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Author Topic: Winamp says goodbye  (Read 3514 times)

Matt

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Winamp says goodbye
« on: November 20, 2013, 03:39:21 pm »

It appears that AOL is closing Winamp on December 20, 2013:
http://www.winamp.com/media-player/en

I remember using the very first version of Winamp.  I sent a feature request for them to add an equalizer, and was thrilled when it showed up!  No lossless audio files could play in Winamp when I was in college, which is why Monkey's Audio was born.

AOL payed Justin Frankel $100 million for Winamp in 1999.  He left AOL shortly after (and bought an Audi station wagon and posted videos of himself driving crazy fast in the desert somewhere).

Goodbye Winamp.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

rjm

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2013, 03:55:47 pm »

Hoping you get your $100 mil someday...
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mwillems

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2013, 04:15:22 pm »

It appears that AOL is closing Winamp on December 20, 2013:
http://www.winamp.com/media-player/en

I remember using the very first version of Winamp.  I sent a feature request for them to add an equalizer, and was thrilled when it showed up!  No lossless audio files could play in Winamp when I was in college, which is why Monkey's Audio was born.

AOL payed Justin Frankel $100 million for Winamp in 1999.  He left AOL shortly after (and bought an Audi station wagon and posted videos of himself driving crazy fast in the desert somewhere).

Goodbye Winamp.

No longer whipping Llamas in any capacity  :(
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Aimhere

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2013, 07:29:28 pm »

I saw a post by none other than our very own JimH over at the Winamp forums, floating the idea that JRiver might be able to support keeping the Winamp user forums available should AOL shut them down. I thought that was rather magnanimous of him. :)

I graduated to JRiver Media Center (and Media Jukebox before it) long ago, but Winamp will always hold a special place in my memories. I'm especially fond of the visualizations (and to this day, I still wish JRiver would just copy the Winamp visualization plugin system verbatim, hehe).

Aimhere
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JimH

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2013, 07:51:28 pm »

I posted as rvrbnk there:

http://forums.winamp.com/showpost.php?p=2975043&postcount=40

I used Winamp to play my first MP3 about the same time as the Diamond Rio became available.  Maybe a year later, when we had started Media Jukebox, I called nullsoft to see what it would cost to advertise on their site.  I talked to Justin's uncle (Justin was probably sleeping).  I regret that I didn't place the ad there, because a year or so later winamp was a big deal and not long after that, AOL bought it and Justin was doing doughnuts in the desert.

I think it was $80 million, but it wasn't clear at the time, because AOL also bought spinner.com at the same time.  The rumor was that they paid $280 million for it.

So $26.98 may seem like a lot of money for the latest version of MC, but it isn't.

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jgreen

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2013, 09:17:53 pm »

Is this the appropriate place to make a feature request for collapsing groups?

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pcstockton

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2013, 11:59:02 pm »

yes... totally used winamp in the mid 90s.  Nothing else compared.  They primed me for Foobar, then the holy grail of JRiver MC.  I am excited to see how the enormity of your success manifests itself.  I wish you millions.

-Patrick
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InflatableMouse

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2013, 12:58:17 am »

I've always hated winamp. I hated the silly skins, the unusable small controls the blocky all-caps font and nothing ever seemed to be added in the order I wanted. I gave it a few tries but it never lasted more than 5 minutes.

Before JRiver I was using Musicmatch Jukebox. If I remember correctly, at one point it stopped supporting and playing Mp3's. I think that's when I found JRiver Media Jukebox.
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JimH

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2013, 06:55:33 am »

I am excited to see how the enormity of your success manifests itself.  I wish you millions.
Thanks.  We just want to win.
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JimH

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #9 on: November 21, 2013, 01:51:38 pm »

I missed this.  In April, 2013, AOL also closed a music service based around MusicNow and Spinner.
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Matt

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #10 on: November 21, 2013, 02:53:35 pm »

If you happen to see alternatives to Winamp being discussed somewhere, please consider sharing this page:
http://jriver.com/winamp.html

Thanks.

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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

KingSparta

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Re: Winamp says goodbye
« Reply #11 on: November 21, 2013, 04:58:03 pm »

Never Liked Winamp, But I used it before MusicMatch, And Then Media Jukebox, then JRiver Media Center.

I miss the Jukebox Image by the way.
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