MusicMaster Blog

by Brian Wheeler

With the ability to manage your data at the Enterprise level comes some interesting and valuable perks. One such perk is the easy management of shared assets across the many stations you manage. Should you decide to require cross-station song rest across multiple stations using the same songs, it’s very easy to enforce in our CS and Web products.

Here is how the rules would look in your CS software. Your available rules appear on the right, with controls for song rest, as well as Keyword time separation available for any keyword fields that are shared.

In this photo, I’ve enacted the Cross-station minimum rest and have made it unbreakable in all categories with a setting of 1 hour and 15 minutes minimum rest across all applicable stations. When you enforce this rule, another screen appears, and you’re able to select the stations that may share these titles that will also adhere to these rules.

This feature is also available in our Web Client. Here you can see that I’ve enabled a Cross-station keyword time separation of 45 minutes.

And below, I’ve been able to set the stations participating in this separation. A couple of clicks and I’m cross-protecting multiple stations at once!

In most cases, you may also wish to consider ignoring individual keyword settings when enacting this rule. By checking the box seen below, the rule adheres to the specific setting you apply for all stations.

In this case, 17 minutes is just enough to provide a cross-station buffer. That way, you’re not handcuffing another station with your stricter individual keyword settings.

This is just one of many exciting new features available to our MusicMaster CS and Web Client customers.

by Chris Hulsether

So, you’re ready to dive into user and role management in MusicMaster CS? Awesome! Whether you’re a radio programming pro or just got roped into “admin duty,” this guide will help you breeze through setting up users and roles like a boss.

Let’s break it down step by step (no tech degree required!).

First Up: USERS

This is where you create and manage the people who will use MusicMaster CS. Think of it as building your team’s backstage pass. But hold up—you can’t assign permissions to users until you’ve created Roles first! So let’s talk about that…

You will get an Add Role box where you will have a drop-down listing the available Roles. You can then determine which Stations the user will have access to. I will have more on how to create Roles in a moment!

What Are ROLES?

Roles are collections of permissions. You can think of them like job titles—“Program Director,” “Music Scheduler,” “Super Admin,” etc. Instead of assigning every little permission one by one to each user (ugh, tedious!), you bundle up what they can do into a role and assign it in one shot. Boom. Efficiency.

Oh—and here’s the cool part: Roles are cumulative. That means if you give a user more than one role, they get the combined permissions of all those roles. Double win!

I have more on Roles in a little bit, now back to adding a new user!

Adding a New User

When you open the user section, you’ll get a screen where you can fill in their basic info (name, email, username, password—you know the drill).

Once you click Add, you’ll be prompted to assign a role. You can pick the station(s) they should have access to, and the role(s) they’ll rock in those stations.

Bonus: You can assign multiple roles to one user! For example, Jeff might be the Programming guru at MMCS-FM and also the Music Director at MMCS-AM.

As you add roles, the Permissions panel will update to show everything the user can do across all their roles. It’s a live, running list of what kind of power they have.

Enterprise vs. Station Roles

There are two types of roles:

• Enterprise – system-wide access
• Station – station-specific access

Each permission shows up color-coded (green, yellow, red) so you know at a glance what they can and can’t do.

Role Options in MusicMaster CS: Who Does What?

So you’ve got users, and now it’s time to assign them some superpowers a.k.a. Roles. In MusicMaster CS, there are two types of roles: Enterprise (big picture stuff) and Station (focused, boots-on-the-ground tasks).

The cool part? Remember, Roles are cumulative—give a user multiple roles, and they get all the permissions combined. Like stacking power-ups.

Here’s a breakdown of what each role can do, divided into two neat lists for your scrolling pleasure:

Enterprise Rights

Station Rights

📌 Pro Tip: If a user is assigned the Super Administrator role, it overrides all other roles—kind of like becoming the DJ Jedi Master.

Need help assigning the right roles?
Your Music Scheduling Consultant is always just a message away. Reach out if you need a hand getting things tuned just right!

