(this forum needs a "General chat" area)  (Just sayin)....


"Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release.
Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years."

Message can be viewed here:  http://www.winamp.com/media-player/en

AOL is closing down Winamp... Which brings to mind.  How will the MP3 License Keys get purchased now?  When using Shoutcast v2.0 in order to play as MP3 and not AAC+ you need to have that License key.

Does Shoutcast v2.2 still require the use of a License Key for MP3 ?  (The winamp store, where you purchase the license key, is already closed)

(this forum needs a "General chat" area)  (Just sayin)....

Good suggestion, although this thread is certainly on-topic for this forum so not to worry.

We're keeping an eye on developments with the situation -- no word so far on whether or not the SHOUTcast toolset and shoutcast.com are considered to be "associated web services" to winamp.com, but indeed, it's impossible to purchase MP3 license keys at the moment so that isn't a promising sign.

That said, even if DNAS/sctrans end up being discontinued, there are other products out there that support the SHOUTcast protocol (some we already support and others we can certainly add support for and/or have already been working on)... and aside from that, the SHOUTcast protocol is far from the only audio streaming format out there anyway, and Centova Cast is modular enough that it's not particularly difficult to add support for (and a convenient migration path to) whatever emerges as the replacement for DNAS, if the need arises.

Then again, a huge subset of the market is still using SHOUTcast v1.9.x... and that was discontinued about 10 years ago, so... I wouldn't panic.

Thanks Steve for your reply at this matter.

Im still using shoutcast v1. I refused to use shoutcast v2 because didnt make sense to me.

So according to your opinion, as far as I use shoutcast v1 at my centova panel, all will continue as good as now?

Regards

how can we use the auto-dj for shoutcast 2.0 whth mp3 if we cannot buy an mp3 license key?
Is there any solutions?

Azoto85, Im trying to find this out, ive contacted one of the Shoutcast Developers with a few questions about Shoutcast and MP3 License.  (Since the message states "associated web services", which I can only assume that Shoutcast is  associated with Winamp

Heres a bit of some information:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/21/source-microsoft-in-talks-to-buy-shoutcast-and-winamp-from-aol/?ncid=fb


Also some links on the Winamp website that point to Shoutcast, are now pointing to iTunes.

STEVE please tell me you can patch SHOUTcast 2 if the mp3 keys go down?

On the plus side we may be getting a lotta biz !!

While it’s not clear what use Microsoft would have planned for either service, Shoutcast’s network of radio stations could be something the company might add to its Xbox Music product as a new feature.

http://www.geekwire.com/2013/report-microsoft-breathe-life-winamp-shoutcast/

STEVE please tell me you can patch SHOUTcast 2 if the mp3 keys go down?

The MP3 keys are just that (keys) so they can't "go down".  They're just like oldschool shareware registration keys -- sctrans2 runs them through an algorithm and if the key is valid, the MP3 encoder gets enabled.  There's no "phone home" mechanism or anything of the sort.  So if you've already purchased an MP3 license key, you won't be impacted.

The bigger problem will be whether or not DNAS2 starts rejecting listener connections when/if yp.shoutcast.com gets shut down and DNAS2 is unable to reach it.  Presently DNAS2 will not operate in public mode without being able to validate its auth hash with yp.shoutcast.com.  So station admins may find that they need to switch their streams to private mode before that happens, or risk DNAS2 suddenly refusing all listener connections.

DrO has carefully avoided the subject of SHOUTcast on the winamp.com forums so far, and I personally contacted him to ask whether a new build would be released prior to the shutdown and/or how these issues would be handled, but haven't heard back.  The rumors that have been going around since yesterday (both about an acquisition by Microsoft, and about AOL having planned to make a closure announcement about SHOUTcast next week) likely explain why he's been unable to comment about it.

I expect that once AOL makes any forthcoming announcements, all of the technical elements will be cleared up by DrO prior to the shutdown date.  If any changes are required on our end (within CC) to ease the transition, we'll make them and push out an emergency update.

Shoutcast and winamp getting a proper team of developers behind them would be really very welcome news indeed! What a fantastic prospect...

Here is some updated information that was posted on the "new" winamp forums by DrO:

RE: The Future of SHOUTcast
TrexRadio: the MP3 unlock code for sc_trans (and it is _just_ that which requires it, not the v1 / v2 DNAS as seems to keep being falsely stated) will work irrespective of whatever is or isn't going on in relation to SHOUTcast as it's a check done in sc_trans itself, hence why it's added to the config file.

the only reason sc_trans was stumped with that "feature" is (based on what i've gathered over the last few years) the lawyers deemed that the stations are the ones who should be paying for the MP3 encoding license (even though a number of other products out there don't do such things and mean that a lot of streams are technically breaking the law when it comes to providing MP3 encoded streams).

got to love licensing at time.

http://winampforum.com/showthread.php?tid=17&pid=262#pid262


And

RE: The Future of SHOUTcast
Atnevon: you're confusing things still it seems.

there are _no_ auth servers for sc_trans. if you have a valid MP3 unlock code then it'll work irrespective of things - that's why it can be run on a LAN only setup and still work.

so if sc_trans already works and has a valid MP3 unlock code, then it's going to keep working. the removal of the store access for MP3 unlock codes was not meant to have happened and i believe is meant to be being corrected (not something i can do, i'm just a lowly code monkey).


i suspect you're mixing up unlock codes with the v2 platform's authhash system. if so then that is something different and it was already noted at the time of the first v2.2 release a month and a bit ago that there are additional v1.x compatibility changes remaining to be made for a v2.2.1 release which will make the v2.2 DNAS better handle issues hitting the YP servers e.g. slow / timeout responses blocking listener connections (which has been a pre-exisiting issue since the v2.0 release that v2.2 generally improved but was not feature complete to allow for v2.2 as-is to be verified as generally fixing what it was meant to fix).

http://winampforum.com/showthread.php?tid=17&pid=276#pid276

Any more news on this ?

EDIT:

It looks like SHOUTcast and all it's related services will stay safe

http://forums.winamp.com/showpost.php?p=2979170&postcount=87

http://forums.winamp.com/showpost.php?p=2979127&postcount=69