• cmhe@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Maybe someone can explain to me why Winamp is still so popular?

    I have used Winamp 2, 3 and 5 around 2000ish, and it was a fine player, but nothing really special. After Winamp I think I switched to MediaMonkey, which IMO was easier to manage my music collection. Then I used VirtualDJ, which supported cross fading between music with synchronized beats. I think I also used foobar2000 a bit.

    Winamp was an okayish player, but there was much more powerful software around at that time. It this just nostalgics or is there really something that people miss today that Winamp provided or still provides?

    • xavier666@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago
      • Better interface than Windows Media player
      • 100s of cool and edgy skins
      • Nice looking graphic equalizer
      • Nice music visualizer
      • Easy to make playlists
      • Tiny looking player which gelled with the early-mid 2000s vibe

      And most importantly, it really whips the Llama’s ass. TBH, there aren’t a lot of serious reasons. It was just slightly better than the default music player. I personally feel the skins played a significant part.

    • Getting6409@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I don’t think it’s actually still popular, but I’m just talking out of my ass here. I remember it made some waves a few months ago about finally having a new release after so long, and my feeling was a shitload of nostalgia brought it back into the internet spotlight, regardless of how many people are actually using it.

      I gave it a spin again, purely for nostalgia. I could find no compelling reason to use it over my actual preferred player, foobar

    • s_s@lemmy.one
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      5 months ago

      It’s still popular because it was popular.

      Also, it was simple and modular.

      It was largely succeeded by monolithic and enshittified versions of iTunes, which have zero appeal these days. So it’s still remembered fondly for not enshittifying and not trying to build a walled garden.