on the way. Many people have become so accustomed to free software, that a lot of people have a full-functioning machine with no software costs whatsoever. Certainly, look at the Linux/UNIX community.

Yes indeed there is, and I'm in the fold. But thats a different story for a different time...

But whats the definition of free going to be? Free as in GNU, or free as in the current "you can see, but you can't look" philosophy. The latter is still going to be prevailent, IMO.

seamus wrote:

These days anyone with an inquisitive mind, a passion for coding and a compiler can whip up a custom app to fill the spaces currently occupied by paid-for software. And there a *lot* of people out there like that. Personally, I can see the end of paid-for software (excluding OSs, corporate software and specialist apps) not too far off.

Yes and no. While its true that any 14 year old Joe can knock up a media player these days, most people still depend on the level of support and polish that only a professional/long standing product with a large corporate/community backing can provide. In this case, you can dilute the market as much as you like, but a lot of these are still going to be very esoteric works.

stevenmu

It sounds like they've all left because of creative differences. I can't help but wonder (and hope) that they're going to reform outside of AOL and work on something new.

SantaHoe

mike65 wrote:

2.81 rules!

Mike.

2.76 = the bees knees!!!
I've always come back to it... I don't like these bloated players that take up half your screen and make a big fuss about finding your track... a list from 1 - 2000 sorted alphabetically that's all I need thanks... stuff the rest of your useless features imho.

Civilian_Target

I must admit I'm a fan of Winamp 5.05...

quarryman

winamp 5 for me too. pity about the company. one of the best if not the best free piece of software available. pure functionality.

seamus

I've been looking to get back into Java programming...

Anyone know what writing a media player is like?

skywalker

indeed. will be sorry to see it go. although if you have any version of 5 then you have pretty much an up to date version. there werent many major updates after 5.00.


the random function never really worked either. other than that i have no complaints about winamp.

quarryman

skywalker wrote:

the random function never really worked either. other than that i have no complaints about winamp.

i might have missed this mentioned above. what random function? are you talking about shuffle?

aidan_walsh

I assume he is, though I never really had a problem with it. Fair enough, if you switched it on half way though a playlist, it was likely to play tracks that had been played already, but it would have been a bit much for it to assume that every track before it had been played already, as this might not necessarily have been the case.

skywalker

quarryman wrote:

i might have missed this mentioned above. what random function? are you talking about shuffle?

shuffle yeah

Loobz

Saw that article today. FFS I cant believe its going. :eek: Ive had Winamp for as long as I can remember. I downloaded countless skins and loads of trippy visualisations. Everytime I turn my PC on, Winamp would be the first thing I open usually. Best piece of free software ever in my opinion. I feel like Im loosing something good here

What do ye guys think is going to happen next? Will there be a replacement for it? Will it ever be as good?

bush

Ill just keep using 5. Winamp rules

smoke.me.a.kipper

ditto. sad to see it go

Cabaal

doodle_sketch wrote:

So the program that has become the desktop defacto, and something of an icon, is left to die. Personally, I'm rather sad to see it go, even if it had lost its way after the 2x series, though I blame AOL for that more than Nullsoft.

Sadly AOL did much the same thing to the Netscape brand/name

But when AOL bought Netscape & Nullsoft exactly the same thing happened, alot of programmers and people who had been with the company for years left.

Greenman

I'm still with V 2.03 and love it. My pal is talking all the time about V 5!!!
I like the simple things in life!!!

Fenster

Cabaal wrote:

Sadly AOL did much the same thing to the Netscape brand/name

But when AOL bought Netscape & Nullsoft exactly the same thing happened, alot of programmers and people who had been with the company for years left.

AoL eventually abandoned Netscape, only for it to be taken up and used as a base for Firefox, so who knows...

NeverSayDie

Hmm, hadn't heard about this, pity, WinAmp's a very fine piece of software, been using it for years.

seamus wrote:

I've been looking to get back into Java programming...

Anyone know what writing a media player is like?

Shouldn't be too hard, at a very basic level. Something to compare with the like of WinAmp, Windows Media Player, etc, though, would be a whole other story. I don't work in Java myself, but here's a few random links;
Media player article with JMF
The JMF API seems to be the main tool you'd need.

SantaHoe

Heh, Seamus-Amp
Actually what about XMMS (the winamp clone for linux), it could be eventually ported to windows, much like theGimp and xchat among other things.
I've been happy enough with my old 2.x winamp for years anyway, it really doesn't bother me that they won't be releasing new ones.