winamp

AOL announced yesterday that they will no longer support the Winamp software. After 15-years of service, the audio software will close up shop on Dec. 20.

Winamp became one of the more popular software tools to use for playing MP3s in the late ’90s and part of the 2000s.  The software company started to see decline in use when companies like Napster and Apple’s iTunes popularity grew. Winamp thrived in the early portions of the digital age of MP3s when file sharing programs like Napster didn’t have media players. Because of that, the company saw growth reaching 25 million users in June 2000. With that success, AOL bought Winamp maker Nullsoft for $80 million in 1999.

The decline came in 2003 when Apple released iTunes and Winamp’s moment in the sun started to fade as music lovers jumped on the Apple bandwagon and haven’t gotten off since.