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On the Future of WinCue

2008-05-09 by Anders Sandvig

Some of you may wonder, what happened to WinCue? The web site has not been updated for over four years, and there has been no activity whatsoever on the SourceForge project.

I recently received an e-mail from a user who wanted to report a bug. Here’s my reply:

_Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:16:27 +0200
From: “Anders Sandvig” <anders@wincue.org>
To: …
Subject: Re: WinCue bug

Sorry about the late reply, I don’t check this e-mail address as often as I should.

Thank you for your interest in WinCue. It’s great for me to see that people still use the plug-in, even after all these years. I feel a bit bad about “abandoning” the project, but my time has been limited, and I guess I have lacked the motivation to pick it up again. Personally I’m not very pleased with the direction that Winamp has taken, so I have been looking for other solutions.

I still think the core idea of WinCue is relevant, because even now that every media player on the market has a built-in media library with searching capabilities, I have yet to find a player that is as easy to use as the WinCue library. That is of course just my personal opinion, but I happen to know that there are a few other people out there who think the same.

Anyway, because of this I started thinking about creating a new media player with the WinCue media library sort of integrated. The plan was to make a general media library implementation with searching functionality and add that to an existing player source with a nice GUI on top. I even started implementing the new library for Wincue2 (the source code for the library in the new player and Wincue2 would be the same), but then I sort of stopped working on it due to lack of time.

I haven’t decided if I will continue with the Wincue2 project, but if people (like you) request changes to the existing 1.40 version, I might be able to fix that in much shorter time.

So, I guess my answer to your question is that I don’t really know what will happen in the future, but I will look into the possibility of releasing an updated version of WinCue 1.40.

Anders_

As explained in the e-mail, I feel a bit bad about abandoning the project. Now, this happened for several reasons, the two major ones being lack of time and interest. Up until now I was also under the impression that the previous user base of WinCue was long gone, and had moved on to better software for managing their musical experience. When I finally tok the time to go through my web site statistics, I was a bit shocked to see that www.wincue.org still has thousands of visitors every month. Even in April 2008, WinCue 1.40 had more than thousand downloads. As outdated as I feel the current version is, the numbers make me suspect that there are still people out there who use Winamp and my plug-in.

Again, I must apoligize for staying out of reach for so long. The site forum was hacked years ago, and I never bothered to fix it. I hardly ever checked my wincue.org e-mail, and the few times I did, I rarely took the time to write you back.

So, the question is now, what will be the future of WinCue? Should I pick up the project again, and if I do, should I fix bugs in the old version of rewrite the entire thing from scratch? Is Winamp even worth using these days? As I mention in the e-mail I have also thought about writing a new media player alltogether, but I realize this might be a huge and time-consuming project, so any suggestions are welcome.

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29 Comments

Job on May 10, 2008 at 07:05

I didnt even know I was on your mailinglist, but yes, I too am still using the win amp&cue combo. And its working like a charm. The only thing that would make it better for my use is adding boolean search capabilities.
About writing your own mediaplayer: there are lots of them already, and most take plugins... :-)

Good luck, and thank you for giving us wincue.
René on May 10, 2008 at 08:05

Hi there
great to hear from your. I think you should go for the plans for wincue2 you had for a long time ago. I will still use it with winamp,so I dont need another player. It would be nice to have an jukebox option with password in wincue.

Thanks.
Jon on May 10, 2008 at 15:05

I am still using WinCue. I use Winamp with WinCue, DFX, and PaceMaker and lyrics plugins. So would not be interested in any new player unless it can offer me all that functionality!

I would vote for improved WinCue2 plugin with better integration with Winamp and support for new skins and maybe ratings that are stored into the MP3 file? I think the Winamp media library sucks so a full replacement for that would be great.

We will be waiting for more news, good luck Anders! :)
Chris on May 10, 2008 at 15:05

Still using wincue!! Only one so far that works well with untagged MP3s because of smart filename routines. REALLY want fullscreen jukebox feature that shows simple interface to find, queue and display songs as a kiosk.
Sophia on May 25, 2008 at 15:05

Still using wincue too. Listening to mp3s is just not conducive or enjoyable without wincue.

