Winamp News

[Koopa]

The bolded Gracenote items aren't working in 5.666 either.

Edited my list to make it more clear.

[DJ Egg]

Which raises this question: What is causing the delay of the DNAS 2.5 release?
Is the answer the same: "we need a lead dev."?

Maybe the lack of progress in hiring a new developer shows that Radionomy is concentrating on bigger problems; perhaps the lawsuit launched by Sony Music.
Or maybe Radionomy has simply lost interest in Winamp, as Koopa and I and others have said.

The Radionomy forum is waiting for some announcement, scheduled for Monday, May 9.
That forum has posts from some very unhappy radio producers, and some which echo the complaints found in this forum about the lack of communication from Radionomy.
https://board.radionomy.com/

No, we do have a lead dev for SHOUTcast DNAS.
As explained in earlier posts, it was DrO, and that was mainly why there was little or no Winamp development between ~Sep 2014-15.
Now it's someone else.
The delays were due to issues with monetization and instability, which have now hopefully all been fixed.

I'm not going to discuss any potential/alleged legal matters in public, other than to say that I doubt too many non-US companies will be paying the exorbitant new CRB license/royalty fees for small US internet radio stations. It's a really sad state of affairs, and I seriously doubt if any individual small US stations can afford to pay said fees :-(

And Radionomy does care, and does have plans for Winamp.
It was supposed to be down to me and DrO to realise those plans, otherwise they'll probably just go ahead with their own plans instead. That was the key issue I was making with regards to having an experienced lead Winamp dev on the team...

[Aminifu]

...

And Radionomy does care, and does have plans for Winamp.
It was supposed to be down to me and DrO to realise those plans, otherwise they'll probably just go ahead with their own plans instead. That was the key issue I was making with regards to having an experienced lead Winamp dev on the team...

And yet the Radionomy 'powers that be' still don't feel it is necessary to make an official announcement about what is happening with Winamp.

Die hard Winamp fans will continue to try and hang in, but it is getting harder and harder month by passing month.

[DJ Egg]

So my announcements aren't seen as official?

[siebe83]

It was supposed to be down to me and DrO to realise those plans, otherwise they'll probably just go ahead with their own plans instead. That was the key issue I was making with regards to having an experienced lead Winamp dev on the team...

Thanks Darren, Egg, for everything you guys contributed to Winamp over the years. And for still hanging in there.
Hopefully at some point soon things will pick up again and your latest efforts will pay off

[Aminifu]

So my announcements aren't seen as official?

I didn't mean to imply that I don't trust what you report. I just feel that Radionomy should make a public statement, instead of, or in addition to, speaking thru an employee on this forum. Something that will get picked up by tech news sites and be more widely disseminated.

[ryerman]

And Radionomy does care, and does have plans for Winamp.

"I'm from Missouri."
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/I'm+from+Missouri

[MrSinatra]

And Radionomy does care, and does have plans for Winamp.
It was supposed to be down to me and DrO to realise those plans, otherwise they'll probably just go ahead with their own plans instead. That was the key issue I was making with regards to having an experienced lead Winamp dev on the team...

that sounds really ominous to me. so they were fine with you and DrO, or Benski, dealing with things / handling winamp, as long as it was 2 of the 3 of you, BUT since it is now just you alone, they are going to take it over and institute their own plans instead?

is that the correct read of the situation?

it sounds ominous to me b/c the one constant of winamp over the years has been its ethos, or spirit if you will. i think you Egg, are largely responsible for that, in so far as at least continuity and propagation of the mindset. if complete strangers come in and take it their own way, for whatever reason, that does sound like the end to me.

it seems to me they should just tell you "here's our budget for a lead dev" and you then go hire someone like Thinktink or Koopa or someone who "gets it" meaning, what winamp is all about.

have i completely misconstrued the situation?

[DJ Egg]

@MrSinatra
Hmm, no, that's not exactly what I was saying.
The key is having an experienced Winamp lead dev.
I'm not a lead dev. I'm also not in a position to hire anyone.
I also used the word "probably" there, because tbh, it was a bit of a guess...


@siebe83
Hi. Good to hear from you :-)

[paulej]

Re-thinking open source

I keep hearing that the new owners don't care so much about Winamp. Clearly, there is some truth in that, because it has been nearly two years since Winamp was sold and there have been no new updates.

So it's worth asking again: why not just release the software as open source? I fully appreciate that finding developers to work on any open source project is a challenge, but it cannot possibly be worse than the current situation. Why is releasing Winamp as open source important? For me, it's to ensure that I can keep using it when that day comes that Microsoft changes Windows and the current software doesn't work. I've done that a few times on projects in the past, ported software from Unix to Windows, etc. I don't really have time to work on Wimap, but I bet I'll suddenly find time if it doesn't work anymore.

Open source should be seriously considered. Put it out on GitHub for the benefit of everyone. It's pretty evident that money isn't the objective with Winamp. If it were, the project would have been properly funded.

[musicf8]

why not just release the software as open source? I fully appreciate that finding developers to work on any open source project is a challenge, but it cannot possibly be worse than the current situation.

But open source doesn't mean that magically it will start being developed on. Case and point, Digsby was a popular multi client messenger that became open sourced and the software just died out. While I do like software to have an open-source license, I know that doesn't mean anything regarding development. If anything, you should just start developing plug-ins to expand the current winamp.

[paulej]

But open source doesn't mean that magically it will start being developed on. Case and point, Digsby was a popular multi client messenger that became open sourced and the software just died out. While I do like software to have an open-source license, I know that doesn't mean anything regarding development. If anything, you should just start developing plug-ins to expand the current winamp.

Sure, most open source projects are managed by developers at the company that owns the copyright to the software. That would be no different here, but at least if the company that now owns Wimamp decides to abandon the project, it will be available for the community to run the project, extend it, etc.

It might be tough to recruit developers right now since Winamp is already a very complete media player that is really stable. But, I do think there would be people who jump in to fix Winamp if it were broken. Making it available as open source might not increase the number of developers, but keeping the source closed isn't helpful, either.

[Hanschke]

I dont understand why they bought winamp if they have no plan for it. If they dont have the money give the community the source and I think we will get a new great software again!

[musicf8]

I dont understand why they bought winamp if they have no plan for it. If they dont have the money give the community the source and I think we will get a new great software again!

It obviously was a packaged deal for Winamp, NSIS, and Shoutcast, so that's why, and since shoutcast and Winamp kind of go hand in hand I don't really see it being split up. Though I guess it could considering they plug-in functionality.

[musicf8]

It might be tough to recruit developers right now since Winamp is already a very complete media player that is really stable. But, I do think there would be people who jump in to fix Winamp if it were broken. Making it available as open source might not increase the number of developers, but keeping the source closed isn't helpful, either.

Actually I would think the only people right now are the ones working on it, especially DrO who is still working on it after leaving, as I have been following his blogs and can't help but to tip my hat in respect for that, with what he has done and what he is working on now. Same with DJ Egg, doing what he can. It's rough the state it's in now.

Open source I think might have been more viable a decade ago because people were much more active on creating plug-ins. That, at least what I seen, seemed to have thinned out greatly. I mean maybe it's just me, but really the only ones that still use Winamp are die hard fans who refuse to let go of their music collections. Majority of my friends that were once avid winamp users later turned to itunes and later just use spotify or pandora. I figure a lot of the original plug-in developers has either gone commercial and independent from winamp or just gave up the hobby all together. I mean, sadly the Desktop is a shrinking platform with now smartphones, smart tvs, etc.

Maybe some community can revive it, but how many people would be dedicated to the development and can actually program?