This Developer Built a DIY Winamp MP3 Player; Check out How It Works!

For those who remember, the Winamp media player is a classic app that become popular after its initial release back in 1997. Although the app came with very limited features as compared to currentmusic streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, it was a fan-favorite during its heydays. Now, a developer has built aphysical MP3 player solely based onWinamp. Let’s take a look at the details in the following section.

Developer Builds a Winamp MP3 Player

A developer named Tim C, who is also a part of the open-source hardware company Adafruit recently built a Winamp-based MP3 player using a DIY device called the Adafruit PyPortal. The PyPortal is primarily a DIY device that comes with a display and a tiny speaker and can be programmed to show news, stocks, memes, and other content.

So, as part of his project, Tim Ctransformed a PyPortal device into a Winamp MP3 playerthat can play all your favorite songs and support the iconic user-made Winamp skins from the Winamp Skin Museum, which wascreated by a Facebook engineer back in 2020.

How Does it Work?

Coming to the technicalities, the device is not like your usual MP3 player. To import all your music to the PyPortal Winamp MP3 player, you need to copy the songs on an SD card and insert it into the device. Moreover, if you want the song and artist names to appear properly in the player, you will need to rename them accordingly.

TheWinamp MP3 player is also capable of reading playlists. However, you will need to manually create them and configure them as .json files before importing them to the device. You can also create multiple playlists and switch between them by renaming the one you want to play as “playlist.json” on the PyPortal device.

As for the controls, this is where the Winamp MP3 player struggles. Although the Winamp skins, even the basic ones, have a lot of buttons and equalizer sliders,all of them are non-functional on the PyPortal Winamp MP3 player. Only the top portion, which lets you play or pause a song, and the bottom portion, which lets you go to the next or previous song, are functional. You can check the video below in which Tim C has explained the working of the physical Winamp MP3 player.

Furthermore, if you want to build your own Winamp MP3 player,check out the Adafruit websitewhere the developer has offered all the instructions and components you need for the project. So, let us know your thoughts on the device in the comments below. Meanwhile, if you have a Mac, you can also try outthe re:AMP media playerthat supports classic Winamp skins.

Dwaipayan Sengupta

A geek at heart, you’ll find me fidgeting with an iOS device or sitting in front of the laptop, scouring the internet to find interesting technological innovations. In my free time, you’d find me playing Valorant or listening to Pink Floyd.

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