Russ B If you were alive and online in 1999, you didn’t just listen to music, you skinned it. You downloaded a jagged, neon-green interface, loaded up a directory of illicit MP3s, and waited for that whip-crack soundbite to announce that Winamp was ready to “whip the llama’s ass.” It was the Wild West of digital audio, a time before algorithms dictated your taste and before streaming paid your favorite band $0.003 per stream.
Fast forward to late 2025. The MP3 era is a museum exhibit, and the “Winamp” name has been largely dormant, existing mostly as a ghost in the hard drives of stubborn audiophiles. But the Llama is back, and this time, it doesn’t just want to play your music. It wants to manage your entire career.
Rebranded under the Winamp Group SA (formerly Llama Group), the iconic player has pivoted hard. No longer satisfied with being a passive piece of software, Winamp has launched “Winamp for Creators,” a sprawling, ambitious, and slightly chaotic platform that promises to do what Spotify, Apple Music, and labels have arguably failed to do: help the 99% of artists who aren’t Taylor Swift actually pay their rent.
The Pitch: “From Dependent to Independent”
The new Winamp isn’t just a player; it’s a manifesto. Alexandre Saboundjian, the CEO behind the reboot, has been vocal about the “streaming crisis.” His argument is one you’ve heard in every dive bar and Discord server: the current model is broken for independents.
“Streaming has run out of steam,” Saboundjian declared in a 2024 manifesto. “It should only account for 30% to 40% of a musician’s total income.”
Enter Winamp for Creators. Launched officially in 2025, it’s pitched as a “one-stop shop” that consolidates the fragmented mess of the modern music business. For a flat annual fee (with a “Lifetime Offer” of around €50 for early adopters), the service offers a suite of tools that usually require five different logins:
- Distribution: They pipe your tracks to Spotify, TikTok, Apple Music, and 30+ other DSPs, promising you keep 100% of your rights and roughly 90% of your royalties.
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- The “Fanzone”: This is the crown jewel of their strategy. It’s essentially Patreon baked directly into the music player. Artists can create tiered subscription plans, locking exclusive content demos, b-sides, and heavy metal flute solos behind a paywall. The theory? If a fan is already listening to you in the player, they’re just one click away from supporting you directly.
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- Licensing & Copyright: Through subsidiaries like Bridger and Jamendo, Winamp claims to handle the messy business of collecting publishing royalties and syncing your music for ads and video games.
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- NFTs (Yes, Still): Rebranded as “Collectibles,” the platform allows artists to mint tracks as unique digital assets. It’s a bold (or tone-deaf) bet that the blockchain winter hasn’t killed the appetite for digital ownership.
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The Cultural Play: Tomorrowland and the “Creators Program”
You can’t just launch software in 2025; you need a “cultural moment.” Winamp found theirs by partnering with one of the biggest brands in electronic music culture: Tomorrowland.
In late 2025, the company unveiled the Winamp Creators Program, a global talent search that feels like a mix between a grant and a reality show. They selected three emerging artists to receive a $15,000 “investment” (paid out as a monthly stipend) to fund their next EP or tour.
But the real hook was the access. These artists weren’t just getting a check; they were getting keys to the Lab of Tomorrow, the innovation hub run by the Tomorrowland festival organizers. By aligning with the festival that defines modern EDM spectacle, Winamp is trying to shed its “dusty software” image and rebrand as a tastemaker. It’s a shrewd move using the cachet of a massive live event to sell a digital backend tool.
The Reality Check: Is Anyone Listening?
The press releases are glossy, and the promises of “fairness” are intoxicating. But strip away the marketing, and the “Winamp for Creators” ecosystem faces a steep uphill climb.
The Skepticism is Real.
On forums like Reddit and musician communities, the reaction has been a mix of confusion and caution. “I noticed the AdSense ads appearing on YouTube… same logo as the player from 2000,” one user noted, wary of the brand’s resurrection. The prevailing sentiment isn’t excitement; it’s fatigue. Do artists really want another dashboard? Do fans really want to subscribe to a specific player just to access a “Fanzone”?
The Technical Ghosts.
The reboot hasn’t been without its glitches. In 2024, an attempt to open-source the classic player’s code turned into a fiasco, with the repository being pulled from GitHub after a messy release. It was a stark reminder that while the brand is legendary, the tech stack is a patchwork of decades-old legacy code and brand-new Web3 integrations.
The “Middleman” Paradox.
Winamp’s pitch is that they are removing middlemen. But by taking a cut of “Fanzone” subscriptions and licensing deals, they are, by definition, becoming a new middleman. They are betting that they are a benevolent one, but for an indie artist, the difference between a label taking a cut and a “platform” taking a cut is often just semantics.
The Verdict
Winamp’s return is one of the most fascinating strange-attractors in the current music industry. It’s a bet that nostalgia can be weaponized into a new business model.
For the struggling artist, the tools are undeniably useful. Getting distribution, licensing, and direct fan support in one tab is a genuine convenience. And the Tomorrowland partnership proves they are serious about cultural relevance, not just software sales.
But the “Fanzone” requires a massive behavioral shift. It asks fans to leave the seamless, algorithmic comfort of Spotify and return to a “player” mindset—where you curate, collect, and subscribe to individual artists. It’s a romantic vision of music consumption, one that harkens back to the crate-digging days of 1999.
Whether 2025’s listeners, weaned on playlists and TikTok snippets, are willing to follow the Llama back to that future remains the million-dollar question. For now, the Llama is whipping again, but it remains to be seen if it’s hitting the right target.
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