A Eulogy for Winamp

On the 21st of November 2013 it was announced that the long-running media player Winamp will be ceasing all updates and be closing down. And so, on December 20th 2013, updates to Winamp will cease and the program itself will no longer be available for download.

The message posted on the winamp website reads as follows; “Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013….Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release. Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years."

The news that Winamp will cease makes the end of an era. Winamp was unleashed on an unsuspecting world in 1997, when the rest of world was becoming aware of something called mp3s. It’s timing couldn’t be more perfect and, buoyed by a growing interest in mp3s, Winamp  quickly became the most widely used media player around. The reasons for this announcement are unclear but it is believed that due to a lack of activity on Winamp’s part. It should be noted that Winamp was bought out by AOL and nothing of note has happened since – Indeed, many former workers on Winamp have described working with AOL as a disappointing experience. Sure there was the release of an Android device but that release was more a case of too little too late.

I myself was an avid user of Winamp and got a lot of use out of it. I remember when it was around during the afore-mentioned mp3 revolution and have used it many times in the decade that followed. And I never stopped using it: Whenever I got a new computer Winamp was the first thing I installed on it. I used Winamp so much that other media players, like ITunes and VLC player, came across as meaningless to me and inefficient to my needs.

Until the announcement I was unaware of the problems that Winamp had been facing in recent years. So it came as a shock – and I’m not alone. Many people have expressed dismay at this announcement - and it is indeed a surprise to find that so many other people had been using Winamp for the longest time. Indeed, if so many people have been using the same program for a decade and a half, then it says an enormous amount for the efficiency for the program itself and its success.

Personally, I still see Winamp as the best player for my music, and nothing I’ve seen can surpass it. And just because updates will cease is no reason to stop using it – I have the executable file of the latest version and I’ll be hanging onto it for a long time yet. And I can imagine many other people will be going to the Winamp homepage and find the latest version while they still can.

Why? Because Winamp is an excellent program and seeing it go is truly a terrible loss. So I ask you, the reader, to raise a toast to Winamp and fifteen years of magic.