Winamp

It really whips the llama's ass

Revived
19902026

Winamp was the MP3 player of the late-90s internet, released in April 1997 by Nullsoft and bought by AOL in 1999 for a reported $80 million. AOL shut it down on 20 December 2013 after years of neglect, then sold it to Belgian company Radionomy in January 2014, where the brand survives.

Timeline

  1. 1997
  2. April 1997 Launch
    Winamp released by Nullsoft

    Free skinnable MP3 player for Windows.

  3. 1998
  4. 8 September 1998 Version
    Winamp 2.0 released

    The version that defines the golden era: skins, plugins, and the playlist editor that everyone copied.

  5. 1999
  6. June 1999 Acquisition
    AOL buys Nullsoft for a reported $80 million

    Winamp joins AOL at the peak of the MP3 boom.

  7. 2000
  8. June 2000 Peak
    Passes 25 million registered users

    Winamp is the default way a generation plays MP3s.

  9. 2002
  10. 9 August 2002 Version
    Winamp3 released, then abandoned

    The unpopular rewrite is later replaced by Winamp 5, merging 2.x and 3 lines.

  11. 2003
  12. 9 December 2003 Version
    Winamp 5 released

    Merges the classic 2.x codebase with Winamp3 features after the Winamp3 rewrite flops.

  13. 2004
  14. January 2004 Incident
    Justin Frankel resigns from AOL

    The founder leaves after years of friction over Nullsoft projects like Gnutella and WASTE.

  15. 2013
  16. 20 November 2013 Shutdown announced
    AOL announces Winamp will shut down

    winamp.com and the players to go offline on December 20.

  17. 20 December 2013 Shutdown
    AOL shuts down winamp.com

    Official downloads and web services end.

  18. 2014
  19. 14 January 2014 Revival
    Radionomy buys Winamp and Shoutcast

    Belgian online-radio company revives the brand.

  20. 2018
  21. 18 October 2018 Version
    Winamp 5.8 released after five years of silence

    Radionomy ships a cleaned-up build of the leaked 2018 beta.

Ownership

Nullsoft 1997–1999 Founded
AOL 1999–2014 Acquisition, $80M Bought at the height of the MP3 boom
Radionomy 2014–2013 Acquisition, reported $5-10M; AOL took 12% stake Brand later passed to Llama Group

Why it shut down

Official line: AOL announced that winamp.com and the Winamp media players would "no longer be available" after December 20, 2013.

Our analysis: AOL had no strategy for a desktop MP3 player after iTunes and streaming took over, and let Winamp decay for a decade. A last-minute sale to Radionomy in January 2014 kept the brand alive.

History

The llama years

Winamp appeared in April 1997, a tiny freeware player from Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev that did one thing perfectly: play MP3s with skins, a graphic equalizer and a playlist. It became the default soundtrack app of the Napster era, and its absurd slogan ("it really whips the llama's ass") became a badge of belonging. AOL bought Nullsoft in June 1999, at the peak of the MP3 gold rush, for a reported $80 million in stock.

Death by indifference

Inside AOL, Nullsoft's rebellious culture never fit. Development slowed, the botched Winamp3 rewrite in 2002 burned goodwill, and iTunes swallowed the mainstream. In November 2013 AOL announced it would shut everything down on December 20. The community outcry was loud enough that AOL instead sold Winamp and Shoutcast to Radionomy in January 2014 for a reported $5-10 million. Winamp still exists today, a survivor of the same purge that killed MSN Messenger and AIM-era software culture.

Similar projects

RealPlayer Buffering… buffering… 1995–now ICQ The messenger that gave you a number 1996–2024 MySpace A place for friends 2003–now GeoCities Your neighborhood on the early web 1994–2009 Netscape Navigator The browser that opened the web 1994–2008 Google+ The social network everyone was signed up to and nobody used 2011–2019

Sources

  1. Winamp is to be shut down for good The Register 20 November 2013
  2. Radionomy acquires Winamp and Shoutcast from AOL PR Newswire 14 January 2014 [archived]
  3. Radionomy buys Winamp, Shoutcast from AOL for $5-10 million TechSpot 14 January 2014 [archived]
  4. R.I.P. Winamp (1997-2013): Marking the End of the Beginning Billboard 21 November 2013 [archived]

Last verified: 11 August 2026