Many people think of Winamp as just another way of listening to all of their illegal Mp3's. But Winamp is a lot more than just another music player, it is a network. For those of you that haven't tried Winamp before, I am sure by the end of this review you will be preparing for installation.

What Winamp offers that many other music players offer is a product that is easily maintainted, easily customized and is so simple to use that even your grandma would have no problems.

Sure, Winamp can just be installed and then used straight away to play several different types of music files such as mp3, wma, wav, voc, cda and midi just to name a few. But when making Winamp the creators wanted something different, they wanted the product to be fun to use. This is why they have the extensive range of skins available. This means that you can change the way that Winamp looks, you can do this now from within the program. Simply right click and go to skins, here you have a choice of skins that are already installed on the computer and there is a link there to the Winamp website where the myriad of categories are where you can choose your favourite sport, car, model, cartoon etc for your new Winamp theme.

The Winamp website is very unique, as it offers so many additional options that can enhance the program, this is something that I have not to be available for many other programs that are free. Yes that's right, all of this is free!

Within the Winamp program there is now a special internet browser, this can be used to get the latest skins for the program, or get help if needed. What this means is that you do not even need to open an internet browser, Winamp handles all of this for you. A new feature that is available through the Winamp browser is "Winamp Radio" where you can listen to 100's of radio stations for free, and as usual you don't even have to leave the program at any time. And did I mention that Winamp can also be used to play all your streaming audio aswell?

Some more features of Winamp include:

* The great equaliser, so now you can adjust the bass to just how you like it. Don't want to fiddle around with all of that? Well simply choose one of the 17 presets! Equaliser settings can be saved for individual songs

* The playlist feature is absolutely a life saver! You can queue literally hours of music, you can then arrange the songs in the order that best suites you, or add or remove songs to the playlist. Also there are more options where you can sort the list alphabetically, or even export the list to a webpage format, so you can have a list of all of your songs. You can also save these playlists, just incase you want to hear the whole lot again

* The standard music player features can't go without mention either, including shuffle, repeat, play, stop etc.

* It is possible to make your own skins in your favourite graphics program

* The program is free! (worth another mention)

* Winamp does not take up much cpu power, so you can play your songs, burn a cd and browse the net at the same time!

Well I am sure by now you want to stop reading this review and download this great player, or start listening to some music, so I will stop bothering you now! Just remember that Winamp is so much more than just a music player, it is the complete listening package!

Recommended: Yes