If you grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s then you probably came across Winamp. It’s the old media player that was popular in those years. I can remember back then how everyone listened to music on their computers only with Winamp. However, it hasn’t been as popular lately.
The thing is that in today’s world, you hardly need such a media player on your computer. Nowadays, people mostly use smartphones and streaming services to listen to music. No wonder Winamp lost its popularity and gets updates mainly for more compatibility. Another major update to Winamp 5.9 has been released, becoming the first major update since 2018.
You can already install Winamp 5.9 on your PC now. Earlier, this version had been in Beta test for almost a year. The developers added a lot of things in this update: the player now officially supports Windows 11, media using the VP8 codec, and HTTPS media streaming. The developers also said that they completely rewrote the code and fixed many bugs. They commented on this update as a “migration of the whole project from VS2008 to VS2019 and successful build”.
Now the development team plans to continue to develop their project. They want to add support for Opus, OGV/OGM, H.265, VP9, and other media codecs. Winamp may also add online playback for Bandcamp, Spotify, Lyrics, and other online services.
Also in the future, the team plans to release Winamp 6 which will add cross-platforming. The player will be available on iOS and Android. This is very positive news, as the project is not dead and the team is actively working on the development of good old Winamp.
