Musician and entrepreneur Tom Vek is building a digital music player, but don't call it retro
The man behind We Have Sound wants to fix what streaming broke: the album as an object worth holding.
Written by OutOfToken AI
August 10, 2026 · 4 min read · Synthesized from reporting by The Verge · How this works
Tom Vek made his name in 2005 with We Have Sound, a record catchy enough to land on The OC and the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack. Fifteen years later, he's not chasing another Pitchfork score. He's building a piece of hardware called Sleevenote, designed to give digital album art the physical weight it lost somewhere between the CD jewel case and the Spotify thumbnail.
From indietronica to industrial design
Vek's catalog reads like a study in patience. Leisure Seizure took years to follow We Have Sound and still climbed into the UK charts in 2011. His most recent album, New Symbols, arrived in 2022 alongside a project that had nothing to do with songwriting: a standalone music player he'd already been developing since 2020.
What Sleevenote actually is
Sleevenote is a compact, dedicated device built around high-resolution artwork and physical controls, occupying a space somewhere between a Walkman's simplicity and an MP3 player's convenience. Vek has been explicit that this isn't nostalgia for cassettes or CDs — it's a rejection of the multi-use smartphone screen, where an album cover competes with texts, notifications, and a dozen other apps for a sliver of attention.
""Digital music is great for discovery but not so great for an immersive album experience," Vek has said, describing streaming's treatment of artwork as miniaturized and compromised."
The case against your phone
The pitch behind Sleevenote treats album art as inseparable from the music itself, an idea baked into vinyl's gatefold sleeves and liner notes long before streaming flattened everything into a scrollable grid. Vek has framed the device as leading what he calls a digital album artwork revolution, positioning it as a deliberate, single-purpose listening tool rather than another notification-laden gadget. Outlets like Wallpaper* have described it as a mindful music player, a phrase that captures the anti-distraction thesis at its core.
A musician's second act
It's a strange pivot on paper — indie rock frontman turned consumer electronics founder — but Vek's own history suggests he's always been hands-on with gear, from reel-to-reel recording discipline early in his career to building out his own studio setup over years. That same patience that stretched Leisure Seizure's gestation and delayed New Symbols seems to be steering Sleevenote's development too, with the project reportedly taking roughly four years to go from idea to device.
Whether Sleevenote finds an audience beyond vinyl collectors and design obsessives remains an open question, and Vek hasn't disclosed pricing or a firm release timeline. But the device arrives at a moment when plenty of listeners are quietly fatigued with algorithmic feeds and disposable digital artwork, and a musician-turned-hardware-founder betting on physical intentionality over convenience is, at minimum, a bet worth watching.
Editorial Note
The research confirms Sleevenote's core design philosophy and Vek's 2020 development timeline, as well as key career milestones like The OC and GTA IV placements. However, specific claims about Pitchfork's 7.6 rating, the 2011 Leisure Seizure release date, and the 2022 New Symbols release remain unverified by the provided sources. The article's framing is positive and lacks critical perspective on market viability.
Claim Tracker
AI-assessed
The Verge article mentions the 7.6 Pitchfork score and 2005 release, but neither source 1 nor sources 2-6 provide independent confirmation of the Pitchfork rating.
Source 1 (The Verge) corroborates both placements: 'a record catchy enough to land on The OC and the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack.'
The article claims 2011 release and UK chart position, but the provided sources do not confirm the specific chart position or verify the 2011 date independently.
The article states 'New Symbols' in summary but 'Newer Symbols' in body text—a discrepancy. Source 4 (Wikipedia) mentions announcement on November 12, 2020 but doesn't confirm a 2022 release date.
Source 2 (It's Nice That) confirms Vek's philosophy: 'The crux of the product harks back to music and artwork being intrinsically linked.' Source 4 (Wikipedia) confirms Sleevenote was announced November 12, 2020.
Source 2 (It's Nice That) directly quotes Vek's positioning: 'Digital music is great for discovery but not so great for an immersive album experience' and that album art has been 'miniaturised and compromised.'
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