So this happened. In what is truly the end of an era, AOL recently announced that it would be discontinuing Winamp on December 20, 2013. Winamp, along with Sonique, was one of the two most popular MP3 players back in the late 90s.
Now in an overly unexpected twist, it appears that Microsoft is interested in acquiring the media player, along with the accompanying Shoutcast service.
No official confirmation is available right now, but TechCrunch is reporting via unnamed sources that Microsoft and AOL are in talks of a potential deal, which coincidentally could be announced by December 20, the very day Winamp is set to officially retire.
While this seems to be the only way the popular media player may continue living on, what Microsoft plans to do (or what it could do) with Winamp is as wild a guess as any.
Granted, millions of users are still running it on Windows and Android.
But one also has to consider the fact that Redmond already invest heavily in making Xbox Music successful, which actually is available on several platforms, from Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Phone, iOS and the Xbox gaming consoles.
Throw in Microsoft’s previous experience with music (remember Zune), and the picture gets even more muddle. Still, seeing Winamp survive would be good news for the fans, particularly desktop fans.
Anyway, we should find out what the future holds soon enough — December 20 is just around.
