TAPE NOTES COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER - AUGUST 2026 (Patreon)

Dear Tape Notes member

Hope you're having a great summer! We're back with our usual monthly update for you, our amazing paid subscribers!

Keep reading for Tape Notes news, the story and people behind the show, upcoming episodes, the chance to win 3 months' membership of our EPP tier and our 25% off EPP offer!

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LATEST EPISODE: CHARLI XCX, A.G. COOK, FINN KEANE!

For our 185th episode, we were joined at one of our favourite studios, Platoon in London, by friends of the show Charli xcx and A.G. Cook (our second episode with Charli and third now with Alex!) and Tape Notes newbie Finn Keane! He told us he enjoyed it so much, he'll definitely be back!

They dropped by to deep dive into the writing, recording and production of Charli's brand new album 'Music, Fashion, Film'. It's had rave reviews and as we write, has just topped the UK album charts, making Charli the first British female artist ever to have two no 1 albums in a year!

Charli is renowned as one of the hardest working artists in the business so we were really honoured that she gave us a whole afternoon of her time to unpack the music in a way you won't hear anywhere else. And we were beyond thrilled to be able to feature two unreleased tracks: 'Card Declined' and 'No One Lasts Forever', meaning you folks got to hear these songs two days before the album's release!

We're not surprised that the episode has been a massive hit with you all and brought in lots of brand new folks to the Tape Notes community! If you're one of them, welcome! If you haven't checked the episode out yet, click here!

TAPE NOTES - OUR STORY!

We often get questions about the podcast and its history, especially as we've grown so much over the past few years! We thought the newsletter was the ideal place to tell you a bit more about us!

It's actually nearly 10 years since childhood friends and music obsessives Tim and Will launched Tape Notes, and episode 1 came out! You can listen to it on audio here!

Tape Notes was born out of the award-winning annual music festival In the Woods that Will and Tim established in 2006. From that, they had the idea to branch out and create a podcast with a unique proposition: reuniting an artist and producer to tell the story of writing, recording and making an album, lifting the lid on the creative process by using unheard demo versions and session audio.

Music industry legend and Radio X DJ John Kennedy, who had compered one of the In the Woods stages, came on board as the Tape Notes host. With over 20 years' experience interviewing and breaking new artists on radio and an encyclopedic music knowledge, John was the perfect choice for the kinds of conversations we wanted to have.

Over the next five years, we released 100 audio episodes, which you can hear wherever you get your podcasts, and built a loyal fanbase of artists, producers and music obsessives like us, who loved going deep into how our favourite albums are made.

In 2023 we launched the video version of the podcast here on Patreon, to complement the audio podcast we know so many of you love. This let us feature screen recordings of artists' and producers' digital audio workspaces, which we know is really valued by you. The first full video episode, with The 1975, is our second-most-watched ever! If you're a Premium member, you can still watch it here!

85 full video episodes later, the show continues to go from strength to strength, and we're always thinking about how we can make it even better!

OUR TEAM

Sometimes people think there is a huge team behind Tape Notes! We take that as a compliment about the quality of the show! In reality though, there are just 10 of us!

Founders Tim and Will B are still the vision behind our show, leading the way and making sure we feature the best and most interesting artists in the industry. And of course John is the face of Tape Notes that you see and hear every episode!

In 2019 Will L joined the team and now produces the show, making sure every episode is top quality!

Head of Video Nico joined us in 2023! Then as we continued to grow we added Cameraman Evan, Audio engineer Ben, Production and Partnerships lead Jess and Community and Social Media manager Ali! Guy creates our Gear Lists for every show, and that's our team!

GEAR LISTS!

You guys tell us how useful you find the detailed gear lists Guy produces for every episode! And they're available to every paid Patreon!

Check out Charli, A.G. and Finn's go-to gear here!

Take a look at Myles Smith and Peter Fenn's gear list here!

OUR MEMBERSHIP TIERS!

We know we have a few different tiers, and sometimes that might be confusing! Why don't we have only two tiers, or even one? In short, we know you're all different and you want different benefits. Here's the TLDR guide to our tiers in cost order! And they're named after different types of vinyl record!

Get the full details of each tier here.

45s Club (£3 per month) - show your support for us, get access to Gear Lists and ask artists questions on the show

Extended Players (£6 per month) - get access to 1 year of our full video episode archive, Gear Lists, BTS content & ask artists questions on the show

Extended Players Premium (£9 per month) - access our full video archive plus get entry into a monthly gear giveaway just for this tier and a member benefits package. To upgrade to EPP, click here: JOIN NOW and use the code 62CC5 to get 25% off your first month's membership! TO WIN 6 MONTHS' MEMBERSHIP of EPP, comment below on an artist you'd love to see perform at a Tape Notes Live show!

Long Players (£20 per month) - we look on our LPs as our advisory board, with regular online meetings, a Whatsapp group so you can get BTS from our recordings as they happen and all the benefits from our other tiers

FOR THE RECORD - OUR NEW VIDEO ESSAY SERIES

We've mentioned that we're music obsessives at Tape Notes! For the Record is our new video essay series, inspired by suggestions from you guys and created by our cameraman Evan! We think he did an incredible job!

You folks on Patreon will get episodes first, before our YouTube channel!

Our plan for For the Record is to dig into music-related stories, ideas and subjects we find genuinely interesting. Most episodes will have some kind of overlap with music production, technology or history. Each episode will be around 10–15 minutes and focuses on one topic, unpacking what happened, why it matters, and what it tells us about music.

Tell us what you think of episode 1 - we'd love to hear your thoughts! And if you have suggestions for what you'd like us to focus on in future episodes, give us a shout!

FROM THE ARCHIVE

TN: 167 with ground-breaking British artist Kae Tempest and revered producer Fraser T. Smith was a joy to record! If you haven't seen it yet, check it out!

UPCOMING EPISODES

5th August - Joy Anonymous

19th August - Overmono

And so much more that we'd love to tell you about but we'd probably be killed!

Don't forget to comment below for the chance to win 3 months' free membership of Extended Players Premium, and thanks again for supporting independent podcasting and long-form music journalism! It really matters, especially right now!

Big love!

John & the Tape Notes team