4 ms·

I miss curating local files and playing them with Winamp (just noticed the red squiggly under that name, god I'm old). The mobile-first streaming interfaces wit

I miss curating local files and playing them with Winamp (just noticed the red squiggly under that name, god I'm old). The mobile-first streaming interfaces with miles of whitespace and big touch targets annoy the heck out of me. When I'm actively listening to music I want the interface to serve that purpose; just give me a list of albums, artists and song titles and let me filter them. Easily managing a playlist is also not a thing anymore although maybe that's just me. It's unintuitive.

have_faith 3y ago
This is one of the reasons I'm looking at getting rid of Spotify. Not because I'm against paying to stream audio (my account is very old), but because the UI around playlist and library management, plus it's very basic search / filter functionality, is built around highlighting the Spotify service and not what I want to do with the library.
- soco 3y ago
  If that alleviates your pain a bit, know that there are some Spotify playlist managers around. I never tried any of them so I won't drop names, maybe someone else can recommend something?
encom 3y ago
>I miss curating local files You can just do that then. I have files in my library I encoded in the 90's. foobar2000 has been continuously developed for over 20 years and is very good at playing and managing a library. And runs well under Wine. Still, I pray for an actual Linux port. Dev is wasting his time on a Mac version.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y ago
  It's such a shame these great freeware programs for Windows tend to be proprietary. I never really understood why because they give it away for free anyway.
- nehal3m 3y ago
  Nowadays I don't trust SaaS and other hip cloud stuff anymore. I learned that lesson with exactly this topic. I was relatively young and naïve and left my ripped and pirated collection behind when Spotify rolled around. Partly because it was easier, partly because it felt better to pay for the service than piracy did. Back then the interface was dedicated to the desktop [0]. I still have a CD collection. Piracy feels risky (not in the least due to increased legal liability and the possibility of getting caught) so I think I'll just start ripping again. [0] https://www.download3k.com/article_images/0/212/full_1_3991e1a9b1776ebe14032f6de4c330ee.png https://www.download3k.com/article_images/0/212/full_1_3991e...
defrost 3y ago
For better or worse WinAmp is back after a long long hiatus - latest version 5.9.2 released on April 26, 2023, previous version was a leak of unreleased development in 2018.
eddieroger 3y ago
I have recently missed that as well (after feeling very strongly about having access to all the world's music, all the time, and immediately). Fortunately I still have most of my CDs and work from home, so I can jockey my discs in and out of a ripper pretty easily, and land them on my Plex server. Plexamp isn't WinAmp, but it's got a nice CarPlay interface and lets me control the end to end, so it'll do. Maybe that would scratch your itch as well? I even found that I bought two new CDs recently of music I streamed pretty often and wanted to add to my permanent collection.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
everyone 3y ago
You can still do that and it's still superior to streaming. I have my mp3's on my pc and listen to them with AIMP (I did use winamp until very recently) For when I'm out and about I sync the files in my mp3's folder to a 512GB microssd card in my phone, so I have my full music collection with me at all times. I use Neutron player to listen to them (Its just an Android music player that is able to browse and play mp3's by folder and not just id3 info, cus half of my mp3s were ripped from cd and have no id3 info)
theandrewbailey 3y ago
I've never stopped using Winamp.

have_faith 3y ago

This is one of the reasons I'm looking at getting rid of Spotify. Not because I'm against paying to stream audio (my account is very old), but because the UI around playlist and library management, plus it's very basic search / filter functionality, is built around highlighting the Spotify service and not what I want to do with the library.

soco 3y ago
If that alleviates your pain a bit, know that there are some Spotify playlist managers around. I never tried any of them so I won't drop names, maybe someone else can recommend something?

encom 3y ago

>I miss curating local files You can just do that then. I have files in my library I encoded in the 90's. foobar2000 has been continuously developed for over 20 years and is very good at playing and managing a library. And runs well under Wine. Still, I pray for an actual Linux port. Dev is wasting his time on a Mac version.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y ago
It's such a shame these great freeware programs for Windows tend to be proprietary. I never really understood why because they give it away for free anyway.
nehal3m 3y ago
Nowadays I don't trust SaaS and other hip cloud stuff anymore. I learned that lesson with exactly this topic. I was relatively young and naïve and left my ripped and pirated collection behind when Spotify rolled around. Partly because it was easier, partly because it felt better to pay for the service than piracy did. Back then the interface was dedicated to the desktop [0]. I still have a CD collection. Piracy feels risky (not in the least due to increased legal liability and the possibility of getting caught) so I think I'll just start ripping again. [0] https://www.download3k.com/article_images/0/212/full_1_3991e1a9b1776ebe14032f6de4c330ee.png https://www.download3k.com/article_images/0/212/full_1_3991e...

defrost 3y ago

For better or worse WinAmp is back after a long long hiatus - latest version 5.9.2 released on April 26, 2023, previous version was a leak of unreleased development in 2018.

eddieroger 3y ago

I have recently missed that as well (after feeling very strongly about having access to all the world's music, all the time, and immediately). Fortunately I still have most of my CDs and work from home, so I can jockey my discs in and out of a ripper pretty easily, and land them on my Plex server. Plexamp isn't WinAmp, but it's got a nice CarPlay interface and lets me control the end to end, so it'll do. Maybe that would scratch your itch as well? I even found that I bought two new CDs recently of music I streamed pretty often and wanted to add to my permanent collection.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

everyone 3y ago

You can still do that and it's still superior to streaming. I have my mp3's on my pc and listen to them with AIMP (I did use winamp until very recently) For when I'm out and about I sync the files in my mp3's folder to a 512GB microssd card in my phone, so I have my full music collection with me at all times. I use Neutron player to listen to them (Its just an Android music player that is able to browse and play mp3's by folder and not just id3 info, cus half of my mp3s were ripped from cd and have no id3 info)

theandrewbailey 3y ago

I've never stopped using Winamp.