Two or more different recording currents are applied to a write coil of a recording head. A first of the two or more currents is a positive current and a second of the two or more currents is a negative current. In response to the application of the two or more different recording currents, a data stream is recorded to regions of a moving continuous magnetic recording medium such that each region has three or more magnetic states. The three or more magnetic states can be read from the continuous magnetic recording medium via a magnetic read transducer to recover the data stream.