AOL’s recently dropped Winamp music player may yet be saved – the software is still available for download despite the supposed December 20 retirement date, and rumours grow regarding its sale alongside the Shoutcast music service that should at least secure Winamp’s short-term future.

In the meantime, if you’re a Spotify Premium user who yearns to access your Spotify music through a Winamp-like interface, then your search is over thanks to the release of Spotiamp 0.2.

Spotiamp has been developed by the Swedish Spotify office in homage to Winamp – although developed in-house, however, the app is unofficial. Also available in portable form, the software closely mimics the Winamp look and functionality, but you will need a fully paid-up Spotify Premium account to use it.

Browse and listen to your Spotify Premium music collection through Spotiamp.

Once installed, log into your Spotify account and you’ll have access to your playlists, radio stations, suggested music and a search tool, all through a small and fast player. It works in a similar way to Winamp – there’s a small main player window plus a number of add-on windows, including EQ, playlist and album art, you can show or hide as required.

Spotiamp also bundles a Shoutcast server, allowing you to pipe your Spotify music to any Shoutcast-enabled devices you might own. Once enabled, simply point your devices to http://127.0.0.1:5010/play.pls, replacing 127.0.0.1 with your PC’s IP address.

The connection to Winamp goes deeper, with users able to transfer their visualisation plugins and skins from Winamp into Spotiamp – simply copy the relevant files into freshly created plugins and skins folders inside the main Spotiamp directory.

Spotiamp 0.2 and Spotiamp Portable 0.2 are both available now as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. A Spotify Premium account is required to log in and use the software.