Tim Burgess has teamed up with Flare Audio to produce a brand new range of ‘Listening Party’ earphones, with proceeds going to the Music Venue Trust. 

Burgess’s much-loved Listening Parties have become something of a Twitter sensation since the start of lockdown last year. Fort the uninitiated, the Parties invite fans to begin playing a specific record at a set time, from, which point Burgess and the artist in question provides a running commentary using the hashtag #TimsTwitterListeningParty.

Now, to coincide with his appointment as patron of the Music Venue Trust, which has raised millions for UK grassroots venues, Burgess has partnered with Flare Audio on a custom set of “Listening Party’ TLP1 earphones. Priced at £39.00, £5 of every sale from Flare Audio’s website will go directly to the Music Venue Trust. 50 random orders in the first week will come with a signed card from Tim and a further 100 orders will receive bonus merchandise, from Listening Party badges or Flare accessories. 

“A while back I was sent some amazing earphones by the lovely people at Flare – they were big fans of the listening parties and we got talking,” said Burgess. “The talk turned into a plan and the plan became an amazing set of listening party earphones that Flare will now be making, and together we’ll be raising money for Music Venue Trust.” 

You may also be interested in:

• A godsend for labels? What the return of live music could mean for the rest of the industry
• Katie Tavini answers your questions on all things audio
• We Make Events study: 43 per cent of live events businesses to close by June
• ‘Songs are as good as gold or oil’: Merck Mercuriadis on the future of publishing
• How does live come back? Frank Turner, Music Venue Trust and Concert Promoters Association speak out
• ‘If COVID hadn’t stopped European touring, Brexit would have’: Inside UK’s first live music industry body

Flare co-founder and COO, Naomi Roberts, added: “We love what Tim has been doing with the Listening Party and after some interesting talks we knew we could do something really great together. We wanted the Listening Party earphone, named TLP1, to be unique to Tim while still having the Flare tech and finish. The earphones themselves give incredible audio clarity and detail that provides high end sound quality without the price tag, and our unique distortion reducing tech helps you to listen better for longer.

“Flare started life as a loudspeaker manufacturer and PA hire company, and spent a lot of time in independent music venues. We feel now is our time to give something back and are pleased to be supporting MVT.”

Beverley Whitrick, strategic director for Music Venue Trust, also commented: “Tim has been acting as a champion for grassroots music venues across the UK for a long time now and has actively supported our #SaveOurVenues campaign. Formalising his status as a patron of MVT is a way for us to thank him for his considerable efforts and talk publicly about the projects Tim is working on to support venues. The first of which is the development of these great earphones with Flare Audio, with whom we have a longstanding relationship.” 

The TLP1 ‘Listening Party’ headphones will be available from 10am on March 26.

“We have great new ideas to launch, we need to tell our story”
Read the Audio Media International partner plan.