diff --git a/stepmania/src/NoteDataUtil.cpp b/stepmania/src/NoteDataUtil.cpp
index b5ee176f6e..9d2907234e 100644
--- a/stepmania/src/NoteDataUtil.cpp
+++ b/stepmania/src/NoteDataUtil.cpp
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ CString NoteDataUtil::GetSMNoteDataString(NoteData &in)
 	float fLastBeat = in.GetLastBeat();
 	int iLastMeasure = int( fLastBeat/BEATS_PER_MEASURE );
 
-	CString sRet;
+	CString sRet = "\n"; /* data begins on a new line when written to disk */
 
 	for( int m=0; m<=iLastMeasure; m++ )	// foreach measure
 	{
diff --git a/stepmania/src/NotesWriterSM.cpp b/stepmania/src/NotesWriterSM.cpp
index 00da181ec5..ca1f36ed05 100644
--- a/stepmania/src/NotesWriterSM.cpp
+++ b/stepmania/src/NotesWriterSM.cpp
@@ -104,7 +104,10 @@ void NotesWriterSM::WriteSMNotesTag( const Steps &in, FILE* fp )
 	CStringArray asRadarValues;
 	for( int r=0; r < NUM_RADAR_CATEGORIES; r++ )
 		asRadarValues.push_back( ssprintf("%.3f", in.GetRadarValues()[r]) );
-	fprintf( fp, "     %s:\n", join(",",asRadarValues).c_str() );
+	/* Don't append a newline here; it's added in NoteDataUtil::GetSMNoteDataString.
+	 * If we add it here, then every time we write unmodified data we'll add an extra
+	 * newline and they'll accumulate. */
+	fprintf( fp, "     %s:", join(",",asRadarValues).c_str() );
 
 	fprintf( fp, "%s;\n", in.GetSMNoteData().c_str() );
 }