Network Files: Bandcamp Friday, 5 Dec 2025
Today is the last Bandcamp Friday of 2025, but it’s the first Bandcamp Friday where you can support Local Files Club! For the uninitiated: on Bandcamp Friday, Bandcamp waives its revenue share. That means that 100% of any purchase you make on Bandcamp today will go directly to the artist.
So, obviously, if you haven’t bought Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop yet, today is a fantastic day to do it! Here’s what Meadowsweet_and_Magic wrote about Ms. Shipton: “This is a brilliant piece of audio, fantastically written! The sound editing is *chefs kiss* a work of art.” I couldn’t agree more!
If you have already purchased Ms. Shipton—thank you, by the way—there are a ton of other amazing audiodramas and experimental audio works that you can support on Bandcamp. Here are just a few suggestions.
The Tower
First, a shoutout to Amber Devereux’s The Tower, which just wrapped up with a two-part finale last month. This experimental audio fiction concept album is a strange and immersive journey up a tower littered with payphones. While The Tower is available via typical podcast channels for free, Tin Can Audio have the series on Bandcamp for listeners who a) want to support the show monetarily and b) get the high-quality audio files. And with sound design and music like this, you’re going to want the high-quality files.
The Perfect Sentence
Another audio fiction concept album—go figure—from Greater Boston co-creator Jeff Van Dreason. The Perfect Sentence follows Jeff as he interrogates his feelings around the loss of an old high school friend. It’s a blend of memoir, personal essay, fiction, and music that you won’t soon forget. Bonus: the music was co-written and performed by Oliver Morris, the writer, director, and composer of Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop.
Night Swim
If you love Dane Terry’s Dreamboy—and you should, you should absolutely love Dreamboy—you owe it to yourself to listen to Night Swim. It’s almost like a Dreamboy bonus track. We start with an impeccably sound designed and soundtracked story about young Dane meeting a boy at a public night swim. Halfway through, it transforms into a gorgeous song that fully realizes the imaginary world the two boys created. It clocks in at just over 10 minutes, but fair warning: you’re going to want to put it on repeat.
it was always worth it
Musician and artist Claire Rousay coined the term “emo ambient” to describe her work, and if you’re wondering what she means by that, I think this self-contained, 20-minute composition is the perfect introduction. Composed of synthesizer sounds, field recording, and text-to-speech readings of love letters, it was always worth it is unlike any “breakup album” you’ve ever heard before.
DOG FM
This is one of my favorite releases of 2025. A collaboration between field recording artist Oliver Chapman and poet Phoebe Eccles, DOG FM is a travelog into the surreal. While there is some dialogue—a doomed family car trip anchors the piece—the “story” of DOG FM is entirely up to how you interpret the sounds, music, and poetry. I’ve been listening to this a lot while drifting off to sleep, which probably biases my own interpretation and influences my dreams.
In other Ms. Shipton's Travelling Tea Shop and Local Files Club news, Keelin over at Mentally? A Magpie has written a thoughtful piece about our business model and how buying audio fiction upfront, before you listen to the whole thing, fits into today's podcast landscape and typical consumption habits. Check it out and make sure you subscribe to Mentally? A Magpie for your regular dose of podcast criticism.