Manage Like a Pro

From the Manage Users and Roles screen, you can edit, clone, or delete users and roles. Want to duplicate a user’s setup? Just right-click and clone. Easy setup = more time for coffee.

Same goes for roles—clone one, tweak it slightly, and save under a new name. Super handy when you’ve got similar but not identical responsibilities to assign.

Active Directory? No Problem!

If your team uses Active Directory, you’ll also see an option for “External Account.” You can link their AD profile with the MusicMaster CS account. Quick and painless.

Importing & Exporting Users

Want to add a bunch of users at once? Import a .CSV file with the correct columns and boom, they’re in. You can also export the list to use in another database.

Want to Spy—uh, Check Who’s Logged In?

You can even see which users are currently logged in, when their session started, and what station they’re working on. No judgment, just transparency.

Got Questions?

If you’re unsure about anything or want some help getting your roles set up just right, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Music Scheduling Consultant. They’re awesome and ready to help you fine-tune your setup like a hit playlist.

That’s it! You’re now fully equipped to master Users and Roles in MusicMaster CS. Go forth and assign!

MusicMaster Pro 8.0.15 is now available under Help, Check for Update. Changes are as follows:

• The Schedule Calendar setup dialog now has a setting to indicate which date should be shown in the center of the dates listed on the Infobar scheduler tab. This tab will now show between 15-30 total days based on the sizing of the panel.
• You can now add up to three additional fields to the Chart Editor to show reference data.
• The Packet Editor will now show marked songs using the standard song mark colors.
• The Schedule Editor schedule statistics dialog was only applying the range filter coloring to the day total row. This will now also apply to all of the hourly rows as well.
• Added a new ASCAP Special History Report.
• Added online help in Italian.
• Made some changes to the installer to improve compatibility with newer operating systems, including Server 2025.
• Added additional Nexus commands to get and set the format clocks to be used when scheduling specific future history hours. See the Nexus documentation for details of getClockList, getAssignedClocks, and setAssignedClocks.

You can find the full list of changes under Help, Release notes. Contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant with any questions.

By Dave Tyler

In the current age of broadcasting, the idea of being just a Production Director or Music Director or any other position in a station simply doesn’t exist. All employees, no matter what level, are expected to wear multiple hats and shoulder a variety of responsibilities. As the leader in music scheduling, MusicMaster understands that any time we can save you something as small as a mouse click will save you time and allow you to better manage your workload.

MusicMaster CS is a robust platform that streamlines so many of our daily tasks. CS can manage hundreds of stations and/or formats, thousands of songs, and so much more, all from one place. CS allows top-level users to manage this and assign user roles at the station level.

As someone who has programmed multiple stations and formats at the same time, I know it can be daunting to get everything done. With fewer staff members in stations these days, we do not always have the luxury of delegating. The plates that we have spinning are our plates, so time management quickly becomes a prime concern.

What is priority number one? We can say making money, and that is true to a degree. I mean, we need to keep the doors open. But at the end of the day we need to have our product, our programming on the air. There must be something to view or listen to, and therefore something to sell.

You can imagine that a market programmer, regional programmer, or national programmer needs an efficient workflow that can accomplish intriguing programming across potentially dozens to hundreds of stations. You may think this is more than one person can do. Well… it was.

MusicMaster CS has a feature that we as programmers have been wanting since the birth of music scheduling software. The ability to have the program automatically schedule music logs! What??? Yep, it is a reality now. MusicMaster CS has a mega feature called Automated Tasks!

• Which Automated Tasks are currently available? Let me tell you:
• Category Sync
• Create Database backup
• Create Station backup
• Export to Automation
• Export Special History Report
• Library Sync
• Nexus Publish Meta Data
• Publish Changed Hours
• Purge History
• Reconcile Schedule
• Send Queued Notifications
• Station Distribution

Impressive right? And you can set it up to have these tasks happen while you’re sleeping or on vacation or as part of the weekly routine to give you more time to give attention to your other responsibilities.

Today, we are going to focus on the all-important “Having something on the air” thing. Let’s set up an automated task for scheduling music. Enterprise is the mothership of CS. It is the main control room for all the data for the various stations/formats etc. From here, we will set up (or add) an Automated Task.

