If you want the original Winamp experience with full support of M3U playlist then don't go further than Re:AMP
Why aren’t these really a thing anymore? Does anyone know any non-shit way to get nice visuals from apple music or spotify or whatever these days?
There were a lot of other, good visual plugins and software. VJ software, specifically, but also Libvisual just abstracts input and output, therefore allowing you to use all of these (supported) visualization plugins on any supported media player. It isn't much developed anymore these days, but this is the correct way forward.
Looking at the actors in Livisual [3] G-Force is decent but also a couple may be missing from earlier Libvisual releases. You may also like Lemuria [4]. Winamp's AVS is also FOSS [5].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MilkDrop
[2] https://github.com/Libvisual/libvisual
[3] https://github.com/Libvisual/libvisual/tree/master/libvisual...
[4] https://github.com/dr-ni/lemuria-2.1.1
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Visualization_Studio
You can still do that. Winamp runs just fine on Windows 10/11.
I remember having trouble making a Swift UI for my C app because I forgot to disable sandboxing in Xcode project settings. Spent a frustrating two hours debugging
Wow, have times changed. I look at this screenshot now: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mgreenwood1001/winamp/refs...
and think about how usable this looks. Buttons are demarcated clearly. The scrub bar is big enough to grab. Everything is legible.
UI sucks now.
Meanwhile... seeing the lyrics in that shot makes me wonder if WinAmp supports karaoke playback...
I guess the original did through plug-ins. Hm, maybe I'll take a shot at adding it to this one.
As someone who still uses winamp (via Wacup) I can swear by the 'Bento' skin that is not a garish nightmare.
https://www.deviantart.com/unpopularpizza/art/Winamp-Big-Ben...
Then came the even-dumber "transparent-UI" fad.
Fortunately both those died. Oh but wait: Here comes Apple, exhuming one of them in 2025! But Apple has always hated customization, so they probably won't be resurrecting "skins" too.
https://www.foobar2000.org/mac
<- the least bollocks-infested media player on macOS since about, oh, September 2000.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/12/vlc_guru_gong/
But VLC is a multi-function tool that can play audio and video.
Foobar is, as far as I can tell, just an audio player. It's more focussed and consequently smaller and simpler. That's what I like about it.
I keep both on my machines and I use both... but I use VLC for video, and Foobar for just listening to music.
maybe it's less so on mac but on linux i get random long pauses on video playlist playback that often end with it just stopping
- Can't copy/paste a folder
- EQ and Playlist are not detachable / moveable
- No library
- Does not restore the playlist at launch
- Crashes when playing a flac file
- Does it needs to auto play the winamp mp3 at launch?
The only reason to use a Winamp clone is nostalgia.
You should, however, change the name. I am pretty sure the name Winamp is trademarked and you can get into legal trouble.
Its awkward name was because “MacAMP” dev became third-party: https://macintoshgarden.org/author/subband-software
Great to see useful open source projects. I now pay for YouTube Music but I still have an enormous library of MP3 music files that I have purchased over the years so I probably will build and run this player, at least for a few days.
I have a few things scattered across my Dropbox account I could collect. (Unless it could somehow use downloaded songs from Apple Music.)
Streaming music services are a blessing and a curse. I could never afford or collect the vast number of albums in my library. So lack of ownership isn’t a problem for me. The only downside is I have to use their app, which they have zero incentive to improve. :(
You can hit Tab then Space, and it works normally (yes this is fucking awful).
Then I discovered an actively maintained modern patch for the final Winamp called WACUP, and now I'm back to daily driving that instead. :)
I remember foobar. I also seem to recall that it does not really whip the llama's ass.
It's still being actively developed
It now has a last.fm plugin, so let's get scrobbling!
Though design is more akin to the default Apple Music app than WinAmp.
Those who've only known Music.app and later iTunes versions might be surprised to learn that there was a time when iTunes actually had a clean, intuitive UI: https://www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/itunes-app
100% offline-only. Open in Finder, drag&drop music, enjoy the untethered experience.
They also have cloud syncing for your Flac audio files, that part costs $$ but it's nice if you have lots of lossless rips/torrents.
I think any winamp clone should run on OSX Windows and Linux.
I understand that cross-platform code may be annoying, but we really need applications that work on the three main operating systems.
Why not also insist that it should work on iOS and Android? Those are undoubtedly the most commonly-used OSes at this point.
It’s not. Stop supporting vendor lock-in toolkits and you’re golden.
One MacWorld mouse out of five.
Yet they pulled off one of the most usable media player.
macOS was never known as OS/X. It was formerly known as OS X and Mac OS X.
As a former OS/2 user, it really threw me off for a second.
Also, you're using a trademark ("Winamp") in the name. So, expect a C&D from Llama Group or whomever.
Aside from that, it looks really nice and well-designed! And it's in Swift and not some janky Electron app. Good job on those fronts!
Aside: the project seems interesting enough, didn't see support for (icecast) streaming listed in the project though, which although less common today still exists.
Since the actual Winamp had a questionable source code release, it could feasibly have been ported to other platforms, so we need to know that it is in fact a clone, and not a port of the real Winamp.
(Submitted title was "Winamp for OS/X")
Unfortunately his is just a recreation rather than an actual port, since the license for the source that was released prevents derivative works.
Foobar2000 is the spiritual successor to Winamp and it runs on Windows and macOS as well as mobile.
I don't think it was ever called OS/X? It's been called OS X and Mac OS X but never OS/X.
Joking aside, there's Audacious[1], which is an excellent and cross-platform player, with support for Winamp skins. Also check out WebAmp[2] and the skin museum[3].
[1] <https://audacious-media-player.org> [2] <https://webamp.org> [3] <https://skins.webamp.org>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_OS
OS/X Warp sounds a lot cooler than Workplace OS.
It requires macOS 13.0 (High Sierra, 2017) or later, which is several releases after it stopped being called OS X. 10.11 (El Capitan, 2015) was the last OS X.
By contrast, macOS 13 is Ventura, from 2022.
(I personally would accept someone referring to High Sierra as “OS X” because it’s still version 10 of the Macintosh OS, even if Apple dropped that branding a few years earlier.)
I don't have anything to play FLAC or Vorbis, but the machine has more urgent problems... <https://www.rollc.at/posts/2024-07-02-tibook/>
See my previous comments:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32779590
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39965620
Like most days, I am using it right now on macOS.
It's a bit like "U.S.A." not being a proper country's _name_. I mean, would you name you children "Coherent-Enough Assemblage of Bodyparts"? You keep that long-form stuff for the _description_ field! Somebody fucked up when they filled out the form, ain't no fixing it now.
When something has a name for 15 years, it tends to be pretty sticky.
“OS/X”, though, that’s just someone messed up and jumbled two names together.
During that time I also used Windows and Linux from time to time. Their names didn't change in a way where just calling them that was perceived as incorrect.
OS X is macOS 10. This application does not open on macOS 10.14.6.
