By Ian Hollidae, 2024/09/25

Winamp, a name I haven't heard in ages, has recently released it's source code for community development in an attempt to restore the player to relevance. From an announcement made back in May:

"This is a decision that will delight millions of users around the world. Our focus will be on new mobile players and other platforms. We will be releasing a new mobile player at the beginning of July. Still, we don't want to forget the tens of millions of users who use the software on Windows and will benefit from thousands of developers' experience and creativity."

For some odd reason, the released code isn't under an open source license with Winamp remaining the sole owner over distributions.

Before streaming, before itunes, before napster, there was Winamp which quite possibly the best MP3 manager around (I'm sure there are those who will argue otherwise). And while I was never into the visualizations such as Milkdrop, which is also still around, I couldn't count the number of skins I collected. However, nostalgia aside, the obvious question here is will this move make any difference for the company or for music listening in general?

My answer is it doesn't matter. I say they should give it try and see what happens. If they succeed, then another viable music option in the marketplace is never a bad thing. If they don't succeed, i think Winamp can still be a popular niche product with a loyal following.