’90s Media Player ‘Winamp’ to Launch Original Skin as an NFT

Music fans of a certain age, Gen-Xers and Millennials in particular, may remember the Winamp media player, one of the earliest pieces of MP3 audio software.

Now, 25 years after its foundation, Winamp (yes, the brand still exists) is about to sell an NFT (non-fungible token) based on the original 1997 player’s graphical skin, making it the latest company to exploit the combination of nostalgia and crypto.

Auction on OpenSea in May, Proceeds to Charity

Winamp will put the NFT up for auction through OpenSea between May 16 and May 22, followed by a separate sale of 1,997 NFTs in total linked to 20 artworks derived from the original skin. Proceeds will go to the Winamp Foundation, which promises to donate them to charity projects starting with the Belgian non-profit Music Fund.

All Winamp NFTs will sell for 0.08 ETH (about US$220 at time of writing). The artists will receive 10 percent of any royalties on later sales, where sellers will set their own price. Buyers will have the right to “copy, reproduce and display” their image, but they won’t own the copyright. Similarly, selected artists will agree to transfer all intellectual property for their work to Winamp.

Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be

Winamp has evolved from its MP3 software beginnings and is now more of a mobile audio app. Peer-to-peer file-sharing service LimeWire also recently “relaunched” as an NFT marketplace but it bears no resemblance to its original early 2000s iteration.