Photo Credit: Winamp
’90s media darling Winamp relaunches with services aimed at music creators and a goal to grow to 250 million users.
The iconic music player Winamp is launching a new player that comes with new functionality aimed at unlocking the relationship between artists and fans. Winamp seems like a dusty relic of the past, though the company says it has community of more than 83 million users around the globe. Now, it wants to empower music artists to become their own merchants.
Winamp is now available as a mobile-responsive web player at player.winamp.com and coming in Q3 2023—Android and iOS apps. A new super-aggregator forms part of the player that welcomes any audio services, building on Winamp’s background of openness. It now offers podcasts, radio stations and will soon offer the ability to connect to streaming services and play local files.
The new Winamp offers Fanzone, which allows creators to become merchants and create tiered subscription plans. Winamp can fuel the love dedicated fans have for their favorite artists by offering exclusive content, experiences, and memberships. The Fanzone allows artists to directly support their favorite artists while being rewarded with exclusive content.
Now Winamp aims to grow its new player to 250 million users and to have one million artists onboard Winamp Fanzone and accessible through the new web player. The existing 83 million Winamp community can now upgrade to the new platform to experience what it has to offer.
“Winamp has a legacy of 30 years of music empowerment and irreverence,” says Alexandre Saboundijan, CEO, Llama Group. “That challenger spirit is needed today more than ever. Creators find it increasingly hard to gain value from streaming services, making it harder for them to sustain their art and grow their careers. In this environment, artists have to take their future into their own hands—they need to supplement the income by becoming their own merchants.”
“With the new Winamp player, our aim is to empower creators to make more money, at a time when they really need it. Winamp’s mission is to change the mindset of artists—from one where they feel like victims of poor revenues from the DSPs, to one of empowerment about what they can achieve by themselves.”