Forgotten Winamp Opening Its Source Code, Seeks Collaborative Help To Modernize

If you were an avid music listener on your Windows PC from the late 1990s to the early 2010s, you’ve probably used and adored Winamp. If you didn’t use it, you surely remember the nifty but effective little multimedia player.

Winamp, which was first launched in 1997 by Nullsoft, was all the rage back then with music lovers, as the player allowed them to customize the player’s look with different colors, tones and even themes based on movies or video games.

Furthermore, the media player allowed users to play a variety of audio file formats, groove to a wide range of visualizations, stream internet radio or podcasts and customize their experience through various add-ons.

Unfortunately, the player ran out of luck as people began using their phones to play music and shifted from using MP3 files to streaming services. Eventually, it was discontinued in 2013.

A revival for the application was on the cards as it got picked up by Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy but the player didn’t see any new updates until October 2018 as version 5.8.

Version 5.9 was released almost four years later in September 2022, which was followed by minor updates in December 2022 (v5.9.1) and April 2023 (v5.9.2). Through a few twists and turns of acquisitions and rebrands, Winamp ultimately found itself owned and operated by the Llama Group.

In May 2024, Llama Group announced a move that could potentially see the forgotten music player make a return to the community that loves it, helped by the community that loves it!

So, what did the company say about the availability of the popular music player and how will the community be involved? Let’s explore!

What Is Winamp’s Source Code Revitalization Plan About?

 

• In May 2024, Winamp published a press release that announced the company was opening the music player’s source code to developers worldwide.

• The idea was to foster collaborative development enabling participating developers to contribute their expertise, ideas and passion to help the product evolve and improve.

• At the time, the company revealed the application’s source code would be made available on September 24, 2024.

• Come the day, the company has delivered on its promise, as Winamp’s source code was released on GitHub.

• This included its build tools, dependencies and associated libraries for the Windows app, which essentially allowed anyone to fix bugs and bring new features to the tool.

• We say essentially, as this move came with a catch. The company released the tools as “source available” and not “open source”, meaning that users could make any changes they wanted and use the product as long as it was for private use, as per its software licensing document.

• In the end, the company would still be the deciding factor in its official final release.

• Yet, Winamp’s GitHub page shows the move was a success with over 7,000 stars and 1,600 forks (at the time of writing).

What Did Winamp’s CEO Say?

 

• Through the press release announcing the move to make the source code available to developers, Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO of Winamp, said, “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.”

• “Winamp will remain the owner of the software and will decide on the innovations made in the official version.”

Would you consider returning to or embracing a new version of Winamp?

Do you think other software applications and popular computer video games that disappeared years ago should consider similar moves?

Let us know in the comments below!