I can't be alone in clinging onto this old dinosaur, so I thought I'd make a thread about it. After 15 years of offering a fantastic media player platform, as well as other services down the years, Winamp has announced it will be shuting down for good on the 20th of December this year. The historical significance of the media player cannot be underestimated, and while its popularity has diminished over the years, especially in the face of such media players as itunes, it has retained a significant loyal following. I have been using it for almost the entire span of its existance, and I'll miss it.

glorious foobar using master race

I haven't used Winamp in years but it was the first media player that I ever used so it's kind of sad to hear it's going under. I'll never forget their (old?) tag line though, it used to crack me up all the time.

Been using it for five years. R.I.P

Haven't used it in a while but used I used it for a decade at least. Well, it will still whip the Lhama's ass in my memories.

Damn I still use it too. Knowing me, I'll just keep using old versions forever.

I'm still using it and it's really sad this whole shutdown thing
Well, we still have old versions.

Winamp user here, since the late 90's. I'll be very sad to see it go. I really hope that, with the shutdown of Winamp as a commercial enterprise, they cough up the code to some third party to go the open source route or something. Or that someone basically open-source clones it once it dies.

There's no reason at all why you should stop using it, though. Hell, it seems like version 2.8 or something is even still being circulated on the Internet/still in use by some people who seem to prefer it, and they're at 5.66 now or something. Just because there aren't any new versions made doesn't mean your current ones won't work. I don't plan to stop using it any time soon, although I hear really good things about Foobar.

And ITunes? Make me laugh...

Regarding the open source possibilities, I think they are likely to exist. I have a feeling the original creators would have wanted to go that route, but the selling over to AOL made that impossible.
However people do write plugins for the software, and if there are any new audio formats on the horizon (doesn't really seem likely, does it?) they might still be adaptable for Winamp.

I never really used Winamp much, I discovered QCD/qmp and preferred it [it was a bit of a rip off clone though]
It's still a bit sad to see such a well known name fade away

I always hated Windows media player and especially iTunes for separate reasons. WMP could be slow/sluggish and iTunes tries to take over your computer and I never had an iPod. Winamp shat all over them by being efficient and never crashed even on the POS computers I've had over the past 15 years. I'm sure it'll still be downloadable from a million mirror sites, so not all is lost.

R.I.P.

I shall continue using winamp and the official Black Tribe winamp skin til the end of time.

I've been using winamp since a friend showed me it back in 1998 with version 2. I was only 8 at the time. Still use it to this day and had the program on every computer purchased since. Hell, I'm playing a song with it right now. The image of the player is synonymous with owning a computer at this point for me.

AOL had no idea what they were doing with Winamp, really. The biggest strength of Winamp 2.x (developed by Nullsoft and not AOL) was its relative simplicity, sensible UI (even if you put some overdesigned skin on it, at least it's still laid out logically), and lightweight nature. Winamp 5 has far more bloat, is less stable, and the Modern skins are done by artsy types who have no clue how UI design works and design their skins to look trick without the slightest concessions to usability or not making people go cross-eyed staring at the damn thing in search of the right button. "Alien scientific instruments" is not a good design paradigm for a media player interface.

Ha ha ha! excellent

So many other players have Winamp 'themed' skins we'll be able to keep the desktop looking juuust right for years to come

The last version of Winamp will work but for how long? I'm no computer expert but after a while, some older softwares can get wonky if you upgrade OS.

I have really fond memories of Winamp, it was my player of choice when I got my first computer but I've moved on to iTunes when I went to the dark side and bought a Mac

it's a real shame. winamp was one of the first programs i downloaded back when we got the internet at my parents' house in 1998, and i've been using it non-stop ever since. never bothered with the others. so unbelievably simple, lightweight, customisable, bug-free (in my experience)... just simply perfect.

and more to the point, i hate itunes. it's just so..... retard-oriented. you can't and remove files as you want (stuck with its "WE SCAN UR HARD DRIVE FOR EVERTHING EVER"-type approach), it makes all its own folders everywhere, the .m4a filetype can go fuck itself, gah. the idea of not having control over the file system and the like doesn't appeal to me at all. i think i just generally hate apple.