Once I click Add New Automated Task, I will see a box that allows me to set up which feature I want (Start Automatic Scheduler). I make music changes on Tuesday and run the task Tuesday night at 8p for (Thursday-Wed) and that gives me Wednesday to edit/massage my logs before exporting them to automation to begin on Thursday. I then click on Details to set up which station(s) I want this to apply to.

I have selected two stations: Dave and Smooth Jazz and I have selected to schedule out for 7 days which is 168 hours. (Through next Wednesday)

When I select the station(s) I want, the configuration box will immediately open. If you have used MusicMaster Pro in the past, this box will look familiar. You can set which categories are to be scheduled, the options you desire, and any filters you may need for the scheduling session.

Once done here, click OK and then OK again on the Stations screen. Then, hit Save on the “Add Automated Task” screen and guess what? It’s done. Your music will schedule automatically week after week, even if you’re sipping an umbrella drink by a pool somewhere!

Now I know what you’re thinking: that’s great that it’s scheduled, but now the logs are just sitting there. As mentioned, I can manually export those logs on Wednesday to automation, or… and this process will be another blog… but you can also use Automated Tasks to set up an automatic “Export to Automation” task! I can hear the “Whoa, that’s cool!” and high-fives from my desk right now.

Automated Tasks is a feature that schedulers like us have wanted for many years, and it is here. This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sheer power and rich features of MusicMaster CS. As always if you have any questions, you can always reach out to your MusicMaster rep for answers.

by Brian Wheeler

A fantastic feature of MusicMaster Client-Server is the ability to use category groups to set specific rules for your station’s database. For example, if you decide you want to have a specific set of rules that only your current categories would use, you can achieve this by applying rules in a Current Category folder in your rule tree. This allows you to set rules that only apply to the current categories indicated therein, enabling you to quickly apply rules to a group of categories without having to individualize the rules for each category. You can still create individual rules for individual categories, of course, but if there are broad rule applications you’d like to apply to a specific group of categories, Category Groups streamlines the task.

The first step in the process is to define a category group. To do this, go to Library, Categories, or simply right-click on your Info Bar and select Category Groups. You can now select the categories you wish to include in the category group, name the group, and then save your group. The new group will now appear in your rule tree.

Pictured here is a rule tree with several specific category groups. Note: the category groups entitled Music Categories and Non-Music categories will be pre-built in your database.

Using the category groups already in place, you can apply rules to all of your Music categories and a separate set of rules for all of your Non-Music categories if you so choose. In my photo example, this database can now have another set of rules for Currents and Recurrents, and yet another set of rules for Golds can be enforced as well. Perhaps you want to have more relaxed rules for your holiday music? You can do it with ease by using the Category Groups.

Of course, MusicMaster CS still provides all the capabilities of MusicMaster Pro, with the ability to apply rules to all categories, rules isolated by category, the ability to bypass specific categories, and our world-class Optimum Goal Scheduling features.

As always, should you have any questions regarding this great new feature or any others in MusicMaster Pro or MusicMaster CS, your helpful MusicMaster Scheduling Consultants are a phone call or email away!

by Jerry Butler

Everyone is wearing multiple hats these days, efficiency and precision are paramount. MusicMaster CS offers a powerful feature—Automated Tasks—that can streamline multiple processes, ensuring your station runs smoothly with minimal manual intervention.

Understanding Automated Tasks in MusicMaster CS

Automated Tasks in MusicMaster CS allow users to schedule routine operations to occur automatically at specified intervals. These tasks can be configured to run daily, weekly, monthly, or at custom frequency, providing flexibility to meet your station’s unique needs. Here are just a few of the key tasks that can be automated:

• Automatic Scheduling: Automatically generate music logs based on your predefined rules and criteria.
• Exporting Logs to Automation Systems: Seamlessly transfer scheduled logs to your automation system without manual intervention.
• Database Backups: Ensure your data is regularly backed up to prevent loss.
• Reconciliation: Automatically match scheduled logs with actual airplay to identify discrepancies.
• System Maintenance: Automated tasks can manage system maintenance activities, such as purging old data and rebuilding indexes, keeping the database optimized without manual effort.

