I've used dozens over the years and keep a few on my system at all times: one for podcasts, one for CD ripping, one for playlist editing, and another for casual listening. Prominent on my list is the venerable Winamp (which AOL acquired in its 1999 purchase of Nullsoft), a player I still love and keep around because it's lightweight enough to play music during power gaming sessions without killing my system's performance. Unfortunately, Winamp has been stagnant for years, lacking a number of the features that make more modern music players popular. Now, however, a new version of Winamp has hit the streets, with a new look and tons of new useful features.
You can't add new features without drawing on more system resources, so Winamp is definitely not as lean and mean as it used to be. When I loaded up a couple hundred songs, I caught it eating just under 100MB of memory—although I could tell that this was allocated memory only, not actually what the app was using. The jump in memory allotment may be enough of a reason for some people to ditch the app, but I find it's still snappier and more streamlined than a number of its competitors. iTunes is still incredibly sluggish in Windows, Windows Media Player is a little basic for the system resources it uses, and MediaMonkey is too heavy, even when you're looking for a simple music player. Additionally, no desktop music player sparks the same nostalgia that Winamp does, and the new Winamp is true to its roots: sleek, powerful, and perfect for music lovers of all types, from audiophiles to amateurs.
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The new Winamp comes with a new interface that will look familiar to people who currently use players like iTunes and MediaMonkey. The new skin, dubbed Bento, is compact and well organized. When you launch the app, you're presented with the expanded view, which includes the basic player that Winamp users are used to seeing in the upper left-hand corner. Next to the player is track information, including album art, song title, artist, album, year of release, the rating you've given the song, and more. Next to the song information is the playlist editor, another view that Winamp users will be familiar with.
Where the Winamp layout really changes is beneath these three areas. The UI expands and includes a media browser on the right, like you find on iTunes and Windows Media Player. Here you can see all your playlists, move quickly between the Winamp dashboard and other online features, see the songs you've played the most or rated the highest, and access the podcast directory. The new Winamp also supports iPod syncing and other digital media players, so if they're connected they'll be visible in the list.
Next to this list is a view of your music library and all the files added to it. The top two panes allow you to browse by artist or album, and the bottom pane has a more traditional view of all of your songs, organized with headers for artist, album, title, length, genre, and so on. However, at the bottom of the window is the artist information pane, which updates automatically with a short bio of the artist you're listening to each time you change tracks. Next to the bio are thumbnails of music videos by the artist, and a link to more information about the artist at AOL Music.
The new Winamp also makes it easy for you to pull in your playlists and files from other media players. If you were an iTunes user, for example, the app can easily import your DRM-free library and any playlists you've created—that's handy. The app also comes with a built-in Web browser (which is essentially a skinned version of Internet Explorer) to access Web features and to let you idly surf the Web while listening to music. Other media players, like MediaMonkey and Windows Media Player, force you to open your own browser to access online content. iTunes has a number of built-in Web features, but only through the iTunes Music Store. None of the other players make it easy to import playlists.
The addition of the media browser and the ability to navigate between songs, playlists, artists, and albums really makes the new Winamp stand out. Where iTunes and Windows Media Player force you to change the entire view to see this information, the new Winamp keeps it all compact and easy to navigate. Additionally, the UI is customizable, so if you prefer not to have so much information in the same view—or want more—removing or adding more information requires only a few clicks. iTunes, on the other hand, churns for seconds before moving from playlist to podcasts, and Windows Media Player forces you to open a separate app for Web-enabled features.—Next: Winamp's Improved Video Player
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