{ "id": "77783e75-9088-4773-8d92-b1975f404d59", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:16:16.747577Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:20:52.700008Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "eaf3812768e20639a54a2a2c7a4b447267be922c", "title": "Nullsoft", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 111189, "plain_text": "Nullsoft\r\nBy Contributors to Wikimedia projects\r\nPublished: 2003-01-28 ยท Archived: 2026-04-05 17:26:37 UTC\r\nFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\r\nNullsoft\r\nCompany type Private\r\nIndustry Computer software\r\nFounded 1997\r\nDefunct 2014\r\nSuccessor Radionomy\r\nHeadquarters Sedona, Arizona\r\nKey people\r\nJustin Frankel\r\nTom Pepper\r\nProducts Winamp, SHOUTcast, and others\r\nOwner Radionomy Group\r\nNullsoft, Inc. was an American software house founded in Sedona, Arizona in 1997 by programmer Justin\r\nFrankel. Its products included the Winamp media player and the SHOUTcast MP3 streaming media server.\r\nIn 1997, Justin Frankel, a programmer from Sedona, Arizona, founded Nullsoft, Inc in his home town. The\r\ncompany's name is a parody of Microsoft.\r\n[1]\r\n Mike the Llama is the company's mascot.\r\n[a]\r\n The company launched\r\nthe media player Winamp that year, developed by Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev. It was the second real-time MP3\r\nplayer for Windows, following WinPlay3.\r\n[2]\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nNullsoft, along with Spinner.com, was sold to America Online (AOL) on June 1, 1999, for around $400 million. It\r\nbecame an AOL subsidiary, subsequently becoming a division of AOL Music. Its headquarters were moved to San\r\nFrancisco, California.\r\n[3][4]\r\nAccording to Bonnie Burton, then editor of the website Winamp.com, 2001 was a period of heightened tension\r\nbetween the Nullsoft staff and upper management, because of Frankel's uncompromising views about file-sharing.\r\nHe had developed Gnutella in 2000 and released it using company infrastructure.[5][6] Ars Technica also noted that\r\nAOL failed to effectively monetize or find a larger audience for Winamp.[7] Nullsoft's San Francisco offices were\r\nclosed in December 2003, with a near-concurrent departure of Frankel and the original Winamp development\r\nteam.[1][3] In 2013, some AOL Music sites were shut down and others sold to Townsquare Media.\r\n[8][9][10]\r\nIn November 2013, an unofficial report surfaced that Microsoft was in talks with AOL to acquire Nullsoft.[11] On\r\nJanuary 14, 2014, it was officially announced that Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy had bought\r\nWinamp and Shoutcast, formerly owned by Nullsoft. No financial details were publicly announced.[12][13]\r\nWinamp is a media player released by Nullsoft in April 1997. By 1999, it was downloaded by 15 million people.\r\n[1]\r\n The company released several new versions of the Winamp player and grew its monthly unique subscriber base\r\nto 60 million users by late 2004.[3] Winamp was discontinued by Nullsoft around 2013.[14] New versions of\r\nWinamp, which started releasing in 2023, are by a different developer named Llama Group.[15]\r\nSHOUTcast (currently Shoutcast) is an MP3 streaming media server.\r\nNullsoft Scriptable Install System\r\n[edit]\r\nIn later years, their open source installer system, the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) became an\r\nalternative to commercial products like InstallShield, InnoSetup, InstallSimple, InstallAware and Advanced\r\nInstaller.\r\n[16]\r\n In January 2006, NSIS was named Project of the Month by SourceForge.\r\n[17]\r\nNullsoft's developments after acquisition included the Nullsoft Streaming Video (NSV) format, which was\r\nintended to stream media that used any audio or video codec. In 2002, the press reported a technology called\r\nUltravox being developed by Nullsoft.[18] The company also created the peer-to-peer networks Gnutella and\r\nWASTE.