AOL has reportedly sold its discontinued Winamp and Shoutcast services to an international online radio aggregator, Radionomy.
The AOL-owned Winamp and Shoutcast have reportedly been taken over by Radionomy, an international online radio aggregator based in Brussels, Belgium. The news is no surprise as AOL was earlier rumored to be looking for a potential sale of both Winamp's software and Shoutcast music services.
Following the rumors of a sale by AOL, TechCrunch has published a report Thursday that suggests Radionomy has partially overtaken Winamp and Shoutcast. The infamous online radio aggregator has a clear motive behind the Shoutcast acquisition, after all both services let users create their own online radio stations.
The primary factor behind any buyout is a common goal, and in this case, Shoutcast shares similar goals as Radionomy. Shoutcast has some 50,000 stations and that paired with Radionomy's 6,000 stations, can be a huge boost for the new owner. Radionomy offers its users a web-based tool for creating radio stations and licensed library of over 80,000 songs that simplifies the process of broadcasting.
While Radionomy's reason to takeover Shoutcast plays out very well, plans for standalone MP3 software Winamp are not clear. Shoutcast is independent of Winamp and offers its services through any web browser, and leading media players like iTunes and Windows Media player. TechCrunch predicts that Winamp's software will be put in good use to help operate the radio stations offered by Radionomy and Shoutcast together.
According to the tech blog, the deal will be finalized as early as Friday, so it won't be too long before we learn about Winamp's future with Radionomy.
Winamp survived its planned end-date of December 20, 2013, and is still available for download from its official website.
