Winamp was born in 1997, as a project player of MP3 files of two former students Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev. Decoding of MP3 files was performed by AMP (Advanced Multimedia Products) engine which marked the beginning of the global popularity of MP3 files. AMP was created by a Croat Tomislav Uzelac during his studies at the Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

Winamp has continued its development by Frankel's company Nullsoft, until the company was bought by AOL in June 1999. AOL has retained ownership to the present day, when they decided to retire Winamp once and for all. In addition to the shutting down, beside empty statements on Winamp's website, AOL did not offer any explanation or comment on this decision. However there are some rumors going around that AOL plans to sell Winamp together with Shoutcast to Microsoft, so Winamp sympathizers, cross your fingers and let's hope that this legendary player will stay alive.

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