Nullsoft

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American software company

title: "Nullsoft" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["companies-disestablished-in-2013", "companies-established-in-1997", "defunct-software-companies-of-the-united-states", "former-time-warner-subsidiaries", "radionomy", "1999-mergers-and-acquisitions"] description: "American software company" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American software company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	Nullsoft
logo	Nullsoft.svg
type	Private
successor	Radionomy
foundation	1997
defunct	2014
location	Sedona, Arizona
key_people	Justin Frankel
Tom Pepper
industry	Computer software
products	Winamp, SHOUTcast, and others
owner	Radionomy Group
::

Nullsoft, Inc. was an American software house founded in Sedona, Arizona in 1997 by programmer Justin Frankel. Its products included the Winamp media player and the SHOUTcast MP3 streaming media server.

History

In 1997, Justin Frankel, a programmer from Sedona, Arizona, founded Nullsoft, Inc in his home town. The company's name is a parody of Microsoft. Mike the Llama is the company's mascot. The company launched the media player Winamp that year, developed by Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev. It was the second real-time MP3 player for Windows, following WinPlay3.

Nullsoft, along with Spinner.com, was sold to America Online (AOL) on June 1, 1999, for around $400 million. It became an AOL subsidiary, subsequently becoming a division of AOL Music. Its headquarters were moved to San Francisco, California.

According to Bonnie Burton, then editor of the website Winamp.com, 2001 was a period of heightened tension between the Nullsoft staff and upper management, because of Frankel's uncompromising views about file-sharing. He had developed Gnutella in 2000 and released it using company infrastructure. Ars Technica also noted that AOL failed to effectively monetize or find a larger audience for Winamp. Nullsoft's San Francisco offices were closed in December 2003, with a near-concurrent departure of Frankel and the original Winamp development team. In 2013, some AOL Music sites were shut down and others sold to Townsquare Media.

In November 2013, an unofficial report surfaced that Microsoft was in talks with AOL to acquire Nullsoft. On January 14, 2014, it was officially announced that Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy had bought Winamp and Shoutcast, formerly owned by Nullsoft. No financial details were publicly announced.

Software

Winamp

Main article: Winamp

Winamp is a media player released by Nullsoft in April 1997. By 1999, it was downloaded by 15 million people. The company released several new versions of the Winamp player and grew its monthly unique subscriber base to 60 million users by late 2004. Winamp was discontinued by Nullsoft around 2013. New versions of Winamp, which started releasing in 2023, are by a different developer named Llama Group.

SHOUTcast

Main article: Shoutcast

SHOUTcast (currently Shoutcast) is an MP3 streaming media server.

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System

In later years, their open source installer system, the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) became an alternative to commercial products like InstallShield, InnoSetup, InstallSimple, InstallAware and Advanced Installer. In January 2006, NSIS was named Project of the Month by SourceForge.

Other

Nullsoft's developments after acquisition included the Nullsoft Streaming Video (NSV) format, which was intended to stream media that used any audio or video codec. In 2002, the press reported a technology called Ultravox being developed by Nullsoft. The company also created the peer-to-peer networks Gnutella and WASTE. Although AOL tried to limit the distribution of Gnutella and WASTE, the Ultravox technology was reportedly used for some AOL radio services in 2003. A service called Nullsoft Television was announced in 2003 using NSV.

Notes

References

Kushner, David. (January 13, 2004). "The World's Most Dangerous Geek".
(August 25, 2017). "Tales in Tech History: Winamp".
Mook, Nate. (November 10, 2004). "Death Knell Sounds for Nullsoft, Winamp". Betanews.
Krigel, Beth. (1999-06-01). "AOL buys Spinner, Nullsoft for $400 million".
(November 22, 2013). "Waving goodbye to Winamp, paying respects to Nullsoft".
(20 March 2000). "Technology; Free Music Software May Have Rattled AOL".
Farivar, Cyrus. (2017-07-03). "Winamp's woes: How the greatest MP3 player undid itself".
Constine, Josh. (June 2, 2013). "Townsquare Media Acquires Some Doomed AOL Music Sites And Comics Alliance". [[Techcrunch]].
Cooper, Charles. (April 26, 2013). "AOL shuts down music-related services". CNET News.
Solsman, Joan E.. (June 3, 2013). "Radio chain picks up pared-down AOL music sites". CNET News.
(November 21, 2013). "AOL reportedly wants to sell Winamp to Microsoft". The Verge.
Lunden, Ingrid. (January 1, 2014). "AOL Sells Winamp And Shoutcast Music Services To Online Radio Aggregator Radionomy". [[AOL]].
(January 14, 2014). "Winamp lives on after acquisition by Radionomy". The Verge.
Burton, Bonnie. (2013-11-23). "Waving goodbye to Winamp, paying respects to Nullsoft".
Newman, Jared. (2023-04-12). "Winamp is back, but not like you remember".
(March 16, 2017). "Trend: Ransomware Hidden in NSIS Installers Harder to Detect".
Team, Community. (2006-01-01). "Project of the Month, January 2006".
Hu, Jim. (June 26, 2002). "AOL aims to supercharge streaming". CNET News.
(May 30, 2003). "AOL pulls Nullsoft file-sharing software". Flexbeta.
"Nullsoft TV Worldwide Public Access". Nullsoft.com.

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