Listening Journal

A listening log for works, performers, recordings, and releases.

Experimental and building in public

This app is very much a work in progress and probably should not be used by anyone.

The current flows are intentionally rough. They are functional probes to discover what the model needs, not finished interface or interaction design.

This app is an evolving personal music catalogue and listening workflow. It is meant to make it easy to move from what did I listen to? to which work, which performer, which recording, which release? without forcing every session into the same rigid path.

In practice that means two main modes. For classical listening, you will usually care about a recording as the combination of composer, work, performer, and sometimes date. For pop, rock, and much of jazz, you will more often start from a release with a track list of tunes.

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Browse-first

Start from a composer path or performer path, then drill down into works, recordings, or releases.

Log quickly

For classical listening, the fast route is composer -> work -> performer -> quick log.

Add as you go

Missing people, tunes, recordings, and releases can be added while you work instead of up front.

Current shape

Work

A composition-level object used mainly for classical repertoire: sonatas, symphonies, concertos, songs, quartets, and similar pieces.

Tune

A lighter-weight song or track identity, especially useful for jazz, pop, and rock release track lists.

Recording

A specific performed version of a work or tune. In classical use, this is often the thing you actually want to log.

Release

An album or publication that contains an ordered track list of recordings. In pop/rock and much of jazz, this is often the natural place to start.

Build in public

The model is still changing. Classical is the strongest path today, while jazz, pop, tune-based releases, and account-specific catalogue editing are actively being shaped in the open.

Main flows

How to use the app right now

Classical: log through recordings

Open the composer path, choose a composer, open the work, select a known performer or add one, then save the listening entry. In this flow you will usually end up creating or choosing a recording, because that is the object that ties the work to a specific performer and optional date.

Pop, rock, jazz: start from releases

If you are logging an album, create the release and add tracks there. Those tracks can create tunes and lightweight recordings underneath, so you do not need to build the whole catalogue first before logging what you heard.

Add and refine as needed

If the person is missing, create a private composer or performer from browse. Use pinned composers and performers to keep the browse screen focused, then clean up shared entities, works, recordings, releases, aliases, and sort names in admin when needed.

Why it exists

This exists to support intentional listening over time: planning what to hear next, remembering when something was last heard, and keeping enough notes and catalogue context to return to a composer, performer, work, tune, recording, or release later without losing the thread.

Follow along

I don't post a lot, but if you want to get in touch, you can find me here.

B Bluesky M Mastodon

What to expect

Roughness and missing pieces, in all areas of the app. The taxonomy is intentionally still light. Some screens are classical-first, some newer flows are release-first, and the whole thing is being tuned by actual use rather than fixed in advance.