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Music

Plex's Winamp-inspired Music Player Plexamp is Now Free (techcrunch.com) 46

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Plexamp, the music player originally incubated by the Labs division of media company Plex, is now free, the company announced today. From a report: The project was first launched in 2017 as Plex's own spin on the classic Winamp media player app, offering visualizations to accompany your tunes, tools for programming mixes, and more recently, a ChatGPT-powered "Sonic Sage" feature that builds unique playlists from users' music libraries. However, after its expansion from desktop to mobile, Plexamp was only available to subscribers.

Now, Plex says the Plexamp app will become free, allowing users to play tracks from their own library or the TIDAL music streaming service with high-quality audio and support for lossless audio. The app also includes gapless playback, loudness leveling, and smooth transitions between tracks, among other things. In addition to Library Radio, a feature used to rediscover your music, users can create playlists with Plexamp to match their current mood: like "brooding, cathartic, confident, intense, playful, poignant, swaggering, and wistful," the company says.
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Plex's Winamp-inspired Music Player Plexamp is Now Free More

Plex's Winamp-inspired Music Player Plexamp is Now Free

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  • Does It? (Score:5, Funny)

    by organgtool ( 966989 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @12:43PM (#63696982)
    Does it really whip the llama's ass?
    • No, and the llama doesn't much in it.

      PlexAMP was a poor replacement for WinAMP when it was released.
      WinAMP is going down the drain. You have to look for a download link to it. Version 6 look like it will be garbage and away from what made it great. It is going to morph into some Pandora and Spotify competitor from the looks of the site. I was also hoping it would go more cross platform with 6. Which it could be since it will prolly be some web based bloated non-sense.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by linzeal ( 197905 )

        It is still leagues better than most streaming options like YT Music, Spotify, etc when it comes to responsiveness for downloaded files/cache.

        YT Music still hangs every time the network changes, PlexAMP at least doesn't do that. That is my #1 gripe with all these streaming clients as I travel in an area with no cell service for 10-15 minutes at a time, and it drives some of the apps absolutely bonkers.

        • Please drink Electron-compatible $10k USD computer upgrade verification can to continue using Spotify. Thank you for your compliance.

    • Re: Does It? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Kobun ( 668169 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @03:32PM (#63697320)
      Skip the llama, download Foobar2000.
    • Yes. And LLaMa 2 too in a tutu.

  • Still asking for a plexpass on mac app. fyi

  • Is the search netutered? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Pascoea ( 968200 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @01:03PM (#63697014)
    Did they neuter the search function on this as well, like they've done the Roku (and I assume other) Plex app? Or am I actually able to search my various libraries and ignore all the "ads" for various streaming "add ins"?
  • Plexamp is the best home media music player available given the sonic analysis based features. I think those are still keyed behind Plex Pass, but if they're consistent with video playback, that means for the server owner, not the end user

  • Slashvertisement (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @01:04PM (#63697020)
    Great, another music app that dangles subscription-only options in front of me while I use the free features.
  • FTFA:
    "To access these features, users will need to pay for a $4.99/month Plex Pass subscription. The subscription includes a variety of features to enhance the Plex service"...

    • Re:Free? (Score:4, Informative)

      by aitikin ( 909209 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @01:49PM (#63697096)

      FTFA:
      "To access these features, users will need to pay for a $4.99/month Plex Pass subscription. The subscription includes a variety of features to enhance the Plex service"...

      FTFA, with more context:

      "However, with the shift to make the app free, Plexamp will keep its more advanced features exclusive to its paying subscribers. That includes the AI-powered Sonic Sage playlist builder, plus downloads, and artist and album mix builders. To access these features, users will need to pay for a $4.99/month Plex Pass subscription."

      So...the advanced features that Winamp never had are behind a paywall, meanwhile Plexamp is now free.

      • meanwhile Plexamp is now free.

        Which would be significant were it not for the many other free music players. If the free edition is no better than Winamp why wouldn't I use another free player that we've discussed here on Slashdot. Like ... https://entertainment.slashdot... [slashdot.org] winamp.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by aitikin ( 909209 )

          Which would be significant were it not for the many other free music players. If the free edition is no better than Winamp why wouldn't I use another free player that we've discussed here on Slashdot. Like ... https://entertainment.slashdot... [slashdot.org] winamp.

          Because one may want to have hi-resolution or many of the other features that a modern app has that Winamp 5.9 does not. Or one may be operating on a system that is not Windows. Or one prefers the way Plex integrates its stuff.

          Point of order, I have no real dog in the fight, was merely pointing out the OP was taking things out of context to make Plex look bad.

