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Musician Tom Vek develops 'Sleevenote', a digital music player that puts album art front and center — but don't call it 'retro'

British indie-electronic musician Tom Vek pivots into gadgets, creating a portable music player designed to let listeners see album artwork in full, while promoting 'mindful listening' away from smartphones

Tom Vek, the British musician and entrepreneur best known for his 2005 album We Have Sound — which scored 7.6 from renowned music site Pitchfork — and whose songs have appeared in the series The OC and the game Grand Theft Auto IV, is developing a digital music player called "Sleevenote".

Sleevenote's standout feature is bringing "album art" back as the star of the show, using a square (1:1 aspect ratio) touchscreen to display cover artwork and accompanying album information in full. The goal is to recreate the feeling of holding a vinyl record or CD in your hands, as in days gone by, even though the music itself is digital.

However, Vek emphasizes that Sleevenote is not a retro toy, but a dedicated device designed to promote "mindful listening" — separating the music-listening experience from smartphones full of notifications and distractions, so listeners can truly focus on the music and the artwork.

On the spec side, the device comes with 256GB of storage, supports high-resolution (Hi-res) audio files, and includes a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth. It emphasizes letting users own and manage their own music libraries rather than relying solely on streaming services.

The project previously ran a crowdfunding campaign and has been covered by tech and audio media outlets such as What Hi-Fi? and Engadget since its early days, while the official website Sleevenote.com confirms its technical details and latest project status. It stands as another case of an artist designing their own hardware to solve a problem they experienced firsthand as both a music maker and a music listener.