React-modern-audio-player v2: 3 years of silence, complete rewrite, 80% smaller bundle
Repo: https://github.com/slash9494/react-modern-audio-player
Full changelog: https://musgravte.hashnode.dev/the-unfiltered-log-of-shipping-open-source-v2-with-ai-agents
I built react-modern-audio-player back in 2022. After v1.4 it sat untouched for almost 3 years.
v2 is a full rewrite.
- Bundle went from 380 KB with 6 dependencies down to 79 KB with one (wavesurfer.js).
- Added 32 test files where there were zero.
- Keyboard navigation and screen reader support that didn't exist before.
New useAudioPlayer() hook for programmatic control.
Still one person maintaining it, still free, still open source.
If you've used v1 or looked for a React audio player before, v2 is a different library at this point.
Cutting a bundle by 80% while adding full accessibility support is a massive technical win, Musgravate. Moving from a bloated 380 KB setup to a lean 79 KB library proves that a complete rewrite—especially with a "one-dependency" philosophy—is often the only way to pay down years of architectural debt.
I’m currently running a project in Tokyo (Tokyo Lore) that highlights high-utility open-source builds and the technical discipline behind them. Since you’ve turned a "silent" project into a modern, performance-first standard for React audio, entering your repository could be the perfect way to get your v2 logic in front of more developers while the prize pool odds are at their absolute peak.