How to Keep a Music Journal
A music journal is a personal record of what you listen to and how it made you feel. Kept consistently, it becomes a soundtrack of your life — the albums that defined a summer, the songs tied to a first show, the artists you kept returning to. Here's a simple way to start one and stick with it.
Why keep a music journal
Streaming makes it easy to hear more music than ever and remember less of it. A journal slows the listen down. You notice production choices, lyrics, and how a record ages across seasons. Over time you build a private canon — the records that actually mattered to you, not just what the algorithm queued.
What to log for each album
- Date first heard — anchor the record to a moment in your life.
- Rating — a simple 1–5 or 1–10 is enough. Consistency beats precision.
- Standout tracks — the two or three you'd play for a friend.
- Liner notes — one paragraph on the mood, context, and what stuck.
- Tags — genre, season, location, or the show you saw them at.
A weekly routine that sticks
- Pick one album each week to listen front-to-back, uninterrupted.
- Rate it the same day. First impressions are the honest ones.
- Write three lines of liner notes — no more, no less.
- Once a month, revisit last month's picks. Adjust ratings if they aged.
Ranking with This or That
Ratings drift. To keep an honest ordered list, compare two albums at a time and pick the one you'd rather hear right now. About My Beats uses this head-to-head method (called This or That) to build a global ranking that updates every time you play.
Tying music to memory
Log concerts on a calendar, tag the songs that hit hardest, attach a photo or short clip from the night, and pin an album to the day you first heard it. Years later the journal reads like a diary written in track listings.
Start your journal
About My Beats is built for exactly this workflow — rate albums, write liner notes, rank with This or That, and mark the dates that matter. It's free to start.
Open About My Beats