How it began
It began on an ordinary evening, in the middle of a happy conversation with my closest friends. We were laughing and talking over one another, and somewhere in all that noise I realised: this is one of the moments. The kind you only recognise while it is happening — and never quite get back.
I wanted something to hold on to it with. And I knew a photograph would not be enough. A photograph keeps the faces, but not the laughter, not the voices, not the sound of that evening.
I am a friend, a son and a father, and I have lived many moments like that one. If I am honest, I have let some of them slip by. The one I think of most is the first time my child called out to me. I was overwhelmed. And nothing kept it. The sound is still with me, whole and clear, in my memory — but only there. A memory is not something you can play for anyone else.
So I began to imagine something that did not yet exist: a keepsake you could set on a desk or carry in your skin, that was an image and a sound at once. Something you could look at — and then hear the moment itself.
That idea became TraceSound.
— The founder of TraceSound
A friend, a father, a son.
Why TraceSound
Most of us have a recording we would never want to lose: a parent's voicemail, a child's first words, the vows from a wedding day, a laugh that filled a room. Yet those recordings sit in the least permanent places we own — a phone that will be replaced, an app that may close, a cloud account that may lapse.
TraceSound turns that recording into a glyph: soundwave art whose shape is also a key. Print it, frame it, engrave it, wear it or tattoo it, and anyone who points a phone camera at it hears the voice it was made from — in the browser, with no app to install.
What we believe
A real voice, not an imitation
We keep the actual recording — its breath, its pauses, its accent, the way it catches on a word. We never replace a voice with text-to-speech or an AI clone. What you hear when you scan is what was recorded.
Pay once, keep it forever
A memory should not come with a subscription. You pay once to keep a glyph, and nothing renews. That is backed by the Forever Promise: a share of our profits set aside in a reserve that pays for keeping it online, and a written plan should we ever stop.
Your memory is yours
You can download your audio and artwork at any time, and delete them whenever you choose. We do not sell your data, we do not show advertising inside the scan, and the camera feed never leaves your phone. Our Privacy Policy says exactly what we store and why.
Hear it before you pay
You can make a glyph from your own recording and hear it scan before creating an account or paying anything. Pricing is public and set by length alone — see what it costs.
How it works, briefly
- Record a sound, or upload one — a voice memo, a voicemail, the audio from a video.
- TraceSound draws it as a glyph and links it to a private key that only the shape carries.
- Keep it, and put it anywhere: a frame, an acrylic block, a shirt, your skin.
- Anyone holding it can scan it and hear the voice again.
Talk to us
A person, not a bot, reads every message. Whether it is a question before you buy, a glyph that will not scan, or an idea for working together — tattoo artists and memorial makers especially — get in touch.