14 DAY TRIAL // Winamp could once again be brought back to life after Vivendi Group took over the majority stake in Radionomy, the previous owner of the app who purchased it from AOL in early 2014.
Previously the world's leading media player app, Winamp still has an uncertain future but thanks to Vivendi's involvement, there's still a chance to see it brought back to life sometime in 2016.
AOL initially planned to discontinue both Winamp and Shoutcast, but after negotiations with Belgium online radio service Radionomy, the company decided to sell the media player and all the adjacent services. Although the Belgium investor originally promised to keep Winamp alive, no update has been released since the takeover, with most people claiming that it was very close to getting discontinued.
“The iconic Winamp player”
Vivendi Group, which owns or is involved in famous companies such as Dailymotion, Ubisoft, and Deezer, could help relaunch Winamp, although the press release announcing the acquisition offers no suggestion in this regard.
The company, however, does mention Winamp and Shoutcast as two of the most important assets that will join its portfolio following the takeover.
“Radionomy Group owns the streaming technology SHOUTcast as well as the iconic Winamp audio player. It also controls TargetSpot, the first digital audio advertising network in the United States and in France.”
You can find the full press release in the box after the jump.
For the moment, there are several free Winamp alternatives, and all of them are being updated regularly, which is the best sign that Vivendi must start work on a new version of the app as soon as possible.
As usual, Softpedia still has the installers of the latest version of the media player, so you can download Winamp right now to see what it was all about. There still are plenty of themes and plugins out there, so despite the lack of updates, the app lives on these days.