
Winamp 2 in HTML5 - jazzychad
http://jordaneldredge.com/projects/winamp2-js/
======
corford
Ah Winamp. I still use it today.

Justin Frankel is one of my role models as far as how to 'live the dream'
goes. He built something great, cashed out young, avoided becoming a tech
celebrity, stayed a curious geek and just carried on doing what he loves. The
fact winamp is still around and keeping people happy all these years later is
the icing on the cake (and proof, if any were needed, that he deserved all the
success he got). Justin Frankel really did whip the llama's ass.

~~~
icelancer
He got a lot of crap at AOL for developing gnutella and other programs like
WASTE. It was pretty contentious for a few years.

~~~
corford
Ah yes, forgot about WASTE. His corporate disobedience with gnutella etc. made
me respect him even more. TBH I think everyone saw the writing on the wall as
soon as they bought Winamp... difficult to picture JF happily sitting in a
cubicle all day and listening to weekly management stand ups o_O

------
brickmort
to quote a previous post of mine:

I have a special place in my heart for Winamp's classic UI (Winamp 2). In my
opinion, it was the most intuitive interface for a music player. it had a
playlist, equalizer, plugins, all of which were condensable to a fraction of
it's full size. Of course, now there are a number of similar players that have
the same capabilities, but shit, Winamp 2.x was where it started. Even today,
it blows todays iTunes interface way out of the water.

~~~
emehrkay
Winamp was the only thing that I missed when I moved from Windows to OS X
years ago. I tried to use VLC as a replacement, but it wasnt the same.

~~~
geon
Try Vox: [http://coppertino.com/](http://coppertino.com/)

------
eli
I've posted it here before, but Ars Technica wrote an excellent longform
article about Winamp's rise and fall:
[http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/06/winamp-how-
greatest-...](http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/06/winamp-how-greatest-
mp3-player-undid-itself/)

~~~
overgard
I'm always amazed how whenever an acquisition like that happens, the parent
company almost always screws it up in some boneheaded fashion. You bought that
company because what they were doing was working, your only job is to not fuck
it up.

~~~
MattGrommes
I'm always amazed by this too but I've worked at enough places to see how it
happens.

Security says "This new thing has to use our approved login system".

Ops says "This new thing has to run on our servers/VMs".

Eng says "This new thing has to use Technology X so it fits in with everything
else".

Nobody needs to have bad intentions but the weight of all that slows it down
and makes it un-fun for the original team and the new people who take it over
don't care that much about it because it came from outside.

~~~
overgard
Yep, that's exactly how the takeover went at the last place I was working that
was acquired. Lots of promises that nothing would change, except, well, this
one small thing... to fit into company policy you understand...

I think somehow management sees the assets and wants to capitalize on them,
without bothering to understand the process that created the assets in the
first place (whether those are people or products). It's like if they took
over a farm and harvested all the wheat without planting any seeds, and then
wondered why they weren't getting crops anymore.

I just think it's amazing how frequently corporations will buy an asset for
millions or billions with apparently no idea how the entity actually works. I
mean if I were going to spend a few million on a company, I'd want to know how
and why it's been successful, I wouldn't just want to acquire a "brand" that
would get immediately tarnished.

------
krat0sprakhar
Discovering this kind of stuff is what makes HN so awesome! This brings back
so many memories. Thanks for releasing this.

Sadly, Winamp went completely downhill from here (IMHO) and the subsequent
versions never felt as minimal as this version. AIMP[0] comes pretty close and
is a good enough clone of winamp if you're interested.

[0] - [http://www.aimp2.us/](http://www.aimp2.us/)

~~~
Andrenid
I'd love a version of Winamp 2 that works on OS X.

I loved how minimal and fast it was. You didn't need to import and manage your
media, just drag a folder onto it and blam, it's playing. Nice keyboard
shortcuts, no extra crap.

So much of my music is still just folders of mp3s in /artist/album/*.mp3
format and I really can't be bothered importing it all into iTunes, meaning I
just listen to the same few dozen albums I do have in iTunes.

~~~
soylentcola
That's how all of my music is organized to this day. I haven't tried using
iTunes as a media player in a while because when I did, it either ran way too
slowly for a basic media player and for some reason it always wanted to
obfuscate where the files were, keeping them in (seemingly) arbitrary folders
with 5-character names. No idea if it still does that but regardless, I only
keep it around for the occasional backing up of my old iPad before doing an
update.

These days I more often just drag the folder into the VLC playlist or even use
an old version of Winamp if I just want to shuffle through everything or make
a playlist. The idea that my music is "in" the media player is something I
could never get on board with. The media player is just accessing files in
easily located folders. The way iTunes and some others try to hide that fact
bothers me on some weird curmudgeonly level.

~~~
glenntzke
Just FYI you can control whether or not iTunes manages your music folder and
there is some customization in Pref > Advanced.

