The First Music Player, Winamp, Now Works With ETH And Polygon Music NFT
The MP3 player from the 1990s is making a big push into the blockchain music scene to celebrate its comeback.
In its most recent update, the popular Windows media player Winamp added support for music NFTs. Users will be able to play audio files that are embedded in their non-fungible tokens with Winamp’s new feature. They are calling it a “Web3 desktop upgrade.”
We are proud to announce a new version (5.9.1) for our Desktop player. This new version reduces Winamp’s memory footprint and upgrades security among many other improvements, it also allows you to play your music NFTs. New version available now.
The first version of Winamp came out in 1997. The latest version lets music fans link their Metamask wallet to Winamp through the Brave, Chrome, or Firefox browsers. Winamp works with both Ethereum and Polygon and can play ERC-721 and ERC-1155 audio and video files.
NFTs show who owns a digital asset and keep a record of transactions that can’t be changed. In the past few years, people who like NFTs have also started looking into apps that link NFTs to other digital media like movies, music, TV shows, and real-world assets.
“The genesis of Winamp has always been about accessibility and innovation, and today we are proud to launch the very first standalone player reading audio NFTs, as well as any other existing formats,” said Winamp CEO Alexandre Saboundjian in a statement. “This new version of Winamp allows people to listen to any file they want, using a player they already love.”
Winamp says that NFT support and other updates will make Winamp a universal and advanced listening platform that will include a cross-platform creator service that will launch in early 2023.
“Winamp was a key part of the first digital music innovation, when mp3s changed the way we listen and enjoy music,” Saboundjian said. “Now we’re supporting the leading edge of the next one, as more and more artists explore web3 and its potential.”
Warner Music Group said earlier today that it would sell music NFTs through LGND, a marketplace based on Polygon.
Justin “3LAU” Blau, a musician, business owner, and fan of music NFT, opened the Royal NFT marketplace last month. Royal says that when a collector buys songs or albums on the platform, they get a token that represents a portion of the streaming rights for the music and more.
The Royal website says, “You earn royalties alongside the artist and get paid when they do.”
