How TuneTable works

A score is one number from 0 to 10, in half steps, on any record or track. Every signed-in account can score — including brand-new, unverified ones. Scores feed the community score on each page and the charts.

Roughly: 0–2 hard to sit through, 2.5–4 not for me, 4.5–6 fine or good in parts, 6.5–8 really good, 8.5–10 a favourite. Half steps count: a 7.5 is “better than good, not quite great”. A record and its songs are scored separately, and your score is yours alone: it says nothing about how the music sounds.

The community score on a page is the plain average of everyone’s scores, to one decimal; the count beside it says how many scores it is made of.

Charts use a weighted average: each item is pulled toward the site-wide mean until it has enough scores to stand on its own. That stops one enthusiastic 10 from topping the chart. Concretely, every item starts with four imaginary scores at the site-wide average: with 1 real score, about 20% of the chart score is real; with 4, 50%; with 12, 75%; with 36, 90%.

A sound rating places a track on three axes. Energy is intensity and drive (hushed, steady, driving, explosive). Valence is the mood of the music (heavy, bittersweet, warm, euphoric). Density is how much is going on at once (sparse, airy, full, layered). Each runs from 1 to 10. Rate how it sounds, not how much you like it: a low number isn’t a bad review.

The average of everyone's ratings is the track's sound signature. Signatures power the 3D taste space on profiles, the "sounds like this" suggestions on track pages, and the Tuner.

Unverified accounts can score, review, keep a diary, make lists and follow people. Verified listeners can also publish sound ratings and update artist portraits. Moderators, the editors, run the Admin area: they pick the Album and Track of the Week and can reverse anything a verified listener publishes.

Nothing is ever lost in a reversal. A hidden rating can be restored, and every artist portrait ever used is kept — reversing a change simply brings the previous one back. Every moderator action is written to an audit log.

Artists, releases and tracklists come from MusicBrainz, the open music encyclopedia. Cover art comes from the Cover Art Archive, and artist portraits from Wikimedia Commons via Wikidata. When art is missing, TuneTable prints its own sleeve.

Releases are sorted into albums, EPs, singles, live & compilations and unofficial releases. When the same record appears both officially and as a mixtape, bootleg or deluxe reissue, only the official version is shown.