Winamp Windows 11

Winamp for Windows 11

Last updated: December 10, 2023
File Size: 24.00 MB

Winamp, (Windows Advanced Multimedia Products) was first released on April 21, 1997, and created by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev under the Nullsoft banner, is a media player that supports a variety of audio formats, including MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and WMA.

Early versions of the player – named WinAMP as a combination of “Windows” and “AMP” (an abbreviation for the Advanced Multimedia Products MP3 file playback engine it employed) – had basic controls, but by the time version 1.006 was released a few months later, its iconic graphical user interface had taken shape.

Winamp was an instant success with early adopters. By mid-1998, the programme, which began as freeware but later switched to a shareware model, had been downloaded over 3 million times. This piqued the interest of major media companies, including AOL, which purchased Nullsoft in June 1999 for $80 million in stock and continued to operate it as a subsidiary.

Soon after, mainstream success followed. Winamp had 25 million registered users by June 2000, and only a year later it had surpassed the 60 million user mark. It was obvious that MP3s would be the next big thing in music. And they were for a while.

Winamp made it simple to make a playlist: simply drag files into the playlist window and begin listening. This, in conjunction with early file-sharing networks, altered how people discovered and listened to music. Winamp grew to 90 million users, before fading away into obscurity when the likes of iTunes came onto the scene with its relatively decluttered look and seamless search function. However, it is now making a comeback.

From 1997 to 2013, the original Winamp media player was under development, with the final version being v5.666.3516. An unfinished build of v5.8 was leaked in October 2018, and Radionomy (the owner of Winamp, now known as Shoutcast) decided to make it public. More updates were promised, but they were never delivered.

A live video included the seemingly impromptu appearance of a new app called Media Player, as reported by Windows Latest and other blogs. This appears to be a modern replacement for Windows Media Player, which debuted in Windows Millennium Edition and hasn’t been updated in years.

The newest version of Winamp for Windows 11 functions as a music library, allowing users to browse and play music, as well as create and manage playlists. In addition, any music and playlists from Groove Music will be automatically transferred to the Media Player, which will take the place of the Groove Music app. There’s also a dedicated playback mode that shows album art in full screen and mini player mode.

The new Media Player app may eventually replace the legacy Windows Media Player app that is currently available on Windows 11. However, Microsoft has stated that the legacy music app will remain available in Windows Tools. Also, because video and music are now combined, the standalone Movies & TV app is no longer required.

The company officially released Winamp’s first update in years. The update added support for Windows 11. Simultaneously, Radionomy (the new owners of Winamp) announced that they are working on a new Winamp for Windows and other platforms.

The updated website of Winamp includes a new statement indicating that the media player is making a comeback. Sign up for Winamp’s newsletters to be notified when the redesigned player is available for Windows 11, and other platforms.

Radionomy has not specified when the Media Player app will be made available to general users, but it has stated that during testing with Insiders, some issues were encountered that prevented playback from network locations. There are also a few bugs with editing album metadata, sorting library content with accented characters, and UI elements that ignore the user’s app theme preference.

The new Winamp appears to be more of an audio streaming platform, akin to Spotify or Pandora, than an update to a music player application. AudioValley could simply be using the Winamp name to generate publicity for an audio platform that is not very— there is a distinct lack of media players that are not simple web apps right now.

In addition, Radionomy intends to “add new ways to browse your music and video collections and manage your play queue.” [1]

There are plenty of third-party, potentially better alternatives to Windows Media Player, but the latter retains a special place in the hearts of many Windows users who grew up watching and listening to content on the default media app. Microsoft pushed its own first-party alternatives, namely Groove Music and the Movies & TV apps that debuted on the platform with Windows, out of the spotlight in Windows 11 and buried WMP in the menus.

Below you could find the Winamp for Windows 11 (Windows media player) with contains additions, cumulative set of all hotfixes, and security updates.

Download Winamp for Windows 11

References

[1] Microsoft: Here’s our new media player for Windows 11 to replace the Groove Music app, Liam Tung, Nov 2021, https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-heres-our-new-media-player-for-windows-11-to-replace-the-groove-music-app/

 

One thought on “Winamp Windows 11

  1. I’ve used Winamp almost since launch. Nothing else compares. I still have copious amounts of mp3s (I ripped all my old CDs). 🙂

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