Do you even Apple Music, bro? Or do you Spotify? Or maybe you only listen to podcasts on whatever third-party app you downloaded first? Audio streaming services are all over the place, and there’s another one coming. You won’t believe who hopes to organise your music library… again.
Winamp, the free, llama-flavoured, fan-favourite music player that launched in 1997, will make a comeback in 2019. This time around they plan to create one space (essentially a media player) for all your online playlists, podcasts, and downloaded music.
For those that are slightly out of the loop — Winamp was a popular freeware media player that was mostly famous for the incredible skins developed by the community. A very committed community, if you consider that the app still has more than 100,000 users worldwide (according to Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch). In 2002 AOL acquired it, it was shut down in 2013, and after that it was sold to Radionomy in 2014. There hasn’t been an update since. Until now.
This week, Winamp is releasing their first update in… quite a while, which will be WinAmp 5.8. TechCrunch got the inside info that the Radiology team is also working on WinAmp 6, the converged audio app planned for 2019. This app will be available on iOS and Android.
The Winamp team hasn’t explained exactly how they’re planning on integrating the extremely fragmented world of media streaming, but Radionomy CEO Alexandre Saboundjian said “There will be a completely new version next year, with the legacy of Winamp but a more complete listening experience.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.” We’re intrigued.
Source: TechCrunch