What you heard
A rating and a first thought
Give a release one to five stars and write the detail you want your future self to remember.
A music diary for albums, notes and changes of mind
Remember more thanwhat you played.
Raygum is a free music diary for logging records, rating them and writing down what you noticed — before the feeling turns into “I think I liked it?”
Free · Web and Android · No heroic backfilling required
Thursday, 28 August
Listening notes
The record
The one with that ending
Do not forget
The drums arrive late and somehow fix the entire day.
Next: follow the producer credit
Playback is not memory
Streaming remembers the play. A diary remembers the point.
A listening history can tell you that an album happened. Your own note can tell you why it mattered, who recommended it and whether the third listen changed your mind. That is the useful bit — and it belongs somewhere you can find again.
A play count remembers
How often the record came on.
Your diary remembers
What you heard when you paid attention.
What goes in a music diary?
Enough to bring the record back.
This is not homework and there is no minimum word count. A star, one sentence or a well-made list can be plenty.
What comes next
Recommendations with somewhere to go
Put records on your Listen List instead of leaving them in messages, screenshots and hopeful browser tabs.
What belongs together
Collections with a point of view
Group records by year, scene, mood, personal canon or any logic that makes sense to your particular music brain.
What made you curious
Credits and context for the rabbit holes
Follow artists, credits, equipment, samples, sources and stories when a record leaves you with questions.
Start with the next record
No need to reconstruct your entire musical biography.
Begin today. Older favourites can join when you actually feel like revisiting them.
01
Find the release
Search millions of artists and releases in Raygum’s open MusicBrainz-based catalogue.
02
Leave a useful trace
Rate it, write a note or save it to your Listen List. One deliberate action is enough.
03
Let the history grow
Return after the next record. Your listening diary becomes useful one honest entry at a time.
Choose your notebook
The best music diary is the one you will return to.
Paper, spreadsheets and streaming histories all have a real use. Raygum is for listeners who want their own judgement tied to an open catalogue and listening links.
Paper notebook
Tactile, flexible and pleasingly offline.
Harder to search or connect to a music catalogue.
Spreadsheet
Custom, sortable and entirely under your control.
You supply the artwork, links, credits and maintenance.
Streaming history
Automatic and already attached to playback.
Good at remembering plays; less good at remembering your judgement.
Raygum
Ratings, notes, lists and catalogue context across services.
The meaningful bit still needs a small decision from you.
Listen where you already listen
Your diary does not need to become your music player.
Keep Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube or another supported service. Raygum gives the memory and context a home, then points you back to the music.
Play there. Remember here.
No listening-service migration required.
Music diary questions
A few notes before you begin
Comparing album-rating apps too? Our Letterboxd for music guide explains how the main options differ.
You can also preview news from three artists before creating an account.
What is a music diary?
A music diary is a record of what you listened to and what you thought about it. It can include dates, ratings, short notes, longer reviews, recommendations to hear later and collections that connect records together.
Is Raygum free to use?
Yes. You can create an account and keep a music diary for free.
Do I need to log every album I have ever heard?
No. Start with the next record. Add older favourites when you genuinely want to revisit them; your diary does not need a complete back catalogue to be useful.
Does Raygum replace my streaming app?
No. Raygum works alongside the service you already use and links to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube and other supported listening services.
Can I use my music diary without following anyone?
Yes. Ratings, notes, your Listen List, collections and music research are useful on their own. Following artists and other listeners is optional.
Does Raygum have a mobile app?
Raygum works on the web and has a native Android app. A public native iPhone app is not available yet.
Today is a perfectly good first entry