I chose to let it manage the files but reduced some of the folder nesting. It
doesn't obfuscate file names and you can elect for Artist > Album > [file]
structure or whatever your heart desires.

------
pjmlp
The wasted hours trying out Winamp skins....

~~~
busterarm
The wasted hours making Winamp skins...

~~~
Andrenid
Making Winamp skins and visualisation presets is what got me into graphics and
coding, which led to web design, which led to my various web-related careers
over the last 15 years. I owe Winamp so so much.

~~~
captbaritone
That's a big part of why I was inspired to take on this little project.

------
captbaritone
Author here. Looking for a new host for llama.mp3
([https://github.com/captbaritone/winamp2-js/issues/11](https://github.com/captbaritone/winamp2-js/issues/11))
anyone want to help save my server?

~~~
captbaritone
[https://twitter.com/Michcioperz](https://twitter.com/Michcioperz) suggested
[https://mediacru.sh/download/Q2HAoRHE-
JvD.mp3](https://mediacru.sh/download/Q2HAoRHE-JvD.mp3) that seems to be
working for now.

------
carlesfe
That looks very cool, but I'd appreciate a bit of context. Maybe it's a work
in progress?

Edit: Maybe it's a WIP, it's not linked from the author's project page
[http://jordaneldredge.com/projects/](http://jordaneldredge.com/projects/)

I found a Github link deep at the bottom of the page:
[https://github.com/captbaritone/winamp2-js](https://github.com/captbaritone/winamp2-js)

~~~
captbaritone
Author here. Didn't expect it to get much attention. I've added a link to my
projects page. I'd be happy to answer any questions the GitHub page hasn't
answered.

~~~
giancarlostoro
Any plans on using this codebase with Node-Webkit? Just curious

------
forlorn
I remember something similar: a tribute to Winamp from Yandex.Music team -
[http://music.yandex.ru/oldschool/](http://music.yandex.ru/oldschool/) . Here
is a screenshot -
[https://www.picozu.com/v/temp/u1JCIYOvNspaGHl1VhQxoHhr.png](https://www.picozu.com/v/temp/u1JCIYOvNspaGHl1VhQxoHhr.png)
.

------
whatcd
I still use 2.95 on my winders 'puters. Thank-you for the ZXCVB & J keyboard
shortcuts, Winamp team!

------
amirmansour
After this sparked the "good old days" flashbacks, I went to
[http://www.winamp.com](http://www.winamp.com) and it looks like they are
working on a revamped version of Winamp. The site says: "WE ARE WORKING HARD
TO REENERGIZE WINAMP!"

~~~
robertfw
Following through to a forum post with more info reveals Winamp has indeed
been sold on:

> As you all surely know by now, Winamp & SHOUTcast have recently changed
> ownership (from AOL to Radionomy).

The winamp.com website is currently undergoing heavy work and an almost-
completely new redesign. As a result, many features will be unavailable,
including some in-client services.

The Winamp downloads and Winamp Pro purchases will also be temporarily
unavailable whilst code licensed to/by the previous owner is removed/replaced.

We hope to have everything restored and back in working order as soon as
possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused in the meantime.

Watch this thread for any further updates.

------
mrtimo
I remember telling my 10th grade US History teacher about Winamp. He installed
it on his classroom computer - he and I were a bit embarrassed when it played
"Really whips the llama's ass" for a few students to hear. Good memories!

------
jraedisch
For parties without DJ I still use Winamp 2 with SqrSoft Crossfading Plugin
and "club" preset, which can easily be combined with Limiter to keep the
volume somewhat steady (but losing some dynamic within tracks).

~~~
spacefight
For Crossfading, I also suggest
[http://www.twoyoutubevideosandamotherfuckingcrossfader.com/](http://www.twoyoutubevideosandamotherfuckingcrossfader.com/)

;)

------
mackbrowne
It better have Milkdrop or it's completely useless!

------
akamaozu
Very nice and inspiring demo.

I wrote a music player from scratch with Sound Manager 2 and I realized ...
this stuff isn't that hard. We can build real software in the browser.

Someone bought Winamp for a couple hundred million about 15 years ago. Today,
you can throw it together in the browser and do distribution for practically
free.

Long live Client-Side Javascript!

------
StavrosK
Ahh, the best player ever... How I miss you.

~~~
rplnt
Why miss it? It's not like it stopped working...

~~~
josefresco
iTunes, Pandora, Spotify - times have changed and a lot of us retired their
massive collection of pirated tunes for a streaming service or much more
curated library.

~~~
rplnt
Ah, I see, and in that regard I agree. I miss the simple, yet featureful
classic Winamp when I chose to use something like Spotify. All you get is
simplicity.

------
niix
Ah this brings back so many good memories. Looks like
[http://nullsoft.com/](http://nullsoft.com/) is still up (for the most part).
As a young developer I used to go through this site for little ideas of things
to build. Justin always built awesome applications.

------
deanclatworthy
This brings back good memories. It really was the defacto media player for me,
for so many years. I couldn't figure out what else this does other than play,
pauses, stops and changes volume? How close to fully functional could this go?
Can you adjust balance for example using the HTML5 audio API?