No votes on which to choose, i just hope the wincue site remains! itll be a pain to locate my backups if i need to install it on a new computer.
Anders Sandvig on May 28, 2008 at 11:05

Thanks for the feedback. I can assure you that I will keep the site up as long as people still use it.
Raj on June 12, 2008 at 16:06

I use wincue still n all, its far better than the medial library in minamp; particularly the auto cue function. It would be nice if wincue could steal the skins from the new winamp tho. I hope you find time to work on wincue2, please let me know of any updates!
Cheers
Sarah on June 14, 2008 at 15:06

Still using wincue. Still wondering if its been updated. Ive looking at Itunes and Media Monkey and I still want wincue on top of winamp. Wincue is excellent and I been using it this entire time still in 2008. Winamp is still my main player. So yes it is relevant! .. Its very helpful. Love it. Havent stopped using it at all. Still wanting Wincue to be updated.
Kevin on June 29, 2008 at 15:06

Ive used Wincue as part of my DJ control surface using Winamp for about 7 or 8 years now. (100+ shows a year, all using Wincue to search fast!) With a library of WELL over 100,000 songs, Wincue is the only software that I have found that can handle searching though a constantly changing database without crashing, running too slow, or having to take a long time (hours/days) to rebuild this huge library. Wincue has topped even the most expensive DJ software that I have trialed (many of these softwares of very overrated, Winamp+Wincue works just good, or better.)

I would definitely like to see an updated Wincue. I would like to see it as a standalone program, which would drag/drop into any media player (mainly Winamp of course). This would help with moving files around. A portable (USB flash drive) version? Drag and drop? I am full of ideas: please feel free to contact me.
Phantom on August 22, 2008 at 00:08

Hello!
Very good project!
I am for the future of wincue!

Thx!
Rene on July 31, 2008 at 10:07

Im using WinCue for so long I can remember, love the simplicity in use and the speed, but most the AutoCue option and the ability to pick songs from the search results. And WinCue is ideal for parties.

I dont need a lot of new complexity, menu options or a total new player. But options are always ok, I like to customize settings. A more random AutoCue and boolean searching are on my wishlist. That wouldnt take you too long, would it ;-)
Freakenstein on August 21, 2008 at 15:08

Yes, pick it up again!
its the best plugin for winamp!
Dave on September 25, 2008 at 08:09

I am a fan of any future of wincue. Be it in the form of another program, or a new version. I still use it to this day as well. It is still the best written search plug-in I have come across for music. I like it ever better than what has been programmed into foobar2000. Just wanted to say thanks, and I was shocked to see any update on the website. Appreciate that!
Jesper on October 18, 2008 at 19:10

Have been using wincue + winamp for the last 7 years, both for djing and at home. turned alot of heads with the simple and straight forward function of this plug-in...
now that I switched to mac some months ago, I experimented a bit with iTunes but came to the conclusion that it doesnt even remotely match the features winamp can offer when it is combined with your awesome plug-in...
so I went through the hassle of installing "crossover" on my mac, which natively runs windows applications within mac osX... now Im finally able to use wincue again!
what good is a bloated do-it-all media center/player program, when it just doesnt give you the specific functionality you need? (which is btw the reason I never use the winamp media library, wincue is just so much simpler and faster!)

thank you for writing such an amazing plugin and keep up the good work! - Jesper
William Viker on October 15, 2008 at 08:10

Jeg bruker også wincue daglig enda. Og ikke PRØV DEG med å bloate det med masse nye funksjoner..! :P Hihi. Bugfixing er nok en fin ting.

Få opp ting i subversion eller whatever du liker av versjonskontroll, sånn at jeg kan sjekke ut koden og submitte fixes :)
Anders Sandvig on October 15, 2008 at 12:10

@William The source code is already in Subversion on SourceForge:
http://sf.net/projects/wincue/.

If anyone wants to contribute with fixes or patches, they are of course welcome to do so. Just e-mail me the changes and I will apply them to the repository.

Also, if you want to discuss write access to the repository, feel free to contact me.
Nick on September 1, 2008 at 19:09

I just wanted to let you know that wincue is part of what keeps me using winamp. I still think that winamp is the best music/media player out there, but I would not be able to use it without wincue and autocue. Thanks so much for all of your work in the past and any work you may choose to do in the future.
Martin on October 28, 2008 at 03:10

Absolutely love the WinCue plugin. It just works. Simple and fast. I know professionals that prefer this before other expensive programs and libraries.
If continued maybe you can skip the MiniDisc feature now? Nobody uses it now I guess. The abaility to search for several words or exclude words would be cool, like "iron maiden & metallica -tribute" for all songs that contain "iron maiden" and "metallica" but not "tribute".. something like that.
Anyway, amazing app, couldnt live without it!
Allard on December 2, 2008 at 20:12

I have been using wincue for as long as I remember. Even after so many years it is still the only tool I have found that makes it possible to play from a random selection of music. Some of my friends use it as well after I made them aware of this gem. If you do continue development of this tool, be it as a plugin or a standalone player I would appreciate it very very much.
Allard
Craig on December 23, 2008 at 21:12

