Tapedeck Launches With a Penny-Per-Play Minimum, Backed by a Veteran of Music Tech

Streaming economics have long favored platforms over artists, a dynamic Tim Quirk knows from both sides. The singer of alt-rock band Too Much Joy and a veteran of Rhapsody and Google Play Music, Quirk last month launched Tapedeck—a music store and streaming service that discards subscriptions in favor of direct, pay-per-play transactions.

Where major services pay fractions of a cent, Tapedeck sets a floor of one cent per stream, one dollar per track download, and ten dollars for an album. Artists can set higher rates and earn bonuses when fans install the app. The model isn’t theoretical. Quirk’s previous company, Freeform Development, built artist-specific apps for Lil Wayne and Rob Thomas, applying freemium mechanics from gaming to music and generating five to thirteen cents per play. Freeform was acquired by Zedge in 2018; Quirk revisited music last year with a wider vision, and Tapedeck was born.

Quirk’s perspective is shaped by decades of watching the industry pivot from physical to digital, then to streaming’s penny-fraction reality. “My ultimate goal is to make a penny per play the floor rather than the ceiling for online streaming royalties,” he says. The app is currently available on iOS in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, with Android and web versions in development. Licensing expansion remains an active priority.