Tip #3072 - Winamp
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Q:
What is Winamp?
A:
Very good question! Winamp is another of the many multimedia players that
are available on the Internet today. We've covered most of the others,
such as Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, etc., so I figured this would
be a good time to share the world of Winamp with you all as well.
Most of the music
players these days all do pretty much the same thing, but as I've said
before, they also all bring something a little different to the table.
And Winamp does not disappoint. Okay, let's start with the beginning facts.
Winamp was designed by the Nullsoft company and they were eventually taken
over by AOL. Winamp is back under the Nullsoft control now though. It
was released first by Justin Frankel in 1997 and started out as a multi-format
freeware and shareware player.
Things have changed
a little since then with Winamp though. Now, along with playing any music,
it is also able to play streamed video material, either live or recorded
from around the world. The current Winamp creators are Tag Loomis, Taber
Buhl, Ben Allison, Maksim Tyrtyshny and Will Fisher. Sometimes it's interesting
to know who is behind all of the developments of these types of things,
so I thought I would fill you all in!
Needless to say, Winamp
has grown much bigger in the last few years. It is now credited to over
52 million monthly users, which makes it the third most used multimedia
player available globally today (in 2006). That's up from the 33 million
users it had in the year 2005.
Okay, now for the
stuff you're probably most interested in. Winamp's developers wanted to
keep the player on a community level and that is why it has such a big
and active following. Winamp is probably most known for the different
skins it offers, along with all of the features and visualizers. Winamp
is always coming out with something different in terms of a new feature,
etc. You'll never get bored with what it has to offer.
As a bonus, Winamp
focuses its development on four distinct goals. The first is to have a
continued focus on the size and performance of the player, the second
is to be able to support the widest range of audio and video formats of
the major players, the third being to continue its unique features to
be able to offer the highest quality output from any multimedia player
and the last is to keep designing a player that will aid to the community
as much as possible. You can't go wrong with those goals! Although Winamp
has already been successful with those, they won't stop until they know
its users are completely satisfied.
There are, of course,
different versions of Winamp that are available for download online today,
but the most recent is Winamp 5.3. You can download it directly from their
Web site here. You can also check
out all of the different features through that link. So, if you've never
used Winamp before or if you're a current user, check out what Winamp
is all about. You won't be disappointed!
~ Erin
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