Winamp, the popular media player in 90s set for big return next year

Remember the old good Winamp from yesteryear? The classic music/MP3 player is now set for a big return next year. This time around Winamp will be a better application for your smartphone and will bring all your music, podcasts and streaming services at one place.

According to a TechCrunch report, the popular music app was last updated in 2013 but still works, thanks to a big global Winamp community. Winamp still has about 100 million monthly users worldwide.

"There will be a completely new version next year, with the legacy of Winamp but a more complete listening experience," said Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO of Radionomy, the company that acquired Winamp in 2014.

"You can listen to the MP3s you may have at home, but also to the cloud, to podcasts, to streaming radio stations, to a playlist you perhaps have built."

"People want one single experience. I think Winamp is the perfect player to bring that to everybody. And we want people to have it on every device," he added.

He also pointed out the fragmented music streaming space and dearth of universal players.

"What I see today is you have to jump from one player to another player or aggregator if you want to listen to a radio station, to a podcast player if you want to listen to a podcast — this, to me, is not the final experience," he explained.

Winamp: Glory days of the PC era
Winamp was one of the most popular desktop music players in the 90s and early 2000s. Launched in 1997, the application provided a great deal of personalisation to users, ranging from deep equalizers to custom skins.

Back in 1999, AOL acquired Nullsoft, the developer of the popular Winamp MP3 player. The deal was said to be worth $80 million. After the release of Winamp version 5.6 in 2013, AOL announced that it will shut down the platform.

Despite the announcement, the official website continued to function amid reports of newer versions unofficially making it to the web. The same year Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy acquired Nullsoft, the parent company that built Winamp.

Winamp.com currently features download links for Windows and Mac platforms.