Oh no, they added NFTs to Winamp • TechCrunch

Winamp version 5.9.1 is here, rejoice! The venerable – no, old – but reliable media player has received occasional updates over the past couple of decades, but little real new functionality has emerged (and that’s just fine for us users). But this new version has an unexpected and thankfully optional feature: NFT playback.

No, this doesn’t just read out the current valuation of your various square avatars; NFT-type technology has also been applied to music, offering the possibility of limited releases of digital tracks such that you might have a limited vinyl run. At least that’s the idea – I don’t think it’s completely caught on, and with the cryptocurrency world in disarray, it’s hard to blame anyone for refusing to take part in a potentially risky ecosystem.

“Winamp was a key part of the first digital music innovation, when mp3 files changed the way we listen and enjoy music. Now we’re supporting the leading edge of the next one, as more and more artists explore web3 and its potential,” said Winamp CEO Alexandre Saboundjian in a press release.

As you may recall, Winamp was acquired by Radionomy in 2014, and in 2018 a new effort to revive the brand was announced. The idea, Saboundjian told me at the time, was to act as a unifying layer for all the music services out there, so whether you use Apple Music or Spotify or Tidal or all three, you can just open Winamp and select a track or playlist. However, it opens in a different interface.

Image credit: Winamp

The unified experience hasn’t exactly happened. In fact, the remade app still counts as one equalizer among the “coming soon” features. So it’s a little strange to hear that a working NFT team came first:

Winamp’s latest version allows music fans to connect their Metamask wallet via Brave, Chrome or Firefox to Winamp. It then connects their favorite music NFTs to their proven player. Winamp supports audio and video files distributed under both the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards, and launches this new feature for Ethereum and Polygon/Matic protocols.

To be clear, the rumored new unit player still appears to be a distant prospect. It’s the original, old-school player that gets the new feature, along with a bunch of bug fixes and optimizations. The changes are listed, as they pretty much always have been, in a post on the Winamp forum, followed by a warm thank you from the community and obscure bug reports.

I am grateful that this software is still actively maintained. I won’t be using the NFT feature, but it’s just one of many things added in 5.9.1, and as soon as the rest of the Winamp users (there are dozens of us!) get around to testing it for me , will go ahead and download it. After all, it really still whips the llama’s ass.