Winamp’s is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated comebacks of recent years. After fifteen years of history and for a long time when it became the reference application for listening to music on Windows, its managers at the time decided to close it ten years ago. While it is true that much more comprehensive and up-to-date alternatives already existed at the time, the threat of its departure was a setback for both those who still used it and those who had done so in the past. There were even campaigns to keep it from disappearing. Finally, almost at halting time, Winamp passed through the hands and narrowly missed closing.

Since, cyclically we had news about the possible return of this applicationof course adapted to its time, because the music market has evolved significantly since the days of Mp3s we got off Napster we ripped from our CDs. The first attempt took place in 2015, the second attempt took place in 2018 and most recently at the end of 2021 we learned that they are at it again.

On all these occasions, many of us wonder how would it come together more than the signature design of classic Winamp with the way we access music today, mainly through streaming services. Not to mention, of course, that it would also make sense to go for a slightly less narrow interface, in which it does not seem to pay the price of gold per square pixel. Do you think I’m exaggerating? Try to open a classic application on a modern PC, its use is only suitable for young and very precise eyes.

The good news is that this time the attempt was completed, winamp is back, as you can check on their website. At the moment, yes, only through its web interface, though the company says it’s already working on a desktop app. And this is the first point that clearly indicates that what is called Winamp today has nothing to do with what we knew at that time.

The first thing we see when accessing the web player is this concessions / nods to classic design simply do not exist. It gives the impression that we are in for a redesign of Spotify, with the difference that Winamp does not offer a similar service, at least for now. As we can read in its description, we can connect them to our streaming services, but after spending some time with the configuration, I couldn’t find any way to do it.

Its creators say so they want to focus on the creator, in which they can get more money for their creations and thus have more direct contact with their followers. This approach isn’t new either, we’ve been hearing it for over a decade and it doesn’t seem to be catching on yet, so I don’t have high expectations in this case. However, perhaps those responsible for the service know how to use its historical name well to achieve better results than previous attempts.

Maybe it’s because it’s still unfinished and in the coming days or weeks we’ll see everything that’s missing arrive, or because they didn’t include anything that in any way resembles the classic player to feed the nostalgia that will push many people to try it , but in its current state, it seems unlikely that this Winamp will be able to repeat the success of his well-remembered predecessor.