Benefits of Using Automated Tasks

1. Time Efficiency: By automating routine tasks, programmers can focus on more strategic activities, such as curating content and analyzing audience engagement.
2. Consistency and Accuracy: Automation reduces the risk of human error, ensuring that tasks like scheduling and data backups are performed consistently and accurately.
3. Reliability During Absences: Automated scheduling ensures that your station remains on-air with fresh content, even during holidays or staff absences. This is particularly beneficial for educational institutions during breaks.
4. Enhanced Productivity: With routine tasks handled automatically, staff can allocate their time to creative and value-added activities, enhancing overall productivity.

Today we will run through setting up an Automated task to Auto Schedule.

Implementing Automated Tasks

Setting up Automated Tasks in MusicMaster CS is straightforward:

1. Navigate to the Automated Tasks: Click on the gear icon and select “Automated Tasks” and “Add New Automated Task.”

1. Select the Task: Choose the specific task you wish to automate. In this case, we are choosing “Start Automatic Scheduler.”

1. Set the Frequency: Determine how often the task should run—daily, weekly, or at a custom interval including hour and minute for a start time.

1. Configure Parameters: Click the “Details” button and specify which station or stations you would like to auto-schedule. Once you select a station and move to the station to schedule window on the right, you can configure exactly what you want to schedule.

1. Select what you want to schedule: Choose all or specific categories, special sets, and library query elements you want to schedule. Select all hours or specific hours. These options are just like your auto-scheduler window in the individual station. Once you have made your selections, click OK.

1. You can see in the picture below that we have selected and configured four stations to auto-schedule in this single automated task. Click OK to return to the opening automated task window.

1. Activate the Task: Click Save here and the automated task is ready to go on the schedule you have set. If you’d like to run the task now, click “Run Task Now”

Many programmers use this automated task to have their stations auto-schedule in the middle of the night. When they come into the station in the morning, the logs are ready for them to edit and fine-tune.

By leveraging Automated Tasks in MusicMaster CS, stations can enhance operational efficiency, maintain consistent programming, and ensure reliable performance, all while freeing up valuable time for creative endeavors.

For automated tasks to operate, your station must have the automated task feature enabled on the server. If you are not sure, discuss it with your IT department or operations manager.

If you have questions or would like help setting up an automated task, reach out to your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant.

by Chris Hulsether

When you are evaluating the sound of your station, do consider looking at the history browser in MusicMaster? This can be a powerful tool to determine what you have played and how the sound of the station is defined.

Today I want to point out the advanced graphs in your History Browser to evaluate how your station sounds with a more visual touch.

You can use these graphs to see how certain Core Artists play throughout a day, week, month, or longer. This can be a great way to determine things like: “Am I playing my Core artists enough? Are they bunching up in certain Dayparts and not spread out throughout the day?”

Or, if you use Sound codes and you want to know what the balance is on Rock songs compared to Pop songs or how many songs coded as Old play through your week, the advanced graph options are an easy way to see this.

To get to your History Browser, go to Dataset/History Browser.

Then, make your choices on the time frame, categories, filters, and how you want the data displayed.

Here is a great video to walk you through that setup. Click Here

Once you have your History Browser set to the Time Period, Categories, Filters, and display settings, you can set your advanced graph to a variety of options. Look for the drop-down in the lower left corner of your History Browser.

Now, maybe you want to look at the log that was just recently scheduled to see when your superstar core artist played through the day.

I set up the History browser to filter only my Superstar-coded artists and use the Artist Keyword (All) Display Mode. This is the Spins By Hour graph.

This example shows how Morgan Wallen played throughout that day. If I find Morgan Wallen important, I may be alarmed that I go four hours without a Morgan Wallen song. I can go back and make changes in the schedule editor before that log actually goes on the air.

