DEVELOPER SPOTLIGHT
Your summer relaxation station
Poolsuite FM
The super-summer music player
‣ Founder: Marty Bell
‣ Mission: To provide the soundtrack to your sunny days (with an app designed to look like a Mac from 1994)
‣ App launched: 2014
‣ Team size: 1
‣ Go-to emoji: 💦
Let’s just come right out and say it: Poolsuite FM is the best bitmapped ’90s-inspired genre-hopping summer-party jukebox app in the world.
This retro radio streams cool summer playlists on ready-made stations such as Poolsuite FM (for all your sunshine-music needs), Tokyo Disco (for livelier pool decks) and Hangover Club (for when you want things a little... quieter). And it was invented not by a reggae artist or an Ibiza DJ but by an affable Scot named Marty Bell, who, prior to developing his poolside player, had no musical training, no tech background, no money to hire help and – this part is key – no pool.
What he did have was a well-honed ability to curate music that sounds like sunshine. “I have a pool in my head,” Bell says. “I imagine 10 people hanging out. They’re all way cooler than me. And I think, ‘OK, would I play this song in that scenario?’” he says. “The stakes are really high.”
We caught up with Bell at his home in Scotland to talk about the power of cheesy beach movies and making his company the “funnest place on earth”.
Where did the idea for Poolsuite FM come from?
It was the winter of 2014, a very grey time in Scotland. It was cold and spitting rain all the time. I was probably subconsciously looking for some sunshine and positivity. Listening to this music just boosted the serotonin in my brain.
What inspired the retro design?
Well, I knew a playlist app would be a hard sell – everybody thinks they have the best playlists. [Laughs.] I thought, “Why don’t I take this summer thing that makes me feel happy, like I’m on holiday, and pair it with something else that makes me feel happy: ridiculously cheesy ’80s beach movies on VHS?” The two things together really changed the experience.
How much development experience did you have before starting?
None. I didn’t know a single dev. I emailed someone with this idea and he said, “Hell, yeah!” After we launched, we got lucky – it immediately went viral on Twitter and did really well on the subreddit Internet is Beautiful. It’s really caught a little bit of a cult following over the years.
Why do you think it clicked so quickly?
It’s more than just the music, which is really just SoundCloud playlists that I curate. It’s the layers of nostalgia, the visuals, the way you interact with the app, which is inspired by Classic Mac OS. It felt like lightning in a bottle.
Where do you see Poolsuite going from here?
That’s a very good question! Everybody who’s worked on it has done this for free, which means it’s been my job to make it the funnest place on earth. We just launched a sunscreen company; we’re working on an Apple TV app. But I don’t ever want to monetise Poolsuite. I don’t want to track metrics and KPIs and all that. It would kill the vibe.
Poolside Worldwide is a part of the App Store Small Business Program. If you are a developer and would like to learn more about the program, follow the link below.