Winamp is preparing a major relaunch in partnership with Deezer. The new player will bring together streaming, local music, radio, podcasts, and cloud-based collections.
The iconic Winamp media player is preparing for its biggest relaunch in years. The company has signed a strategic agreement with the streaming service Deezer, which will provide the new product with a licensed music catalogue and technological infrastructure. The next generation of Winamp Player is scheduled for release in the first half of 2027.
The new Winamp is expected to bring subscription music, local audio files, internet radio stations, podcasts and collections from cloud storage services together in a single application. The developers are also promising a customisable interface, social features and new tools for discovering, organising and listening to music.
Deezer will provide the catalogue and streaming technology
As part of the partnership, Deezer will provide Winamp with its white-label platform — a ready-made streaming infrastructure that can be used under another service’s brand. This means users will not be redirected to the Deezer application: the subscription, catalogue and playback features are expected to become part of Winamp’s own interface.
Winamp will retain its name, visual identity and control over the user experience, while Deezer will handle the technological side related to access to the licensed catalogue and music streaming. The future paid subscription will also be offered under the Winamp brand.
This means the company will not need to negotiate separate licensing agreements with every major rights holder or build a streaming system from scratch. Deezer already operates a global music platform, is available in more than 180 countries and reported 9.1 million subscribers at the end of 2025.
The subscription price, launch countries, terms of free access and any possible catalogue restrictions have not yet been disclosed. Winamp says it will reveal additional details and preview versions of the product over the coming months.
Music from different sources in one application
The main difference between the new Winamp and conventional streaming services is expected to be its ability to combine audio from different sources within a single library.
The application is planned to include:
- licensed music available through a paid subscription;
- the user’s local MP3, FLAC and other audio files;
- tracks from personal cloud storage services;
- internet radio stations;
- podcasts;
- other sources of audio content.
Users will be able to organise and manage this music through a unified interface. Winamp is also promising new personalisation features, social tools and music recommendation functions.
In essence, the company is attempting to revive the concept of the universal media player while adapting it to the era of subscriptions and cloud-based libraries. Modern streaming platforms are primarily focused on their own catalogues, whereas Winamp intends to combine a subscription service with music that users already own.
Support for local files may become one of the new product’s main advantages. Many listeners continue to maintain personal collections of rare recordings, DJ mixes, digitised discs, concert bootlegs and releases that are unavailable on major streaming platforms.
What the new Winamp interface will look like
Winamp has not yet revealed the final design of the application. The company describes the user experience as “completely reimagined”, while also emphasising its intention to preserve the brand’s recognisable identity.
Extensive interface customisation has been announced. This is especially important for Winamp, whose popularity was largely built around interchangeable skins, plug-ins, visualisations and the ability for users to organise the player’s workspace themselves.
The existing version of Winamp Player already allows users to play local tracks, rearrange controls and create custom skins. These ideas are likely to be developed further in the next generation of the application, although a detailed list of customisation options has not yet been published.
The social features also remain largely unexplained. They may be connected to user profiles, music sharing, recommendations, subscriptions to artists and the Fanzone system, through which performers interact with their fans. Winamp Group documents have previously linked the development of the player to creating a direct route from listening to music to supporting and engaging with artists.
What will happen to the classic desktop version
The new service is not expected to completely replace the classic Winamp for Windows. After the launch of the modern platform, the paid subscription powered by Deezer technology is also expected to become available in the traditional desktop version of the player.
Winamp claims that more than 40 million people worldwide still actively use the classic application. The company has not provided independent confirmation of this estimate, so the figure should be regarded as Winamp’s own data.
The streaming service is expected to be integrated into the classic client only after the next-generation platform has been released. No exact date has yet been announced for the desktop application update.
For long-time users, the key issue will be whether support is retained for old skins, plug-ins, local media libraries, internet radio and the familiar compact interface. The official announcement does not clarify these details.
This is not Winamp’s first comeback
The claim that “Winamp is returning” requires some clarification: the media player never disappeared completely, and its owners have already made several attempts to relaunch the brand.
The first version of Winamp was released by Nullsoft in 1997, at a time when the MP3 format was rapidly spreading among home computer users. The player became one of the symbols of digital music culture in the late 1990s and early 2000s thanks to its compact interface, playlist support, equaliser, visualisations, skins and plug-ins.
Nullsoft was acquired by AOL in 1999. In November 2013, AOL announced that it would stop distributing Winamp, but the service was never fully shut down. The brand and the SHOUTcast internet radio technology were later acquired by Radionomy.
In the years that followed, the owners repeatedly announced plans to modernise the player. A series of updates for the classic Windows version was released in 2022 and 2023, after which Winamp introduced a new ecosystem and applications for iOS and Android.
The mobile applications already support local and cloud-based music, internet radio, podcasts, playlists and the Fanzone section for interaction between artists and their audiences. The 2027 project will therefore not be Winamp’s first revival, but the next and considerably more ambitious stage of its development.
Why Winamp is changing its strategy again
In recent years, the company has attempted to transform Winamp from a conventional media player into a comprehensive ecosystem for independent musicians. The Winamp for Creators platform offers artists tools for distribution, catalogue management, licensing, promotion, royalty collection and direct audience monetisation.
According to Winamp Group, around 75,000 artists are registered across its platforms, including approximately 5,000 users of Winamp for Creators. The company also operates Jamendo, the Bridger copyright service and the Hotmix digital radio network.
The partnership with Deezer indicates that Winamp is once again making music listening one of the central elements of its strategy. The company wants to connect the player, subscription service, local collections, music discovery and artist-support tools within a single system.
For Deezer, the agreement is part of its Deezer for Business division. The company provides its platform to third-party brands, allowing it to expand the reach of its catalogue without necessarily promoting the Deezer application itself.
Can Winamp compete with Spotify and Apple Music?
The main challenge facing the relaunch is the highly saturated music market. Users already pay for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and other services, meaning that nostalgia for the classic interface alone may not be enough to persuade them to purchase another subscription.
This is why Winamp is positioning the product not simply as another streaming service, but as a universal music management hub. Its potential audience consists of listeners who want to combine a subscription catalogue with their own file collections, radio stations, podcasts and cloud-based recordings. TechCrunch has also highlighted this factor as a possible advantage of the relaunch.
However, its success will depend on several factors that remain unknown: the subscription price, the quality of the applications, availability in different countries, support for audio formats, library migration options, offline listening, the quality of recommendations and how deeply Deezer will be integrated into the classic client.
It is also unclear whether Winamp will be able to preserve the freedom and flexibility of the old player within a product built around a paid subscription and licensed content. For the brand’s core audience, this may prove more important than social features and algorithmic recommendations.
When will the new Winamp be released?
The next generation of Winamp Player is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2027. A more precise release date has not been announced.
Before the launch, the developers are promising to reveal additional features, interface elements and preview versions of the product. Information about the subscription price, supported devices, launch countries and any potential free plan will be published later.
The upcoming relaunch will represent Winamp’s attempt to unite two eras of digital music. From the classic player, the project aims to retain control over personal media libraries, personalisation and the freedom to choose content sources. From modern platforms, it will gain a licensed catalogue, subscriptions, cloud features, recommendations and social tools.
Whether Winamp can once again become a mass-market product remains uncertain. However, the partnership with Deezer makes this relaunch considerably more substantial than previous promises of the iconic player’s return. In the meantime, you can use the Minatrix.FM player ;)