\r\n[1]\r\n Although AOL tried to limit the distribution of Gnutella and WASTE, the Ultravox technology was\r\nreportedly used for some AOL radio services in 2003.[19] A service called Nullsoft Television was announced in\r\n2003 using NSV.\r\n[20]\r\n1. ^ this is frequently referred to in promotional material (especially for Winamp) citing llamas. Frankel\r\nintroduced the llama in Winamp's startup sound clip, inspired by the lyrics of Wesley Willis: \"Winamp, it\r\nreally whips the llama's ass!\"[1]\r\n1. ^ Jump up to: a\r\n \r\nb\r\n \r\nc\r\n \r\nd\r\n \r\ne\r\n Kushner, David (January 13, 2004). \"The World's Most Dangerous Geek\". Rolling\r\nStone. Archived from the original on March 21, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2013.\r\n2. ^ \"Tales in Tech History: Winamp\". August 25, 2017.\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\n3. ^ Jump up to: a\r\n \r\nb\r\n \r\nc\r\n Mook, Nate (November 10, 2004). \"Death Knell Sounds for Nullsoft, Winamp\".\r\nBetanews. Retrieved June 7, 2013.\r\n4. ^ Krigel, Beth (June 1, 1999). \"AOL buys Spinner, Nullsoft for $400 million\". CNET. Archived from the\r\noriginal on December 8, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2024.\r\n5. ^ Burton, Bonnie (November 22, 2013). \"Waving goodbye to Winamp, paying respects to Nullsoft\". CNET.\r\nRetrieved April 14, 2024.\r\n6. ^ Harmon, Amy (March 20, 2000). \"Technology; Free Music Software May Have Rattled AOL\". The New\r\nYork Times. Retrieved April 14, 2024.\r\n7. ^ Farivar, Cyrus (July 3, 2017). \"Winamp's woes: How the greatest MP3 player undid itself\". Ars Technica.\r\nRetrieved April 15, 2024.\r\n8. ^ Constine, Josh (June 2, 2013). \"Townsquare Media Acquires Some Doomed AOL Music Sites And\r\nComics Alliance\". Techcrunch. Retrieved June 7, 2013.\r\n9. ^ Cooper, Charles (April 26, 2013). \"AOL shuts down music-related services\". CNET News. Retrieved\r\nJune 7, 2013.\r\n10. ^ Solsman, Joan E. (June 3, 2013). \"Radio chain picks up pared-down AOL music sites\". CNET News.\r\nRetrieved June 7, 2013.\r\n11. ^ \"AOL reportedly wants to sell Winamp to Microsoft\". The Verge. November 21, 2013. Retrieved\r\nNovember 21, 2013.\r\n12. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (January 1, 2014). \"AOL Sells Winamp And Shoutcast Music Services To Online Radio\r\nAggregator Radionomy\". TechCrunch. AOL.\r\n13. ^ \"Winamp lives on after acquisition by Radionomy\". The Verge. January 14, 2014. Retrieved January 14,\r\n2014.\r\n14. ^ Burton, Bonnie (November 23, 2013). \"Waving goodbye to Winamp, paying respects to Nullsoft\". CNET.\r\nRetrieved April 15, 2024.\r\n15. ^ Newman, Jared (April 12, 2023). \"Winamp is back, but not like you remember\". FastCompany. Retrieved\r\nApril 15, 2024.\r\n16. ^ Cimpanu, Catalin (March 16, 2017). \"Trend: Ransomware Hidden in NSIS Installers Harder to Detect\".\r\nBleeping Computer. Retrieved April 14, 2024.\r\n17. ^ Team, Community (January 1, 2006). \"Project of the Month, January 2006\". SourceForge Community\r\nBlog. Retrieved October 9, 2025.\r\n18. ^ Hu, Jim (June 26, 2002). \"AOL aims to supercharge streaming\". CNET News. Retrieved June 7, 2013.\r\n19. ^ \"AOL pulls Nullsoft file-sharing software\". Flexbeta. May 30, 2003. Archived from the original on\r\nSeptember 8, 2004. Retrieved June 7, 2013.\r\n20. ^ \"Nullsoft TV Worldwide Public Access\". Nullsoft.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2003.\r\nRetrieved June 7, 2013.\r\nWinamp\r\nSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System\r\nPage 3 of 3", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "ETDA" ], "references": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System" ], "report_names": [ "Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434576, "ts_updated_at": 1775791252, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/eaf3812768e20639a54a2a2c7a4b447267be922c.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/eaf3812768e20639a54a2a2c7a4b447267be922c.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/eaf3812768e20639a54a2a2c7a4b447267be922c.jpg" } }