What if I want to see how much airplay last week was dedicated to Hard Rock on my Classic Rock station? I set the Time Period for that week and set the Display Mode to Sound. Then set my advanced graph to Air Time Density. This will show the percentage of airtime the target (sound code) played in relation to the total Time Period chosen.

This shows 74% of my airplay in my week was Hard Rock. If you think this might be too much and you want your station to have a lighter sound, you can now see how your library needs to be adjusted to emphasize other sound codes.

Maybe you just took over this database and you want to know how your Categories are used across a week or longer. In this example, I set up a week’s worth of history with my music categories and Category Usage display mode and then set the advanced graph to Spins density. I can click on each category, and this will show the percentage of spins the target (Category) played in relation to the total Time Period chosen. In my Classic Rock station, if I think I need my station to be more 80’s and 90’s instead of 60’s and 70’s, this can tell me where I am at and how much work I need to do.

You may also want to see the song play history by play, like in the history graph. You could set up history for a week or more, set the display mode to Individual Songs, and use the Play History By Play advanced graph. This will show a history graph with only those dates that had plays, with a colored circle in each hour of play. The darker color in the circle indicates the quarter-hour that the song played in. A total will be listed at the bottom of the graph.

Knowledge is power and advanced graphs can give you a bunch of Knowledge about your station. If you’d like to learn more, contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.

by Chris Hulsether

Cleaning up your database is never fun, but it can be necessary for running your data more efficiently and keeping your sanity. You may want to clean up your categories, or you have way more clocks than you need, but what about all those LogNotes? If you have old LogNotes from old automation systems or LogNotes for imaging you no longer use, they may be taking up space and making it harder to find the LogNotes you need.

Try Purging your LogNotes, it’s quick and easy in MusicMaster!.

As always, do a backup before you go through this process.

Go to Dataset/Clocks/LogNote Text

To Purge unused LogNotes click on Purge.

• This is the best way to remove any LogNotes from your database as it only deletes LogNotes that do not appear in any clocks or logs, active or not. There are two different ways you can do the purge.
  • Use automatic settings – This is the recommended and default option. The program will remove only those LogNotes that are not used anywhere in the active history, format clock or format list.
  • Manually set the history cutoff date – This option allows you to pick a date and time for the purging. When you do this, any LogNotes from unused clock and inactive history will still be removed as they are with the automatic settings. Additionally, LogNotes will also be purged from any active history prior to the date/time you select

Fun notes about LogNotes Texts. If you are looking to make changes to a LogNote that is used in all sorts of clocks and you do not want to go into each clock and change the same LogNote repeatedly, if you make a change to the text in this LogNotes Text window, it will be updated once saved. Sidenote: if you instead want to make an alteration to an existing LogNote in just ONE clock, edit that LogNote in the clock itself. Then, once you revisit the LogNote Text Window, you will see that this changed note has been added to the LogNotes list, along with the original. You also have the option here to add or delete specific LogNotes completely, (Copy/Paste CTRL-C, CTRL-V does work here) as well as print the entire list if you wish.

Another cool part about adding LogNotes to clocks is you can use your InfoBar. With your existing LogNotes, look to the “Info Bar” and go to the Clocks tab and LogNotes. You can simply drag and drop LogNotes from that list into the clock! You can also drag and drop LogNotes into your logs in the Schedule Editor.

Remember, every time you go into a clock and type a new LogNote, it adds this to the LogNotes list…even though it may be a duplicate. If you know you already have that LogNote, use the drag and drop function or search for the LogNote while building clocks.

MusicMaster is all about making life easier and helping you get those little things done quicker so you can schedule better! Ask your Music Scheduling Consultant if you have any questions.

by Jerry Butler

If you are like most programmers, you wear yourself out getting ready for the holiday. Sure, you may get some time off, but you burn the candle at both ends getting ready for that break. MusicMaster is here to help you get ready for your next holiday.

Many stations run specialty imaging for holidays or seasons. Do you currently go through and manually schedule or run through tons of liners changing start and end dates to make it happen? MusicMaster makes it easy to change those elements quickly. Here are the steps to set up imaging elements using session filters.

