A magneto-optical recording process is produced by irradiating a recording track of a recording medium, in the course of movement thereof, with a main light beam of intensity sufficient for heating the medium to a temperature at which the coercive force thereof is reduced to zero or a very small value in a continuous manner during the recording operation and irradiating a separating area with a subsidiary beam of a modulated intensity, thereby modulating the vertical magnetization of said separating area. A floating magnetic field generated by the thus modulated vertical magnetization generates magnetic fields of mutually different directions, thus forming a record bit on the recording track.