For a little while there, the news wasn't looking good for Winamp fans, as the software that AOL (News - Alert) picked up back in 1999 for fully $80 million as part of its acquisition of Nullsoft was about to be shut down. The news wasn't much better for Shoutcast users, with similar shutdown plans afoot, leading to a potential hit for users of the media player and the media streaming platform. But a bit of a surprise turned up, and Microsoft (News - Alert) expressed an interest in the two media tools that may well save the platform's day.

Both AOL and Microsoft are reportedly refusing comment, but the current word suggests that Microsoft and AOL are pretty much agreed that Microsoft will take over the platforms in question, once the matter of price can be resolved. But this in turn raises some interesting issues overall, particularly in the frame of why Microsoft would buy such platforms in the first place. AOL divesting the properties makes sense; AOL can use cash, and hasn't exactly put a lot of power behind offering streaming music on its other properties, particularly in an age where the streaming music business has plenty of competition in play. AOL has also been seen refocusing on more text-based publishing efforts, picking up things like the Huffington Post (News - Alert), TechCrunch and Engadget.

Yet Microsoft, as part of its designs on living room domination as evidenced by the Xbox One's variety of media interactions, has been stepping up its designs in streaming music as evidenced with the Xbox Music platform, which works well with several devices, including non-Windows platforms like Android (News - Alert) and iOS. While Winamp doesn't seem to do much in terms of advancing that—or much else that Microsoft is doing at first blush—Shoutcast offers something much more potentially tempting in its access to a huge number of online radio stations, nearly 52,000 at last report. That's the kind of thing that could really light a fire under Xbox Music, and may even move on from there.

Indeed, it's not just about Microsoft's dreams of complete living room dominance that are up for grabs here, but also some support for the Windows Phone (News - Alert) platform. Still comparatively new, and still having quite a time making headway against the well-entrenched competitors of iOS and Android, it could be that at least some parts of Shoutcast—and maybe even Winamp—might make way into the Windows Phone platform too. A note of exclusivity—and with numbers like Shoutcast offers, Microsoft ought to be able to find a way to make a “Shoutcast Premium” possible—just might be what Windows Phone needs to bolster its numbers. Throw in the earlier-noted Microsoft Septimu project for mood-based music selection—Shoutcast has stations for most any mood—and a possible future path becomes clear.

There are certainly plenty of possibilities here, and with AOL and Microsoft both keeping mum as yet, speculation is likely to run rampant. Only time, however, will tell just how this all comes out, and it's a safe bet that, one way or another, Shoutcast's last song has yet to be played.