~~~
captbaritone
I originally thought it was impossible, but today I found this Web Audio API
doc, and I think it may actually be possible not only to do the balance, but
also the equalizer. I'll at least look into it more.

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/API/Web_Audio_A...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/API/Web_Audio_API)

~~~
chriscareycode
Check out this demo:
[http://html5-demos.appspot.com/static/webaudio/createMediaSo...](http://html5-demos.appspot.com/static/webaudio/createMediaSourceElement.html)
\- article: [http://updates.html5rocks.com/2012/02/HTML5-audio-and-the-
We...](http://updates.html5rocks.com/2012/02/HTML5-audio-and-the-Web-Audio-
API-are-BFFs)

------
akurilin
Winamp lite, you will never be forgotten.

------
wkonkel
I just posted a $15 bounty to "Make it a real app" \--
[https://github.com/captbaritone/winamp2-js/issues/2](https://github.com/captbaritone/winamp2-js/issues/2)

~~~
AndyKelley
Here's a "real app" that was largely inspired by Winamp:
[http://demo.groovebasin.com/](http://demo.groovebasin.com/)

Actually is a fully functional music player that runs in the browser.

------
rocky1138
Very cool. Doesn't play music modules, though. Still, props!

------
atbell
Spotify actually released a Winamp frontend for their service. Works in
Windows/Wine: [http://spotiamp.com](http://spotiamp.com)

~~~
yincrash
According to the bottom of that page:

Spotiamp is a Swedish product made by Ludde in Gothenburg, Sweden. Spotiamp is
not an officially supported product of Spotify®.

~~~
atbell
[https://news.spotify.com/us/2013/12/20/spotiamp-long-live-
th...](https://news.spotify.com/us/2013/12/20/spotiamp-long-live-the-llama/)

------
SimeVidas
The best part is that the buttons are <div> instead of <button> :-P. HTML5 for
the win!

~~~
SchizoDuckie
The sad part about that is that if he were to use <button> properly styled
like the div he would have keyboard navigation for free using

------
heywire
The nostalgia is strong on HN today!

------
dheera
Surely there must be a way to get the scope and equalizer working using the
web audio API?

------
pikachu_is_cool
I thought this was going to be an emscripten port of Wine running Winamp :(

~~~
mateuszf
Is the code open source? I don't think so.

~~~
pikachu_is_cool
Wine and X are open source; that's all you need.

~~~
icebraining
Wine Is Not an Emulator, though - you'd still need some kind of layer
translating the x86 binary to JS.

~~~
ccozan
wouldn't that be the role of asm.js?

~~~
icebraining
No, asm.js is just "an extraordinarily optimizable, low-level subset of
JavaScript". It doesn't run x86 machine code, you'd need to convert it (or
interpret it).

According to the webs, there are some x86 → LLVM converters, and then
Emscripten can convert LLVM → asm.js, but getting that to work would probably
take many months.

------
rootuid
The easterEgg is nice, was this in the original ?

~~~
scrapcode
To save others the time of looking it up: "NUL [ESC] L [ESC] SOFT"

~~~
icebraining
And to answer the question, yes, it was:
[http://www.eeggs.com/items/856.html](http://www.eeggs.com/items/856.html)

------
noer
the irony of this being two posts away from a medium article titled "the sixth
stage of grief is retro computing"

------
roxtar
Was this done with asm.js?

~~~
chadzawistowski
It doesn't appear to be the real program, but rather a (functional!) mockup of
the UI in HMTL5.

------
laacz
If we could al stop using HTML5 when we mean HTML+JS+CSS. Let's just use HTML.

~~~
moron4hire
That's... that's what HTML5 means. It's not just "HTML", it includes all of
the DOM and APIs that you use through JavaScript to make any of it mean
anything. That the <audio> element is reskinnable with CSS in this way is part
of the HTML5 standard.

And it's rather much splitting hairs. HTML isn't very useful without CSS, CSS
isn't useful at all without HTML, and JS is the only choice of languages for
interactivity in HTML. "Can we please stop using 'car' to mean
'car'+'engine'+'tires'".

~~~
laacz
Or rather we could stop saying "car5" meaning just "car". Oh, wait.. :)

~~~
moron4hire
No, because HTML4 really is a completely different beast. The syntax is 99%
the same, the available elements are backwards compatible (though the
recommended usage is almost completely different) and HTML4 did not include
anything about DOM or APIs.

~~~
laacz
I don't believe that when saying HTML we mean HTML4...

