AOL has abruptly ended one of the most popular audio players from the early days of online digital music. Winamp will officially be shut down as of December 20, 2013.
You probably remember the popular digital audio player from the late 1990s. Most of us with a PC must have used Winamp at least once to listen and manage our MP3 playlist on desktops. Even today some might still be using the player to stream free online music, but that is about to change as AOL is shutting down Winamp and associated web services as of December 20, 2013.
The news of Winamp's demise should not come as too much of a surprise as the service hadn't made advancements in a long time. With the rising dominance of iTunes and Windows Media Player, Winamp got lost in the crowd. But the news of its shut down evokes some nostalgia.
Winamp was the brainchild of former University of Utah college students Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev. It was launched in 1997 under the company Nullsoft and secured a prominent place in the market of MP3 file sharing. Two years later, AOL acquired the service when it bought Frankel's Nullsoft for $80 million in stock. To keep at par with the growing competition, Winamp released its 10th Anniversary edition in 2007. Later, an Android version of the app was released in 2010 and Winamp Sync for Mac in 2011. But most people had already moved on to trying new services by then.
Since the acquisition, AOL didn't make many changes to the app that grabbed the attention of many, and it seemed that AOL was quite unaware of what else to do with it. But the New York-based media communications company finally took a major decision in shutting down Winamp and all its associated web services next month.
"Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past Dec. 20, 2013," the brief farewell message on Winamp.com website reads. "Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download ... Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years."
Users can download a copy of the Winamp audio player while it lasts and even import your favorite music songs from iTunes.
Will you miss Winamp? Let us know in your comments below.
