Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO de Winamp – 25/06

June 25, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Winamp’s CEO, Alexandre Saboundjian, appeared on Tech&Co, la quotidienne to explain the company’s pivot from a legendary MP3 player to a platform for independent artists — and to announce a lawsuit against Nvidia for using Winamp’s music catalog to train AI without permission. The conversation reveals how a 1990s icon is trying to stay relevant, and why it is now taking a stand on AI training data.

From MP3 player to artist toolkit

Winamp was one of the first mainstream MP3 players, launched in 1997. At its peak, it had 200 million users. Today, it still has 50 to 80 million monthly users, mostly on Windows. But as Saboundjian explains, a media player is not an easy product to monetize — unless you add marketplaces or subscriptions like Spotify. So when the company set out to revive Winamp, it looked at where music was heading. The answer: more independent artists managing their own careers, but needing digital tools. Winamp repositioned itself as a platform for those artists — not just a player, but a set of services to help them distribute, promote, and manage their music across all platforms, not just inside Winamp’s own ecosystem. “Our job is to make sure this music is distributed everywhere,” Saboundjian said.

The Jamendo catalog and the AI training dataset

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What you'll learn

1 (00:13) **Winamp's Legacy & Current Scale** - The host introduces Winamp as the iconic MP3 player from the late 90s, and the CEO confirms it still has 50-80 million monthly users.
2 (01:26) **The Pivot: From Player to Artist Platform** - The CEO explains why Winamp had to evolve, as a standalone player is hard to monetize without subscriptions or marketplaces.
3 (02:34) **Core Service Explained** - The host clarifies the new model: an artist brings their music, and Winamp provides the tools to promote and distribute it.
4 (03:21) **The Legal Action Against Nvidia** - The host introduces the core conflict: Winamp (via its subsidiary Jamendo) is suing Nvidia for using its music catalog to train AI.
5 (03:42) **The Jamendo Catalog & The Dataset** - The CEO details the source of the music: Jamendo, a platform with 80,000 artists from 112 countries who license music for commercial use.
6 (05:54) **The Alleged Infringement by Nvidia** - The CEO states that in 2024, Nvidia used this dataset to train the first stage of software for their hardware.
7 (07:30) **The Core Dispute: Free Data vs. Fair Compensation** - The CEO clarifies they are not anti-AI, but pro-artist compensation.

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Show Notes

Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO de Winamp, était l'invité de François Sorel dans Tech & Co, la quotidienne, ce jeudi 25 juin. Il s'est penché sur l''attaque en justice de Winamp contre Nvidia pour l'entraînement de l'IA sur son catalogue musical, sur BFM Business. Retrouvez l'émission du lundi au jeudi et réécoutez-la en podcast.