A quick semi-related question, did you guys use the media library function of Winamp [or media players in general]
Turner's comment above jogged my memory, I can't stand not having full unobtrusive control over my files
I know that QCD/qmp had the option to not use it but did Winamp?

What? This is terrible news, I've been using it since I was 15 and nothing else I've used has appealed to me in the same ways visually or functionally. I guess I should make sure I have an old version of the install file backed up somewhere for my next computers.

Yeah, that's true, but as I believe it does work with Windows 8, users are probably safe for a long time to come. There are also other possibilities....someone may purchase the programme rights (hopefully this won't make it worse), or create some kind of extension in the future for whatever Os comes next.

I read a rumour on a mailing list that MS was interested in purchasing it but I find that hard to believe, since they already have the shitty WMP and probably have no interest in phasing it out.

As for the media library, I never used it. I'm sure it's neat but it never seemed necessary to me. making playlists with winamp is really quick and easy.

Playlists are fine, so long as you don't move your shit around
I highly doubt Winamp will die and be forgotten, someone will reverse engineer it or make an emulator or something, it's too liked.
Have you guys seen their forums

Sucks to see it go, I've been using it since 2006 here, and still using it.

RIP.

While not the most complete music player, winamp has been something I've been using since 1998. I immediately switched to this from the visualization-heavy WMP back then and never really looked back. AOL made a lot of bad decisions with winamp ever since they acquired the company. They even failed to capitalize on the app market with something fast and seamless. All in all, that's how you ruin a good brand, folks! Anyway, even though there might be better players, I'll continue to use winamp for as long as it is sustainable. I got my custom views and playlists and can't do without them.

Meh. Used it for a few years before dropping it for foobar2000. Just needed something plain and lightweight to play music on my crappy computer.

I used it since the late 90's and still use it today. It might not be as smart as some other programs out there but I got a typical playlist file that I can make. Its giving me the basics of listening to music and I dont feel the need to look for better, smarter programs that play the same music.

Aw winamp. My first media player, I'll miss it. I haven't used it in forever though. Since I got an iPod back in 06, I just use itunes now. Winamp was awesome though. Looks really nice.

yep, i'm on windows 8 and it works fine. never used the media library either - i don't think many winamp users did. that's the sorta shit itunes drongos need! winamp users like me, we like the playlist toggle!

I have iTunes for tagging. I don't use it for anything else since it freezes like a motherfucker for me due to my large library.

Two super wicked taggers: Mp3tag and Easytag

Thanks for the el oh el dude

You're definitely not alone there. While I think their technology is awesome, the fact that you don't actually own or control it makes me never want to be caught dead with an iphone/pod/pad. Fuck apple.

This is sad news. Winamp's simplicity has always been it's key. I don't need to worry about how things are tagged or if there's a typo here and there. Itunes is a complete train wreck, even using it for my ipod is a pain in the arse.

This doesn't affect me in the least bit. I collect for a reason.

I've used Winamp for 15 years or so, even though I haven't been completely satisfied. I've just never been "forced" to find a new application before now (not that it changed much in those 15 years), I never liked Foobar and I've always hated iTunes. Tried both a few times, but had to change back to Winamp. I'm somewhat glad that I decided to replace Winamp now, because I found an alternative that is very similar (if you use Winamp with library), and improved in several fields. My only problem so far is that it seems to scan my library every time I start the program. Otherwise I would highly recommend MusicBee. It has very customizable hotkeys as well, which I love, and you can even set them to be global so that you don't have to activate the window to execute them. It also supports Last.fm, which is obligatory for my music players.

And the reason is avoiding software support shutdowns? That's gotta be one of the more eccentric wastes of money I've ever heard of.

I often play CDs in my computer using a media player

Back when I still had a Windows computer I used WinAmp all the time. I'm on Linux now, so I've switched to Banshee, but still it's kind of sad to see it go. Lots of memories.

I've been using it since the early 2000's and it will be sad to see it go, but I do not see myself stopping from using it, unless it becomes unusable of course.

Foobar can do all of this and detects all changes to your library directories in real time with minimum delay.
http://www.lastfm.de/group/foo_audioscrobbler

Winamp has some awesome visualizers, way better then all the other media players visualizers that I've used. A shame it won't be available to downloaded anymore.

Been using WMP for a while... I know, I'm stupid