WinCue is great I do a lot of karaoke at home through winamp i have over 200k tracks and Im very bad at spelling but the search facility on wincue is 2nd to none I hav tried many types of DJ software and there search is always the same you have to type our words in order which is no good for me for example if I wanted to bring up an Elvis song from the sunfly karaoke collection i would type SF Elvis then before my eyes i have them all if i use other software I have to type it as the files is names which is no good. If I cant spel something then am bugged even more with Wincue i can type random groups of words and it will match it and narrow down the files. THis is a great plug in that no other DJ software that Ive tried offers......
Martin on December 30, 2008 at 16:12

i agree with craig. my only reason why i use winamp is because of wincue.
there are many better professional dj programs existing. but none of them can play so many different file formats. i use winamp for karaoke and of course for video and audio files. the most dj programs cant handle cdg karaokefiles. theres only one "good" software i know which can handle them. this programm is called "cue" from numark. but it has the same problem like alcatech bpm studio or native instruments traktor: not a high quality search funktion like wincue gives it to winamp.
i think the ultimate solution would be a wincue for numarks cue.
Thomas on January 1, 2009 at 17:01

The only reason why I use Winamp is because of WinCue. WinCue gives me the easiest way to find the songs that I look for. WinCue is the king of plugins :)

All my friends wonder why I use the OLD Winamp, but as soon as I show them how easy it is with Wincue they no longer wonder :)

Thanks a lot for this great plugin.
Clemens Möckel on January 13, 2009 at 00:01

Hello Anders,
Im really glad to see, that my mail in Apr 2008 had this effect. Even though I didnt realised it until now.
What ever you do with WinCue like uploading new updates (my main forecast ideas you do know ... and if you continue there possibly will follow new ones, whereas WinCue is still almost completed in my oppinion), please keep it WinAmp v2.x compatible.
Im really anxious about what well see here in the future and will now have regular a look on this site (not only cause of wincue: your blog is at all an interesting website in the gigantic www).
Thanks again for the good work!
Clemens
TimC on March 20, 2009 at 11:03

Hi Anders,
I too am one of the visitors to the WinCue site from long ago, eager to see where it is going next.

There were only two reasons why I stuck with WinAmp (older versions only) the AVS visuals and WinCue...but had enough of WinAmp too.

I havent found anything which comes close which is a real shame. If you put your Anders magic into a plugin for something like Meedios, MediaPortal or even WinMediaCentre then youd have a killer app. For me the autocue and simple search combination just works so well and it is something which other programs just cant measure up to.

I wish winCue a new breath of life, even if it is a quick port as a plugin.

Shall have a wonder round your blog, glad Ive found it.
Chris Wagner on April 15, 2009 at 16:04

Hi there,

Just want to add my big thumbs up for WinCue. There is nothing - NOTHING - out there that is remotely as good. I agree with TimC in the above post that the combination of the autocue and search feature cannot be beat. I am constantly amazed that this combo is not standard fare nowadays because its just such an incredibly useful feature. I have been looking into getting an ipod but I am hesitating because their features just dont compare.

There is nothing finer than listening to some music while talking with friends, and the conversation turns to some artist or song or album, and you can just call it up and throw it onto the playlist, and when its done it goes back to autocueing. That is THE BEST. Until somebody can make this happen for other programs, I feel pretty strongly compelled to stick with my winamp/wincue combo.

Anyway, not sure what can done about this (I doubt youre working on developing this function for ipod), I just wanted to say thanks for making the greatest plugin ever.
René on April 26, 2009 at 18:04

Hello!

Anders, are you alive ?

Update ?

Please !
Anders Sandvig on April 26, 2009 at 21:04

Yes, Im alive and well. :) I have actually started working on WinCue again, but there is not much to tell yet. I will post with an update as soon as I know more about how it will turn out.
lala on January 12, 2014 at 01:01

here i am, in 2014, upgrading to windows 7 (finally), installing wincue but not able to get it to show the wincue window... :(

im assuming it doesnt work...
Wrong on April 15, 2014 at 17:04

I began noticing broken functionality with WinCue on Winamp 5.64 and above - seems like they made some plugin API changes on that version.
I have been using this plugin for years, but i dont know C/C++. :(

3 Trackbacks

By Cleaning Up the Mess « wincue blog on April 30, 2009 at 19:04

[...] After nearly a year of procrastination and avoiding to make up my mind, I finally decided what to do about WinCue. As of last week I’ve picked up the project from [...]
By On the Future of WinCue « wincue blog on April 19, 2009 at 16:04

[...] For historical and technical reasons, this blog post is located elsewhere: http://blog.looplabel.net/2008/05/09/on-the-future-of-wincue/ [...]
By WinCue Blog Online – loop label on August 8, 2009 at 20:08

[...] On the Future of WinCue This entry was written by Anders Sandvig, posted on April 30, 2009 at 20:22, filed under wincue and tagged winamp, wincue. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « Converting Bugs to User Stories [...]