Track One Guidelines

Track One Music Club has adhered to the same general process since its beginning.  Below you will find a description of the procedures utilized each month for nominations by group members, the official selection of album, and the ultimate rating of works discussed by Track One.

Nominations and Selection – Two albums are selected for future discussion each month.  Official selections are determined from group nominations in the month prior to the month in which the albums will be discussed.  On the 15th of each month, the moderator will post a call for nominations on the group Facebook page.  Each group member may submit one nomination through this post.  The nomination window will close at approximately 10:00 PM, and after this the moderator will list all nominations submitted in a spreadsheet, numbered in the order in which the nominations were received.  A random number generator (courtesy of random.org) will then be utilized to select two albums from the pool of nominations.  Both selected albums will be discussed simultaneously throughout the following month.  All nominations which were not selected will be catalogued in the group archive.

Group members should remain open to discussing albums from a variety of genres.  While members should generally attempt to nominate works that will provide a positive and/or meaningful experience for other group members, there are only limited restrictions placed on albums which may be nominated, as follows:

• Albums nominated should represent a singular body of work, and not be a compilation of music previously released on other albums; therefore, “Best of” and “Greatest Hits” collections should not be nominated; however, most “live” albums may be nominated, as these recordings of the tracks would not have been previously released;
• Soundtracks should also generally be avoided, unless the soundtrack represents an original body of work created for the film rather than a collection of tracks from various albums; original scores for films are also permitted; and
• Albums which are nominated must be readily available at a reasonable price; rare albums which are only available in cost-prohibitive editions or formats should not be nominated as a potential selection.

Rating – The group rates each album using a five point scale, with half point intervals.  On the last day of each month, the moderator will post a call for final ratings from each member on the group Facebook page.  Members may then submit a rating for each album until approximately 10:00 PM, at which time an average of all ratings submitted will be calculated in order to determine the final rating for each album.  Members may also submit ratings earlier, throughout the discussion period, if they are confident that they have settled on a final opinion of the work.