I guess I am the only person in the world still using Winamp. Just feels odd when I listen to mp3s and can't look up the ID3 tags with alt-3. And I never felt the need for a 'library', 'database' or huge spaceship cockpit UIs either.
My primary reason for staying on Winamp is that most of the plugins for playing video game console music formats (NSF, PSF, GSF, 2SF, USF, VGZ, KSS, SPC, and others) are written for Winamp. I've found a few programs that play a few of the formats, but Winamp is the only one that plays them all.
(Any player that fully supports Winamp plugins would be an adequate replacement, but I'm also happy with Winamp in general)
True, that's another good point. Talking of plugins for other music formats, the Oldsk00l MOD Player Plugin for Winamp provides much more accurate playback of Amiga MOD files than the built-in Winamp MOD player. Absolutely recommended and essential if you like Amiga (crack intro) chiptunes. Hasn't been updated in ages but still works fine for me.
I still use it for the fact I can reduce its size down to about 1/8" of my screen[1] (on a 23" 1920x1200 monitor) and scroll through my playlist with my mouse scroll wheel while docked on the taskbar of my screen. No other player (windows, linux or otherwise) can do that as far as I know.
I personally think foobar2000's fairly excellent. Flexible as hell, both in UI and in functionality. Quick and doesn't feel bulky at all. It's honestly the piece of software I miss most when I'm on my Linux install.
It has been named in this thread before, but you might not have seen it. I used to run foobar under wine, but honestly, deadbeef[1] works better from an integration point of view (global shortcuts, GTK etc.).
I tried iTunes back in 2009 when I was trying to get some music off of an iPod. Worst user experience ever. When you have to watch 5 minute video tutorials on Youtube to figure out how to do something, your user interface probably sucks.
Also, yes, the bloat and the constant updates to support the bloat.
You put music on your iPod or your remove it. It's not meant to bring around to your friends house and take all the music off of it and onto his computer. This is by design.
It lacks separation between the concept of a library and a playlist. Winamp has its Media Library which you use to browse and search your media. You then play what you want by putting it in the Playlist Editor. Whereas iTunes and every other media player just plays everything in your library starting with the file you clicked on.
[EDIT] Others have covered bloat, install issues, and its updater.
Amarok used to be my favorite music player by far. I still can't believe how much good stuff in the Linux world was destroyed by the transition to Qt4/KDE4. It's been like a five year development setback.
Doesn't have all the functionality - it can't play TTA properly, there are limitations in its cue support, playlist/queue/search don't interact the same way they did in amarok.
Fwiw, the music library functionality in winamp (IMHO) remains the fastest and best I've seen and used in any media player. And I've used pretty much all of them.
The reason why I use Winamp (and can't stand almost every other music playing program I've found) is because Winamp has the Nullsoft Signal Processing Studio DSP plugin. Being able to adjust the playback speed (affecting pitch and tempo), among other things, is a killer feature for me.
