The Music Diary

The Music Diary is an attempt to document, over the course of one week, how we listen to music: when we listen, where we listen, who we’re with when we listen, and how we choose what we listen to. Anyone is welcome to join in, as long as you would ordinarily be listening to music in that week or any other week; from music journalists to musicians to serious music geeks and casual music fans. You can find out more about why I started it here.

It’s simple. For seven days each spring anyone who wants to take part simply keeps a diary of everything they listen to, and publishes it online somewhere. How detailed that diary is, is up to you. It might be an annotated list drawn from last.fm scrobbles and chucked onto a Tumblr; it might be a Tweet or a Facebook status every time you play a new song on your iPod; you might keep a detailed spreadsheet and post it on your blog at the end of the week; you could even keep pencilled notes in a Moleskine, photograph them, and upload them to Flickr. It’s up to you.

We first did the Msuic Diary Project in 2011, when over 100 blogs took part. We ran it again in 2012 from Monday 7th May until Sunday 13th May. If people want to, we’ll do it again in 2013. (I’m not sure why I’m saying “we”, as it’s pretty much me on my own who organises it!)

You can download an Excel spreadsheet ‘listening log’ (2012 dates) for the week if you want to help you note your listening. You wont be asked to submit this anywhere, it’s just a tool to help you keep track of what you listen to.

Obviously keeping track of everything you listen to will change the way you listen, and you shouldn’t ignore this fact, but the point is to try and record usual patterns of listening. It’s isn’t about who listens to the most music or the coolest music or the most eclectic selection of music; it’s just about understanding the different ways we listen.

If you take part via a blog, Tumblr, or other venue with a static URL, please link it in the comments here.