Winamp Bento Beta Version 5.5 Impressions

Winamp 5.5 Launched this week with some new features and a new direction. Winamp unveiled a new skin called Winamp Bento, which sort of mimics the style of iTunes and Foobar. Winamp Bento is generally Winamp 5 + Media Library + Album Art. The skin is very micro so senior citizens should beware of tiny hard to read icons.  The skin’s main attraction is its Media Library panes. Although very confusing to control, you can now change the media library to show only album art.

By default, it will show up with the Artist and Track List, and its up to you to figure out how exactly to make it show up the way you want. My dislikes for Media Library is how easily confusing it is to use. In the original Winamp 5, there’s 1 window for the main player, another window for the playlist, and then Media Library’s 4 panes of crazy going at you at one time! Its great for people who keep their music organized by album, but for the majority of users, nothing beats adding songs to the playlist.

Fortunately Winamp Bento has the option to convert the player back into the classic Winamp style, but with a few changes. Now the Playlist, Music Player, and Album Information is shown side by side. No longer will you have to worry about these windows taking up large portions of your screen.