          • Yeah I get what you're saying, but what I was getting at is that Plex has entered a wholly saturated market. There's a free player already for every OS with every feature or desire you want and I can't see how Plex has differentiated themselves.

            And I say that as someone who uses Plex.

  • Or the visualizations have to be made from scratch?

    I mean, WinAmp had an extensive visualizations library, from the absolutely wonderfull Milkdrop visualizations, to a plethora of "dancing boys/girls".

    If Plex tries to reproduce this ecosystem from scratch, it will face an uphill battle...

    JM2C, YMMV

    • From what I could gather, it has some built-in visualizations that can't be edited.

    • It's not trying to reproduce the winamp desktop experience. Its primary function is as a self-hosted cloud player and radio (auto-generating stations based off your library). There are desktop players, but replacing winamp functionality isn't what it does(because MusicBee is already superior in every way on desktop, and this isn't competition for MusicBee)
  • I only use one maybe a few times a year. But remember when it mattered and the media player wars? Like when you actually played all of your music on your PC?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by samdu ( 114873 )

      I use PlexAmp in my car on my head unit. Instant access to my large music library hosted at home.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by acroyear ( 5882 )

        yeah. the other feature not mentioned in this article is that it has full Android Drive as well as Android Auto support. Easily able to play and control things while Android Auto is doing the GPS thing.

    • I use Plex for streaming my stuff (movies, TV, documentaries, music) to my devices because you can't find everything on streaming services. I have Tidal and Spotify for common stuff.

  • I use foobar2000 on PCs for music (Score:5, Informative)

    by waspleg ( 316038 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @02:07PM (#63697120) Journal

    because it's fucking awesome. [foobar2000.org].

    But, even with a lifetime Plex Pass I frequently use VLC instead because their media players are not as robust.

    If it works, it's good for saving your place in a movie and switching devices but if not VLC almost always works where Plex doesn't.

  • If it's like Plex's TV/Movie offering (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @02:08PM (#63697124)

    ... then it requires you log in via THEIR server before you can listen to YOUR music. Even setting aside privacy concerns - this means you have no access if you have no network. Even for files right there on your own device.

    This is why I moved to Jellyfin for my personal media server - everything is handled locally.

  • Webamp (Score:4, Informative)

    by ewhac ( 5844 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @02:13PM (#63697138) Homepage Journal
    Or, how about a media player that looks almost exactly like Winamp [webamp.org] and runs entirely within your browser, thereby offering cross-platform use? Even the visualizers appear to work.
  • The plugins developed for WinAmp are still amazing, if they could port them they'd be on to a winner.

  • Audacious (ex- XMMS, Beep) is actually free (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Khopesh ( 112447 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @03:13PM (#63697266) Homepage Journal

    How is this anything like WinAMP? Consider XMMS [wikipedia.org], which was a UNIX/Linux clone of WinAMP that was fully compatible with WinAMP skins. That was a "Winamp-inspired Music Player" and it was free (as in speech) while WinAMP was free (as in beer). It ceased development in 2007, survived by its FOSS nature through forks like Beep Media Player, later to be succeeded by Audacious [wikipedia.org] (with support for Windows, Mac, & UNIX/Linux), which I still use to this day.

    I think Plexamp is referring to visualizations (though this seems a stretch). While Audacity does support visualizations, it neither supports WinAMP visualizations nor does it appear to have any more than the four that ship with it. I remember all of the trippy visualizations that WinAMP had going for it (like Geiss and G, but the prettiest of them were too over-engineered to look good on their own rather than being closely in-step with the music--you could stop the music and they'd still look pretty good. The only one I think really nailed seeing music was WhiteCap [soundspectrum.com] by Andy O'Meara.

  • Meh! No screenshots or feature list. (Score:3)

    by oogoliegoogolie ( 635356 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @04:04PM (#63697388)

    The plexamp site is pretty weak with info. Seven screens of marketing department's curated notched beautified "airbrushed" images but not one from what it looks like on a Mac or Window or Linux.

    Plexamp's important features apparently are "All Gas, No Breaks", "Oh-So-Sexy Super Sonic","Music to Your Eyes","Play Music, Don't Stop", and "Hey Siri"

    I need to see what it looks like before I try it.

  • The mood and style 'radio' features depend on proper tagging. It does have an extensive DB to match against, assuming your artist/album/song tags are correct, but depending on the popularity of the artist, you may find gaps where some albums aren't included in a genre/mood shuffle when you think they should be.

    The metadata can be edited by hand, and you can even invent your own 'moods', but the current Plex UI to do all this can be slow and tedious.

    Still, when tagged well, the radio feature works well. I ha

  • Those were the best part.

  • .... So Nope ... Not happening

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