The Story

Origin

Zanoza didn't start as a startup idea. It started as a personal need.

I wanted a minimal, lightweight radio player for stream URLs. No ads. No tracking. No heavy catalog. Just my own stations, my own collection, and music that starts instantly.

There are plenty of apps that try to do everything for everyone. Zanoza was never meant to be one of them.

The Buzz

The first working title of the project was "nOiser." It made sense. Sound. Noise. Audio.

But it felt vague. And in the App Store it sounded more like a mixer or synthesizer tool than a simple radio player.

I grew up in the post-Soviet space. My native languages are Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian. "Sound" and "noise" translate to:

Звук (roughly pronounced "zvook")
Шум ("shoom")

I kept thinking in that direction. Something sharp. Something zzzzz-sounding.

Then the idea started buzzing in my head like a wasp. Zzzzz. It wouldn't leave. It sat there like a splinter.

And then it clicked. "Eureka," my inner Archimedes shouted: Заноза! (Zanoza)

In Russian and Ukrainian, "Заноза" means "splinter." Small. Sharp. Persistent.

Visually, I liked how Znz looked. To me it carried meaning. To the rest of the world it might just look like "ZZZ."

I even imagined how someone in Japan might pronounce it almost like "BanZZZai." That thought made me smile. That was the moment I knew: this is it.

Captain Zanoza

Most of the early development happened while listening to Space Station radio. I've always loved space.

Naturally, the ideas drifted in that direction too.

Almost immediately I imagined a female astronaut floating through space, listening to music.

That's how Captain Zanoza was born.