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Podbay β A fast, easy, and powerful podcast player built for the Web.
Podbay is the fastest and easiest way to discover and listen to the best podcasts on the Web. We're taking a desktop-first approach for the underserved users who prefer listening on their laptops, desktops, or web browsers.
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Hey Product Hunt!
We just shipped Podbay: a fast, modern podcast player built for the Web. As podcast fans that listen primarily while working on our laptops, we felt that even with the variety of podcast apps available there weren't really any created with desktop users in mind as a priority.
Podbay offers everything you'd expect from a modern podcast player, including the ability to listen to any podcast from our large catalog or your own RSS feeds, search through episodes, discover new podcasts, and more. You can even subscribe to shows and maintain a queue / playlist without needing to sign up or log in - although doing so will allow you to synchronize everything automatically.
The site is 100% free to use, and we'll be expanding soon with features strengthening the relationship between podcasters and listeners, some of which will be ππππ’ ππ‘ππππππππππ.
For those interested in a little backstory: The first Podbay launched over 7 years ago after my partner @davidmancherje and I left our jobs on the founding team at the Earwolf podcast network. It was built with the two of us FTPing into a server and editing live PHP code, having to let each other know which files we were working on so we wouldn't overwrite each other's changes. It was a terrible way to build, but we shipped something, and by being early and just kinda good enough, we managed to gain a few hundred thousand monthly users quickly. Here's the last 7 years of our Google Analytics.
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π πππΎππ πΏπππ π©πππΎ π€π’π£π€ - π πππππ π€π’π£π«. π³ππΎ πππ π½πππ ππΎππΎ ππΎππ π»πππΎπΏ ππΎππππ½π ππΏ π½πππππππΎ πππΊπ ππΎ ππΊππΊππΎπ½ ππ ππΎπΌπππΎπ πΏπππ ππππΌππ
π πΎπππππ πππ ππ π
πππΎ πΊπ
π
ππΏ πππ πππΎππ. π¬
The site went unmaintained for years as David and I worked on other ventures (like the recently shut-down Super Deluxe π), but as we were starting our new company Fancy Soups (which we'll be sharing more on soon), we realized we could market to our existing Podbay audience.
Instead of just tossing house ads on the old product, we decided we'd upgrade the experience for all those loyal users first. We rebuilt the entire product using a modern tech stack (built on ZEIT's Next.js and Now. thanks @rauchg, @timneutkens, @lmprht! π). The result is a much faster, more scalable and maintainable product that we'll be able to support and expand upon easily in the coming weeks and months.
We'd be happy to answer any questions about Podbay, what we learned over those 7 years of non-maintenance, our process of building the new one, or how we envision a brighter future with tastier and healthier soups you can enjoy at home.
π¬πππππ
π πππΎππ πΏπππ π©πππΎ π€π’π£π€ - π πππππ π€π’π£π«. π³ππΎ πππ π½πππ ππΎππΎ ππΎππ π»πππΎπΏ ππΎππππ½π ππΏ π½πππππππΎ πππΊπ ππΎ ππΊππΊππΎπ½ ππ ππΎπΌπππΎπ πΏπππ ππππΌππ
π πΎπππππ πππ ππ π
πππΎ πΊπ
π
ππΏ πππ πππΎππ. π¬
The site went unmaintained for years as David and I worked on other ventures (like the recently shut-down Super Deluxe π), but as we were starting our new company Fancy Soups (which we'll be sharing more on soon), we realized we could market to our existing Podbay audience.
Instead of just tossing house ads on the old product, we decided we'd upgrade the experience for all those loyal users first. We rebuilt the entire product using a modern tech stack (built on ZEIT's Next.js and Now. thanks @rauchg, @timneutkens, @lmprht! π). The result is a much faster, more scalable and maintainable product that we'll be able to support and expand upon easily in the coming weeks and months.
We'd be happy to answer any questions about Podbay, what we learned over those 7 years of non-maintenance, our process of building the new one, or how we envision a brighter future with tastier and healthier soups you can enjoy at home.
@davidmancherje @rauchg @timneutkens @lmprht @shahruz
I was browsing your website yesterday. It looks really good. One problem I found is that it can be really slow to open a category/podcast page. In fact, sometimes it is so slow that I thought there was a bug and the button wasn't working. Another tip is to add the number of subscribers/average episode download for each podcast. Keep going with the good work.
Thanks for the feedback! We'll take a look at the speed issue on those pages, that's definitely not normal.
@shahruz I confirm the same issue. I did a small test and review for tools.robingood.com and found the same issue (but not with all podcasts).
@shahruz Maybe not too easy to filter by language. That would be a valuable addition for international users.
Congratulations for not abandoning what you have built! It's hard to push through but you did it! Love it! I giggled at your FTP comments....same experience. Glad those days are over. I "re" found podbay as I received alerts that my shows are on the platform. We have a slate of shows deploying through Q1 2020 and look forward to them being on your platform. Best wishes! Exciting times!
No-Code Tees by Maker Threads