Winamp has received a fresh lease of life. The music player, which was supposed to shut down on Dec. 20, has been rescued, not by Microsoft as earlier speculated, but by Brussels, Belgium-based Internet radio stations aggregator Radionomy.
AOL first announced the demise of the popular but outdated music service together with media streaming Shoutcast service in November but prior to pulling the plugs off, reports surfaced that AOL was in negotiations with an unnamed potential buyer and it could be Microsoft. However, Radionomy and not Microsoft ended up as being Winamp's savior.
"We have since learned from a reliable source that the deal is for both properties and should be finalised by Friday, if not sooner," reported AOL-owned TechCrunch, after noticing that Winamp forum members have also spotted updated nameservers for Winamp.
"The acquisition may also see the two products and platforms put to work in more commercial settings. One of Radionomy's strategic investors is MusicMatic, which develops audio and video experiences for stores and other venues," TechCrunch added.
Radionomy is based in Brussels, Belgium and is a free platform that allows music lovers to create their own radio stations.
"The Radionomy platform encourages fans to build stations drawing from a licensed library of more than 80,000 songs and content. Radionomy takes care of online broadcasting, live functions, author rights, scheduling, audience reporting and metrics and storage for programmers who want to add their own songs and other content or podcasts. And, Radionomy pumps out the music in high quality 128 kbs sound," according to the Fast Facts page of Radionomy.
According to the company, Radionomy offers more than 6,000 stations created by its users and generate more than 42 million hours of listening every month. It also boasts of over 13 million unique listeners.
Winamp was acquired for $80 million by AOL in 1999. It has been the leading music players during that decade but the introduction of iTunes and other media players spelled its decline. Amid difficulties, AOL kept the software afloat and even released new version of the music player in 2010 and 2011 for Android and Mac, respectively.
Winamp was created by Nullsoft. It gained popularity for its skinnable player and ease of use. It was a popular alternative as a music player for those who had Windows Media Player and RealPlayer as their choices.
