A Year of Tracks & Tales

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By Rafi Mercer

Tracks & Tales is almost a year old.

It began with a fairly simple idea: that listening mattered, and that there should be a place devoted to the spaces, records and people who still take it seriously.

There was no grand launch plan. No large team. No certainty that anyone would arrive.

I simply began writing.

One venue became ten. Ten became a hundred. The city pages grew, the music library expanded, the emails went out each week, and somewhere along the way Tracks & Tales became something larger than the idea I had started with.

More than 100,000 people have now visited the site. Thousands have joined the email list. Hundreds have become members of the Listening Club.

Those numbers matter, but perhaps not for the obvious reason.

They matter because each one represents a person who also believes that listening is worth making time for.

A year ago, Tracks & Tales was an instinct. Today, it is a real platform, a growing community and a body of work that continues to bring people in even when I am not sitting at the desk.

There is still an enormous amount to build.

More cities to explore. More venues to discover. More records to listen to. More stories to tell.

But today feels like a good moment to stop and recognise something simple.

Tracks & Tales exists.

And after almost a year, it is still growing.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Tracks & Tales begin?

Tracks & Tales began in August 2025 as an independent guide to listening bars, music, records and the culture of attentive listening.

What is the Tracks & Tales Listening Club?

The Listening Club is the membership side of Tracks & Tales, bringing people together through guided listening sessions, album discoveries and deeper musical exploration.

What comes next for Tracks & Tales?

The next chapter will include more cities, more listening venues, more original writing and the continued growth of the Listening Club.

Rafi Mercer writes about the spaces where music matters. For more stories from Tracks & Tales, subscribe, or click here to read more.