Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player for Windows. Winamp is the classic media player that helped define music playback on Windows. More than 25 years after its original release, the desktop version remains a lightweight and highly customizable player for local music collections, internet radio, playlists, and more.

Winamp supports a wide range of audio formats, including MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WAV, WMA, MIDI, and numerous tracker formats, along with several common video formats. It includes a full media library, playlist management, a 10-band equalizer, visualizations, CD ripping, and access to thousands of Shoutcast internet radio stations.

One of Winamp's biggest strengths remains its customization. The player supports both classic and modern skins, along with the large ecosystem of Winamp plug-ins built over the years. Users can change everything from the interface and visualizations to audio processing and playback behavior.

Despite its unmistakably old-school interface, Winamp remains a capable option for anyone who keeps a local music library and wants a fast desktop player without the complexity of a modern streaming app.

Features

Broad Audio Format Support

Play MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, WAV, WMA, MIDI, tracker modules, and many other audio formats. Winamp also supports a range of video formats, including AVI, MP4, MKV, MPEG, FLV, and WebM.

Media Library

Organize and browse your local music collection from Winamp's built-in Media Library. Create playlists, rate songs, view listening history, manage bookmarks, and search large collections from one place.

Classic Playlist Editor and Equalizer

Winamp includes its familiar playlist editor and 10-band graphic equalizer, with customizable presets for adjusting playback to different music genres, headphones, or speakers.

Skins and Plug-ins

Customize Winamp with classic skins, modern freeform skins, visualizations, and its extensive library of compatible Winamp 2 plug-ins. Plug-ins can add new audio formats, effects, visualizations, and other functionality.

Shoutcast Internet Radio

Browse and listen to thousands of Shoutcast internet radio stations directly through Winamp, covering music, talk, news, and other genres from around the world.

CD Ripping

Rip audio CDs directly to MP3, AAC/M4A, FLAC, OGG, WAV, or WMA. Winamp can also retrieve and manage track information through its Media Library.

Playlists and Smart Views

Create and manage standard playlists or use Smart Views to automatically organize music according to criteria such as artist, album, genre, rating, or recently played tracks.

Audio Visualizations

Winamp includes built-in visualization support, including the classic MilkDrop and AVS systems, with additional presets and visualization plug-ins available.

Format Conversion

Use Winamp's transcoding tools to convert compatible audio files between formats, useful for preparing music for other devices or reducing file sizes.

Portable Device Support

Winamp can manage and synchronize music with supported portable media players and USB storage devices, although compatibility with newer smartphones and Apple devices is limited.

What's New

Winamp 5.9.2 release notes

  • New: [ml_fanzone] Connect to the online Winamp Fanzone
  • New: [ml_hotmix] Connect to the Hotmix Radio service
  • Improved: [gen_crasher] Added correct Windows 11 detection method
  • Improved: [ml_wire] Replace internal IE engine with Qt v5.12 engine (w.i.p.)
  • Fixed: Erroneous "URL: Winamp Command Handler" filetype association
  • Fixed: [Big Bento] Drag titlebar issue
  • Fixed: [Big Bento] Config overlap issue
  • Fixed: [ml_local] Drag to rearrange smart view order causes corruption
  • Fixed: [ml_playlists] Memory leaks
  • Misc: Added option for RC builds in Update notifications
  • Misc: All DLLs are now digitally signed
  • Misc: Many more general tweaks, improvements, fixes and optimizations
  • Replaced: jnetlib.w5s functions moved to new wac_network.w5s component
  • Replaced: dlmgr.w5s functions moved to new wac_downloads.w5s component
  • Updated: [jpeg] ijg-libjpeg 9e

Final 5.9.1 Release Notes:

  • Improved: [ml_local / nde] Memory footprint reduction
  • Improved: [ml_local] Load time speedup and other optimizations
  • Improved: [ml_online] Increased maximum bandwidth (from 350 to 3500)
  • Improved: [playlist/ml_playlists/ml_pmp] Playlist loader/writer refactoring
  • Improved: [dlmgr] Increased buffer size for faster podcast downloads
  • Improved: [Bento skin] Increased menu & config widths to help with translations
  • Improved: [Installer] VS2019 runtime checker script (thanks Pawel Porwisz)
  • Fixed: Hang when reopening Winamp if previously placed on disconnected monitor
  • Fixed: [Installer] Silent install switch blocked by external dependencies
  • Fixed: [gen_ff] Windowshade and Docked Toolbar modes not remembered on restart
  • Fixed: [gen_tray] Settings not being saved after Winamp restart
  • Fixed: [in_mp4/libmp4v2] Overflow and seek issues with specific mp4 videos
  • Fixed: [in_wave/libsndfile] Error parsing list subchunks with some riff headers
  • Fixed: [ml_downloads] Cancelling multi-selection only cancelled first item
  • Fixed: [ml_playlists] Crash when editing playlist entry
  • Fixed: [ml_wire/xml] Display of non-Latin characters in Podcasts
  • Fixed: [out_ds] Crossfader broken in Bento/Modern skin EQ
  • Fixed: [out_ds] Potential buffer overflow issues
  • Fixed: [out_wasapi] Crash on opening flv videos (rendering still needs fixing)
  • Fixed: [playlist/ml_playlists] Memory leaks
  • Fixed: [playlist/ml_playlists] Reported issues with special/unicode characters
  • Fixed: [vis_avs] AVS Editor menu not localized when lang pack applied
  • Misc: Many more general tweaks, improvements, fixes and optimizations
  • Misc: Replaced nu::PtrMap with std::map and nu::PtrList with std::vector
  • Misc: [vcpkg] changed from manifest to classic mode
  • Removed: [wbm] Lazy-loading wbm system files (no longer required)
  • Updated: [in_flac/enc_flac] libFLAC 1.4.2
  • Updated: [in_mod] libopenmpt 0.6.6
  • Updated: [OpenSSL] OpenSSL 3.0.5
  • Updated: [vpx] libvpx 1.12.0
  • Updated: [xml] expat 2.4.9
  • Updated: [zlib] zlib 1.2.13
  • New/Improved: [ml_downloads/ml_playlists] Download context menu in ML
  • New: [ml_nft] Import, play and download music from your NFT Library (optional)