GoKawiilAlexandre Saboundjian, then CEO of Winamp owner Radioomy and now CEO of Winamp Group, told TechCrunch in October 2018 that a completely new Winamp would launch the following year. He promised "a more complete listening experience" spanning home, MP3s, cloud libraries, podcasts and streaming radio stations. That streaming-friendly revival planned for 2019 never came. The plan was reliant on pulling third-party streaming services into a single app, an approach that would've required integration deals Winamp never announced. The 2027 Deezer-Winamp partnership sidesteps that problem entirely by bundling Winamp's service with Deezer's licensing and streaming infrastructure on day one.
We did eventually see a refreshed version of your parents' favorite MP3 software three years later in 2022, followed by a rocker stretch of brand stewardship. Winamp published the classic player's source code on GitHub in September 2024 under a custom license that initially barred anyone from distributing forks. The entire repo was deleted a few weeks later, after the license attracted sustained criticism and proprietary code belonging to Dolby and Microsoft was found.
Winamp hasn't provided any details on pricing or supported platforms yet, despite promising a subscription model that's "fundamentally different" from today's streaming services. The press release commits to a customizable interface, social features and new tools for discovering and organizing music, with more product previews promised in the coming months.
For the first time in its near 30-year history, Winamp will be offering a premium subscription. Should the Deezer partnership prove successful, it'll be quite the rebound for a service that AOL had planned to shut down in 2013 before selling it off to Radionomy.