Winamp Lite is a small version of Winamp, it weighs less than one megabyte, that will essentially let you play audio files and use classic skins and plug-ins. Great to fit onto your desktop and if you don't to use up to much hard drive space. However, if you want to enjoy the complete benefits of Winamp, you should install the Full version instead.

Download Winamp 5.541 Lite in Softonic

Choosing a multimedia player used to be a real no-brainer. However, during recent times the raft of new features and updates added to classic media players like Winamp, Windows Media Player, and even iTunes have left the apps increasingly bloated. Far from being the slick, well-oiled machines they once were, these programs have been stuffed with so much that they are in danger of ending up like a sluggish, overweight athlete still holding on to past glories.

For those looking for a fresh alternative to these ballooning apps, The KM Player could be your ticket. The application has a small desktop footprint and its minimalist interface, somewhat akin to the original Winamp 5, means that access and playback are quick and hassle-free. Like Winamp, the interface is fully skinable, and there are some nice aesthetic touches, such as the changing of colour on the player with every new track. There are all sorts of options to help you pimp your player, such as visualizations, plug-ins and playback options, but the beauty of KM Player is that these are turned on at your request rather than being forced upon you at the outset.

The application handles both audio and video, and supports a wide range of different formats, meaning that once installed, you should never need to touch another player. Video playback is particularly impressive thanks to the range of processing tools available that allow you to sharpen, change picture properties, apply filters and even make video captures from within the program.

Download KMPlayer 2.9.3.1444 Beta in Softonic

iTunes is not always the best option to manage your iPod's content –or at least not for everyone. Luckily there are some alternatives like Winamp iPod Plugin, which is probably one of the most original iPod managers we've found so far.

This tool is, as its name clearly states, a plugin for the Winamp player. So far so good. What it does is integrate your iPod's content into the Winamp Library, so that you can easily manage it from Winamp. You can browse through artists and songs, rate them, delete them from the iPod and, of course, synchronize content between the iPod and the PC.

Winamp iPod Plugin worked very well during our tests; in fact, the only flaw I can think of is an error message I got when trying to unplug the iPod, but that was probably due to another application using it.

If you're already a Winamp user, you're going to find Winamp iPod Plugin very useful.

Download iPod Plug-in for Winamp 3.04 in Softonic

AIMP Classic is a powerful audio player that allows you to listen to your favorite music with an outstanding sound quality. Its appearance resembles that of another classical audio player (Winamp), so you'll get used to it very quickly. It can also be customized with skins.

The program includes a 18-band equalizer, a visualization window to display rhythmic visual effects and a playlist editor to organize your audio files. A nice fading effect makes your list of songs look like an endless music loop and a handy volume normalizing feature avoids drastic volume changes between tracks. Also, the player's main functions can be conveniently controlled by global hotkeys.

Besides playing music, AIMP Classic features three extra utilities which also enable you to record any sound on your computer, convert audio files from one format to another and view or edit tags.

AIMP Classic is based on the well-known audio engine BASS, so it's easy to connect new plug-ins (from the plug-in library included in the program) and expand the player's functionalities.

Download AIMP Classic 2.11 in Softonic

Winamp's playlist is a convenient way to browse your music collection and select what you feel like listening to in a given moment. But when you have several thousand files it's not that easy anymore. This is why you need Album List, a Winamp plugin specially designed to browse albums, not files.

This plugin attaches a new window to Winamp and displays your album list on it. You can add as many directories as you want, but take into account that the more elements on the list, the longer it will take Album list to create the list and display it properly. In fact, during our tests, sometimes it didn't even display it at all.

You can see a regular file list or choose the cover list, which definitely looks nicer and makes it easier to browse your collection, although it takes a bit more resources. We especially liked the possibility to export this list as an HTML file.

Download Album List 2.06 in Softonic

Toaster is designed especially for the visual pleasure of Winamp users, displaying a highly customizable notification on the desktop every time a new song starts in the audio player. It's not just a decorative message: in fact, you can choose exactly which data should be displayed among a wide range of options such as artist name, track title, length and, of course, the album cover if available.

These are not the only customization options included in Toaster. You can choose between several configuration presets, although not all of them are as visually pleasant as the original one and sometimes they don't load correctly. Anyway, you can also customize it manually by choosing fonts, colors, skins, animation effects and many more details.

Download Toaster for Winamp 0.7.8 in Softonic

One way of enriching your musical experience is to learn the lyrics to all those songs you know and love. Thanks to Evil Lyrics, music lovers have an easy way to do just that every time they listen to MP3’s on their PC. Evil Lyrics is a small plug-in that displays the lyrics of songs as they play as long as you’ve got an internet connection.

Once installed, Evil Lyrics starts every time you open your default media player. The window floats in a small browser style window at the side of the player but it can be minimised to the tray if you don’t want it sat there. The window also provides additional links to Google searches, Amazon album profiles, translations, offline storage and other album or song related data. The plug-in was designed originally for Winamp (which is what we tested it in) but it now works with Windows Media Player, Foobar2000 and Sonique. It’s also supposed to be compatible with Media Player XP although many users have reported problems with this particular player.

One of the best features of Evil Lyrics is that it’s very light and does the job discreetly without affecting other running applications. But most importantly, does it recall the lyrics accurately? Well, the truth is it’s not perfect but it does surprisingly well. In tests, we found that at least 80% of the time, it displayed the correct lyrics for the song in progress. The accuracy of this is very much down to you though. If the ID tags of your MP3’s are not entered accurately, then you’ll either end up with some very random results or simply nothing at all. There is a ‘Search Again’ button if this happens in which case Evil Lyrics tries to find the next closest match but we found it very rarely worked accurately. More often than not, you’ll end up with Michael Jackson rather than Jackson Browne when using this secondary option. Evil Lyrics retrieves the info from it’s ‘Ello Lyrics’ database which claims to have literally hundreds of thousands of songs.

One nice little feature is that lyrics are cached for offline playback so you can also read your favourite lyrics on the move. There’s also a karaoke mode where Evil Lyrics searches its karaoke database for lyrics but this is significantly more limited than the normal database. In classic karaoke style, the lyrics appear in huge luminous letters within the window which can be expanded to fill the screen meaning you can host your own karaoke parties.

On the downside, as mentioned earlier, it’s not 100% accurate with the lyrics. In the case of Winamp too, there doesn’t seem to be any way to minimize and restore Evil Lyrics when you minimize and restore the audio player itself. Nevertheless, it’s a fun little plug-in that’ll help you get more out of music or at the least, improve your karaoke skills.

Download EvilLyrics 0.1.9 in Softonic

Like the look of the new version of Winamp, but prefer the speed and functionality of the Classic release? Look no further because this crafty skin magically transforms the look of Winamp 2 to appear the same as version 5. Remember, you won´t get all the features of the latest version though.

Download Classique Moderne FR Skin 2.9 in Softonic

Energy Amplifier is a stunning skin for WinAmp 2. The classy skin contains some very cunning features and allows you to customize your settings to your heart´s content. A must for die-hard Winamp fans still using the Classic player.

Download Energy Amplifier 1.0vb in Softonic