Winamp has announced that on September 24, 2024, the source code of the application will be open to developers worldwide. Winamp will remain the owner of the software and will decide on the new features brought by the official version.
Winamp is a media player for Microsoft Windows originally developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev through their company Nullsoft, which they later sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million. It was then acquired in 2014 by Radionomy, now known as the Llama Group. Since version 2, it is sold as freemium and supports extensibility with plugins and skins, and offers music visualization, playlists and a media library, supported by a large online community. In 2000, Winamp had over 25 million registered users, and in 2001, 60 million users.
In a press release, the 1990s music player announced that it will open its source code to developers worldwide. “Winamp will open source its code for the player used under Windows, allowing the entire community to participate in its development“, said the company.”This is an invitation to global collaboration, where developers from all over the world can contribute their expertise, ideas and passion to the development of this iconic software.“
Here is the official press release:
Winamp has announced that on September 24, 2024, the source code of the application will be open to developers worldwide.
Winamp will open source the player for use on Windows, allowing the entire community to participate in its development. This is a call for global collaboration, where developers from around the world can contribute their expertise, ideas and passion to the development of this iconic software.
Winamp has become much more than just a music player. It embodies a unique digital culture, aesthetics and user experience. With this open source initiative, Winamp is taking a new step in its history by allowing its users to directly contribute to the improvement of the product.
“It is a decision that will delight millions of users around the world. We will focus on new mobile players and other platforms. We will launch a new mobile player at the beginning of July. However, we do not want to forget the tens of millions of users who use software on Windows and who will benefit from the experience and creativity of thousands of developers. Winamp will remain the owner of the software and will decide on the new features brought by the official version“, explains Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO of Winamp.
Source : Winamp press release
and you
Do you think this decision is credible and relevant?
What are your thoughts on this post?
See also: