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Winamp is a popular media player developed by Nullsoft that was first released by Justin Frankel in 1996. Version 5.5 was released on October 10th, 2007 marking the 10th anniversary of the software and includes many upgrades includes a new Bento skin. Winamp first gained popularity in 1997 when the new mp3 format of compressed digital music first made its appearance on the Internet.

Pros & Cons

Pros:
21 people have already voted. Do you agree?

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Extensive plugin support
+15agreedisagree

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Great UI, with easy to access library, playlist, EQ, visualization, etc.
+12agreedisagree

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Shoutcast support
+11agreedisagree

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Highly customizable look and feel with skins
+9agreedisagree

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Not a computer resource hog like WMP
+9agreedisagree

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Excellent Internet radio integration
+9agreedisagree

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Slick look with cool visualizations
+9agreedisagree

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Customizable visualizations are great
+7agreedisagree

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Multiple sound card support: listen on your hi-fi card while Windows gets the onboard chip.
+7agreedisagree

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Auto-Tag feature: good for roll your own mp3s and to correct these collectors items.
+5agreedisagree

Cons:
Do you agree?

•
Windows Only
+7agreedisagree

•
Still somewhat bloated compared to Foobar2000 and other players aimed at expert users
-5agreedisagree

Competing products

Winamp is ranked 3rd.  See the top picks in Media Software

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More information

Winamp 1.0 - the classic look

Features

  • audio formats: MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis MIDI, MOD, MP1, MP2, M4A, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, WMA, Chiptunes, and more
  • video formats: AVI, MPEG, NSV (Nullsoft Streaming Video)
  • includes many visualizations with full-screen support
  • keyboard shortcuts
  • extensive plug-in support for input/output, sound and visual effects
  • skinnable with many freely available skins
  • free access to streaming media including: Internet radio and XM Satellite radio (powered by AOL radio)
  • ripping, encoding, burning in Winamp Pro version
  • support for portable media players

Winamp 5.5 - the Bento skin (click to see full)

It is currently the second most popular media player to Microsoft's Windows Media Player. As of 2005, Winamp had approximately 55 million user worldwide. It is available in two versions: 1) a fully-functional free version, and 2) a Pro version available for $19.95 that adds extensive ripping, encoding, and burning functionality. See Winamp.com for more information and to download the player.

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Related products

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11 comments about Winamp

1.  avatar Erik  Oct 19, 2007 11:51am

I was an original Winamp user back in 97, but, for some reason, switched to Windows Media player in 2002 (probably coinciding with when I first go XP). Last year, I switched back to Winamp and I haven't looked back.

Winamp is great for Internet radio, and does a great job at organizing you media library without mucking things up like WMP. It is also fairly fast and doesn't bog down your system.

If you're using the MS product, I highly suggest you switch to Winamp and add bookmarks to Radio Paradise and the Hype Machine playlist.
2.  avatar GT-D  Oct 23, 2007 10:25am

I used winamp from 1997 through till about 4 years ago or something (I cant remember when I switched now). I then switched to Foobar2000. I find Foobar less bulky then winamp even and much more customizable. Winamp I found had a hard time organizing and maintaining my music collection when it hit the 60gb mark.
With my collection almost at 125 gb foobar is invaluable for keeping it all organized into well ordered play lists.
3.  avatar greedoe  Oct 30, 2007 10:47am

Personally concerned that winamp doesn't control your mp3s like iTunes. if you edit a file in Itunes, it renames it and even puts it into the proper folder. Winamp seems to rely on you to do all this, while just updating the id3 tag.
4.  avatar Erik  Oct 30, 2007 10:58am

I actually prefer that Winamp leaves the filenames intact. I used to have Windows Media Player rename my files, and it caused many headaches. I really like the simplicity of the Winamp library..it doesn't do things you don't want it to without you knowing it.
5.  avatar GT-D  Oct 31, 2007 11:15am

yeah - I hate players that rename and move files. >_< foobar goes a step further, you can tell it not to update ID3 tags and just store a separate list of edits to ID3 data, as if you are seeding a torrent and edit the ID3 data it causes the torrent to fail the hash check, and stop seeding.
6.  avatar dialupinternetuser  Jan 05, 2008 4:05pm

Does WinAmp support iPods? Then I might switch. However I do like the renaming of music in iTunes, but it pisses me off when it screws with my videos, which I keep somewhere else.
7.  avatar Erik  Jan 06, 2008 10:57am

Yes, it looks like you can:

http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/07/07/how-to-use-winamp-to-manage-your-ipod/
8.  avatar realraven2000  Feb 05, 2008 4:00am

Using Winamp since version 1... tried WMP + iTunes.

Pros:

The AutoTag feature is invaluable to me since I rip a lot of my mp3s from my own Vinyl collection. Visualizations run rings around the ones in Media Player or iTunes. Finally I can select the sound card without sending my windows plings and boings through my studio desk & speakers (can't do that in iTunes or media player).

I believe if they advance the Album Art download to have more control and high res images and some sort of Cover Flow interface then Winamp could be the iTunes killer.

Cons:

Only runs in windows.
9.  avatar GT-D  Mar 10, 2008 10:40am

Hmm, people are voting down the fact that winamp is somewhat bloated, yet no one has addressed this in the comments.

I'd like to hear what people have to say about it. It's been awhile since I used winamp, but when I stopped they were in the process of continually adding more features and a fancier UI.

I switched because I didn't want a player that spent so long loading because of my huge music collection and wasn't particularly effective at organizing it, didn't have good options for mass-tagging, included various extra features like video playback (I have a different app then that and it was pitiful in winamp) and generally had a fairly large footprint as far as system resources went.

Did Winamp really change its design philosophy in previous years?
10.  avatar dialupinternetuser  Mar 25, 2008 4:15pm

Winamp does have mass tagging issues, but other than that I really like it. Just be sure not to install Winamp Remote, Agent, or Toolbar. They're what bloat it and take up RAM. I use Tag&Rename for my mass tagging features. It's shareware, but there's cracked versions available. *cough* www.fullandfree.info *cough.* It works nicely for me. Be sure to disable reading of subfolders so it doesn't read your music collection all at once.
11.  avatar dialupinternetuser  Mar 25, 2008 4:18pm

Also if you have an iPhone/iPod touch be sure to install the ml_iPod plugin which adds support for them. It also supports reverse sync, which is nice (for getting videos off other people's iPods...)
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    Key Features:

    Manufacturer Nullsoft
    Price $0.00
    Release Date Jun. 7, 1997
    Software Type Audio/Video

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    4292 views and 195 edits (see all)
    Created: 10/19/2007 - 11:45
    Modified: 08/28/2008 - 18:59