Editing Winamp (section)

=== Initial releases ===
[[File:Winamp 0.2a.jpg|thumb|WinAMP 0.2a, 21 April 1997<ref name="rtd/winAMP">{{cite web |title=Winamp: How a Quirky MP3 Player Became an Audio Icon |url=https://www.retrotechdreams.com/winamp-how-a-quirky-mp3-player-became-an-audio-icon/ |website=Retro Tech Dreams |access-date=1 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211094846/https://www.retrotechdreams.com/winamp-how-a-quirky-mp3-player-became-an-audio-icon/ |archive-date=11 December 2023 |date=November 5, 2023}}</ref>]]
[[File:WinAMP 0.92.jpg|thumb|WinAMP 0.92, May 1997<ref name="rtd/winAMP"/>]]

Winamp was first released in 1997, when [[Justin Frankel]] and Dmitry Boldyrev,<ref name="Saltzman"/><ref name="Millard"/><ref name="Mengyi"/> formerly students at the [[University of Utah]], integrated their [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] user interface with the Advanced Multimedia Products ("AMP") MP3 file playback engine.<ref name="AutoMZ-14"/> The name Winamp (originally spelled WinAMP) was a [[portmanteau]] of "Windows" and "AMP".<ref name="portmanteau" /> The minimalist WinAMP 0.20a was released as freeware on April 21, 1997.<ref name="winamp0.2"/><ref name="Haring"/>

Its windowless, menu bar-only interface showed only play (open), stop, pause, and unpause functions. A file specified on the command line or dropped onto its icon would be played. MP3 decoding was performed by the AMP decoding engine developed by Advanced Multimedia Products co-founder [[Tomislav Uzelac]], which was free for non-commercial use.<ref name="AutoMZ-15"/> It was compatible with [[Windows 95]] and [[Windows NT 4.0]]. Winamp was the second [[real-time computing|real-time]] MP3 player for Windows, the first being [[WinPlay3]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.silicon.co.uk/mobility/mobile-apps/tales-tech-history-winamp-220495 |title=Tales in Tech History: Winamp |date=August 25, 2017}}</ref>

WinAMP 0.92 was released as a freeware in May 1997. Within the standard Windows frame and menu bar, it had the beginnings of the "classic" Winamp GUI: dark gray rectangle with silver 3D-effect transport buttons, a red/green volume slider, time displayed in a green [[Seven-segment display|LED font]], with track name, MP3 bitrate, and "mixrate" in green. Overlength titles appear as slowly scrolling text (or "marquee"). The [[skeuomorph]]ic design somewhat resembles [[shelf stereo]]s. There was no position bar, and a blank space where the [[spectrum analyzer]] and [[waveform analyzer]] would later appear. Multiple files on the command line or dropped onto its icon were enqueued in the playlist.