TapeOp.com - launched in January 2011 - is a modern editorial-based site that serves as a tightly-knit companion to each issue of the print edition of Tape Op. Though it does have many of the trappings of a traditional website, TapeOp.com behaves much more like an online publication, updating both it's design and exclusive web content to match the new issue of Tape Op that arrives in the mailbox, all with the same depth and meticulousness that defines Tape Op. Within the physical magazine, readers are consistently pointed towards bonus video, audio, photos, and articles online that extend and support the current print issue's features. The site also houses an up-to-date searchable archive of all of Tape Op's gear reviews, Larry Crane's blog, and RSS-enabled news and events feeds.

The Tape Op Message Board - launched in 2001 - is one of the most established forums for creative music recording on the web. The message board covers everything from recording techniques to computers to tape machines to building studios and everything in between.

Our subtitle says it best: The Creative Music Recording Magazine. Tape Op is about learning how to make great recordings with whatever tools you have access to. Unlike most recording magazines, Tape Op is not focused on reviewing equipment. Lots of mags already do a great job on that front. Instead, Tape Op interviews engineers, producers and musicians who are making great recordings. We sit down and talk with them at length and then run long, in- depth interviews. The reader becomes, in essence, the "Tape Op" hanging out in the studio and learning the trade from the seasoned vets working in the studio. Tape Op is about education and creativity.

Message Board fairly steadily receives an average of about 350,000 pageviews per month. TapeOp.com currently receives about 100,000 pageviews per month, a number which has been steadily increasing since its recent launch, and one we expect to continue.

In the not too distant past, say the Beatles Abbey Road era, the only way to learn the recording trade was to apprentice at a studio. Your first job, after being granted the privilege of cleaning the toilets was to be the Tape Operator. Before remote controls, tape recorders were pretty clunky and the engineer would tell the Tape Op which transport buttons to hit. When the session was over the Tape Op might glean a few kernels of knowledge from the engineer before they left, leaving the Tape Op to clean up after them. Eventually, several years later, the engineer would not show up to a session for some reason and the Tape Op would finally get a chance to engineer a session. Things are a lot easier today, but the engineer's thirst for knowledge remains.

Tape Op was started as a 'zine' in 1996 by a then novice recording engineer named Larry Crane. The first issue was 16 pages, printed on legal paper and Xeroxed. The print run was 500 copies and Larry sent it out to his friends. After two years, Larry partnered with John Baccigaluppi, an engineer and producer who he'd worked with in the past and was now in the publishing business. Tape Op now prints 52,500 copies and is still growing. Tape Op Online began with the Tape Op Message Board in 2001, and has recently added the new TapeOp.com to its family in 2011. Together these sites continue to grow, and currently receive around 450,000 pageviews per month. Larry's growth as an engineer has paralleled Tape Op's. He's worked with artists like Richard Buckner, The Go Betweens, Elliott Smith and Sleater-Kinney and has been interviewed in Mix and many other music magazines. Larry's day to day involvement in recording new, vital music that people are listening to gives Tape Op a unique perspective among recording magazines.

No, we're not pro-analog either. Tape Op is about making the best recordings possible with the tools available, regardless of whether they're analog or digital.

See "Is Tape Op anti-digital?" above.

A quick glance through our subscription list yields names like Tchad Blake, Pete Townshend, Steve Albini, and Joe Chiccarelli. Tape Op has a devoted following among some of the most well known engineers, producers and studio owners in the industry. But that's only part of our readership. Tape Op has an extremely diverse demographic, from home recordists to working professionals and everything in-between. If a recordist is serious about recording music, they subscribe to Tape Op. That's all we cover. We don't cover live sound, audio for video, surround sound formats, or audio on the internet. 91% of our readers record in their homes. Our average reader has been recording music for 14.4 years and 44% of our readers earn their living recording music. We have done extensive marketing in numerous smaller regional and underground publications. This helps to explain why according to our reader survey, 45% of our readers don't read any other recording magazines. 85% of our readers save every issue of Tape Op indefinitely. Detailed reader survey results are available upon request.

Tape Op is bi-monthly, and is published both in print and online on the 15th of every other month beginning in January.