I recommend organizing your seasonal elements into two categories. First, have a category for generic imaging, and second, create another for specific seasonal or holiday imaging. This could include imaging for individual holidays like Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, or seasonal themes like Summer or Winter. Utilize a keyword field such as “Theme,” with generic imaging labeled as “generic” and seasonal or holiday imaging specified with the season or holiday. Once these categories are set up, proceed to the next step.

Open your clock where you insert your seasonal imaging. Create a combo position in your clock, prioritizing generic liners first, followed by holiday or seasonal liners. Click on the properties tab and select the “Apply Session Filters 1” box. If you’re using session filters for other events, assign a different session filter for this purpose. Save your clock, and now your session filter is active for that position.

Next, activate the rule for the session filter. Navigate to your rule tree and select the appropriate session filter from the right. Drag it over to either the “All Categories Unbreakable” folder or place the rule in each of the individual categories’ unbreakable folders. If you’re bypassing these imaging categories in your “All Category” rules, place the session filter rule in the individual categories for it to be honored. Once the rules are in place, save your rules.

Now you’re ready to schedule. Open your automatic scheduler window, navigate to the filter tab, and ensure the appropriate session filter is selected from the dropdown menu. In this example, we’re using session filter 1. Since we’ve coded our seasonal liners within the “Theme” field, select “Theme” and choose the specific theme, like Memorial Day. Once set, you can run your automatic scheduler.

Anywhere you’ve set session filter 1, it will look for the Memorial Day theme to schedule. It skips the generic category because everything there is coded as generic under the “Theme” field. Then, it moves to the seasonal category, skipping any imaging that doesn’t match the Memorial Day theme. It’s that straightforward. Just code your imaging under the appropriate theme and use the corresponding filter when scheduling for that holiday or season.

To revert to your generic liners, you can either click “Clear All Filters” in the filter tab of the automatic scheduler or select “generic” to schedule only liners coded as generic. If you clear all filters, it essentially ignores the filter and schedules normally. As long as your generic category is scheduled before your holiday or seasonal category in your pass order, everything should run smoothly. You can verify this by checking the schedule order under “Dataset,” “Schedule,” and “Schedule Properties.”

These enhancements should help streamline the process of scheduling your seasonal or holiday imaging. Contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant with any questions.

Happy Scheduling… and enjoy your next holiday.

Since Thursday, October 31, 2024, We have been seeing increased reports of MusicMaster Pro shutting down in the middle of operations. Typical operations impacted include auto-scheduling activities and log editing activities, but all workflows within MusicMaster can trigger an unexpected shutdown of the application.

Impacted versions include all releases of MusicMaster Pro Version 6, Version 7, and Version 8, and impacted operating systems include Windows 10 and Windows 11.

We believe that Windows released an update to Office 365 that is the root cause of this error. We also believe that the latest update to Windows 11 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5044380) may also lead to this issue. If you are experiencing unexpected shutdowns to MusicMaster Pro, here are some steps you can take to possibly resolve the issue, at least temporarily.

• Immediately after seeing MusicMaster Pro shut down unexpectedly, open the Windows Event Viewer, and look at the most recent error in the Application Log. If it references MSADO15.DLL, your system may be impacted. To take corrective action, try the following.
• In your search bar, type “Add Remove” and then select Add Remove Programs from the results list.
• In the list of applications displayed, look for Microsoft Access Database Engine (2010), Click on it (or on the 3 dots to the right of it if Windows 11) and choose Modify Or Update (depending on your Windows version).
• Next, Choose Reinstall or Repair from the options provided
• Finally, choose Reinstall, and confirm with the button at the bottom

This will reset Microsoft Access to the version that was installed with MusicMaster and should return full functionality.

Finally, be advised that should Microsoft push out another faulty update, this issue may return, thus we recommend disabling Windows Updates temporarily until Microsoft provides final resolution to the issue.

We apologize for any inconvenience and, as always, stand by to assist you in any way we can. Feel free to reach out to our support department at 262-825-4000 if you have any questions or require assistance.

Jerry Parker

Dir. Operations.

MusicMaster, Inc.