Learn More about Crucial Tracks
Crucial Tracks is a calm, thoughtful music journal and community. Share one meaningful song each day, write a few words, and connect over the songs that make us who we are — with no algorithms, ads, or social media anxiety.
Features
One song per day
Post once per calendar day. No pressure, no stress. Join the slow web!
Your very own profile page
Your public entries are visible to all on your page. Share your profile and visitors can subscribe via RSS or JSON. See Jason's profile page.
Daily prompts
Need inspiration? Daily prompts help spark memories and stories about the songs that shaped you.
Community playlists
Each week we post Community Tracks, a curated playlist from the songs shared during the week, complete with links to the member posts. Browse community playlists
A calm community feed
No ads, no algorithmic feeds, no infinite scrolling, and no fear of missing out — just thoughtful posts and good music. Plus see how your songs connect to other member's stories and experiences.
Apple Music integration
Add a 30-second song preview from Apple Music to enhance your story. Apple Music subscribers can save their daily tracks to a playlist.
Own your writing
Your entries have an RSS/JSON feed to hook up however you'd like. Also export all of your data in JSON format.
And much more!
Configure daily email reminders, earn profile badges, post in markdown, access songs on other streaming platforms using Song.link, and browse the community via our profile webring... to name just a few.
A message from Jason, creator of Crucial Tracks:
My favorite thing is the slow, serendipitous nature of the Public Tracks feed. Limiting to one post per day gives you a chance to appreciate everyone's story and vulnerability. To appreciate the role music plays in our lives and memories.
It's even more clear now that music is one of the key things that links us – whether you are into rock, pop, punk, jazz, EDM, rap, ska, whatever (it amazes me the variety I see on the site even with a smallish number of users)... in the end each song has humanity and life experience behind it that we can all relate to, even if you don't "understand" or like the song.
FAQs
Is Crucial Tracks free?
Yes — Crucial Tracks will always be free. I'll be offering other ways to support the project in the future, like merch.
What about supporting Spotify?
Spotify or anything Meta/Elon Musk is a hard no. Apple Music isn't perfect, but Spotify are just bad faith actors in the music and entertainment industry. Elon Musk is a POS Nazi and Meta/Facebook have a long history of being a terrible, immoral company. No thanks. Create something like O.G. Rdio and I'll integrate that in a second.
Where can I find more details on using Crucial Tracks features?
A help or manual style FAQ can be found here. A YouTube overview of the app is coming soon too!