"Winamp, it really kicks the llama's a**!" If you are a music lover from 90's, you must have heard it after downloading and running Winamp for the very first time. Unfortunately, AOL, Winamp's owner, has decided to shut it down on December 20.
"Winamp.com and associated Web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release. Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years," read the message on the Winamp site.
In 1999, Winamp was bought by AOL for around $80 million. The preferred music player of 90's saw a gradual decrease in its growth when services like iTunes and other media players started emerging.
However the step is unprecedented as AOL kept Winamp going with adequate attention. In 2010, the Android version was launch and in the following year, a full fledged player for Mac was also launched.
Last year, in an interview, Rob Lord, the first person to be hired at Nullsoft, the company who built Winamp, sounded pretty concerned about the product's future. "There's no reason that Winamp couldn't be in the position that iTunes is in today if not for a few layers of mismanagement by AOL that started immediately upon acquisition," he said.
Here is the link of Winamp, in case you want to save a copy for posterity's sake.
