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Question: Why did you not give Dmitry his share of profit after selling winamp to AOL since it was inspired from his idea of MACAMP? (And winamp would not have been possible without MACAMP)
Asked by Karan (76.191.25.x) on January 21 2024, 5:08am
Reply on January 21 2024, 11:58pm (edited at January 22 2024, 12:49am):
    Two things -- one, I was very much into programming software for playing music on computers long before I met Dmitry (and before mp3 existed). See e.g. DACE on my old code section of my site. Anyway, while Winamp might not have existed in the same form as it did had it not had MacAMP as inspiration, I without any doubt would've made Windows mp3 playback software around that time period.

    Two: we were friends, working on our own projects. Then he got a job at some aerospace company, moved to Seattle, got really into the rave scene there, and we lost touch. I worked on Winamp for years. What made it successful was the process of development, getting feedback from users, improving things, and making it all really interesting. (e.g. skins, visualizations, lots of playlisting functionality, a good community, etc).

    "his share of the profit" -- what would be the appropriate share? I didn't hear from him after he went out of touch until after we sold. I can't speak to what happened after we sold, as I still honor the confidentiality terms we agreed to, while apparently he does not.

    TL;DR: at the end of the day, Winamp was what it was because of those of us (me, Tom, Rob, Rex, and my father) who spent tons of time on it, and Dmitry ended up getting more than (IMO) he earned.

Comments:
  • Posted by Karan (76.191.25.x) on January 22 2024, 6:03am:
    Thank you so much for the quick clarification Justin, I really appreciate it. I finally understood your perspective and it gives me peace of mind to know that it was your hardwork that led to sucess of WINAMP. Ultimately it is execution that matters the most coz as they say, Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless! Like you Justin, Thanks again!

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