Winamp confirmed it will switch to open source later this year

Winamp - the favorite music application of millions of Windows users since the 90s and early 2000s - is still trying to make its long-awaited return, this time as open source software.

Specifically, the Winamp developer team has just officially announced the source code confirmation for the Windows application version of Winamp that will be available to developers worldwide starting September 24, 2024.

Winamp started its journey two decades ago under the roof of Nullsoft when it was developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev. This music player software is known for its lightweight design, extensive customization capabilities, and comes with a series of plugins to expand the player's functionality.

Winamp was an extremely popular media player application during the late 1990s to early 2000s. However, after that, a series of compatibility problems as well as the rise of Competitor platforms have caused Winamp to gradually go into oblivion and fall into a state of 'living in limbo'.

Nullsoft was then sold to AOL in 1999, and was eventually acquired by Radionomy (now LLama Group) in 2014. At the time, it was rumored that Microsoft was also in talks with AOL about buying Winamp and Shoutcast .

Although Winamp was initially developed only for Windows and Macintosh (as MacAmp), the media player now also has dedicated mobile applications for Android and iOS.

In fact, turning Winamp into an open source application is not a new idea. A group of developers started the "Save Winamp" campaign in 2013 after AOL announced that Winamp v5.66 would be the final version for the once-popular media player. Their petition posted on Change.org has been signed by more than 12,000 people.

The Winamp development team explains in its blog post that they are opening up the code to invite collaboration from developers everywhere in the world. This is someone who can contribute passion, expertise, and ideas to "keep this iconic software going."

Commenting on the latest announcement, Winamp CEO Alexandre Saboundjian said:

This is a decision that will probably please millions of users worldwide. Our focus will be on the mobile environment and other rich platforms. We will release a new mobile player in early July.

However, we also do not want to disappoint the tens of millions of users who use Windows software, as well as the experience and creativity of thousands of developers globally. Winamp will remain the owner of the software and will decide on the innovations made in the final version.

Users can directly contribute ideas to improve the product, and interested developers can sign up for the initiative on Winamp's website. Note that this notice does not apply to Winamp applications on other platforms, such as Android and iOS.

David Pac

Update 19 May 2024