Winamp and Shoutcast get new life

After nearly dying a terrible death, Winamp software is now officially with a new owner.

Digital radio business Radionomy bought the media player and radio platform from AOL. The cash and share deal is supposed to be about $5 million to $10 million, depending on who you talk to.AOL taking a 12 percent stake of Radionomy in the process.

This is much lower than the $80 million AOL paid for Nullsoft, owner of Winamp and Shoutcast, in 1999.

AOL originally intended to shut them both down by December 20, 2013 so it is a good result in some ways. There were rumours of different buyers including Microsoft, which never went through.

Both Winamp and Shoutcast will continue as going concerns. Adding Shoutcast to Radionomy’s existing assets will make the company one of the biggest players in the radio streaming business, hosting some 60,000 radio stations, or roughly half the online radio stations on the market today.

Radionomy intends to offer Winamp’s media player just as it is today — with access to those 60,000 stations, but also playback ability for 60 audio and video formats; 6,000 add-ons like skins and plug-ins; and availability in 16 languages.

There is also some talk about revamping the aging software, which is getting on a bit. AOL did not do much to it and indeed some people saw that as an indication that the software was doomed.