MusicMaster Blog

By Marianne Burkett

Every so often a client will call and ask for a report about what titles have moved from one category to another in a given time period. Thank you to the clients who requested a date range as it is a very useful report!

Now in version 7 we can now do this in Special Library Reports – Move History Report.

Go to Dataset/Analysis/Special Library Reports and next to Report Type, you’ll see four different reports available in the drag down. The report I’m referring to is the Category Move History Report. We’ve added “Time Period” to the Report with Start Date and End Date field options.

Let’s run a one-week report with the currents:

When I print to PDF, the report is self-explanatory and easy to read with date moved and total Library Plays, along with Category, Song ID, Add Date.

If you have any questions about this report or anything else, contact your Music Scheduling Consultant!

Happy Scheduling.

By Jerry Parker

We all know about backups, right? We know how important they are, and how critical they can become in the event of a system failure. I’m not going to remind you again about them, as you no doubt are very much aware of their value. Instead, I’m going to ask you a different question:

When was the last time you tested your backup to be sure it worked?

I’ll pause for a second or two to let that sink in….

In my experience, most companies are pretty good at performing periodic backups. Naturally some are better than others, but I can say that in my experience with customers very few have actually (if ever) tested their backups to be sure all was well with them. Backups can fail too, just like any other software. An important part of your disaster recovery plans should periodically include testing your recovery processes.  It will do you no good to discover, in the heat of an emergency, that your recovery process was flawed and you didn’t know it. When formulating your disaster recovery plans, you should consider all foreseeable scenarios, including what to do if something you were counting on suddenly wasn’t there.  What would you do in event of an emergency, if you tried to restore your latest backup and it failed?

Here is the disaster recovery regimen I use for protecting my data:

I take daily backups, and keep them for one week on my local PC. Every Friday, I take a backup and store it on a NAS separate from my desktop. At this point, I delete the previous weeks daily backups. Once a Month, I take a backup for historical purposes and store on a USB Stick and keep it in a safe place. At this point I delete the prior month’s weekly backups. Additionally, when I take my monthly backup, I immediately restore it on another machine and compare the live and restored data to be sure all is well. Thus, at any point in time, I have the following backups I can fall back to if I need to restore. The last seven days of dailies, The last four weeklies, and the last 12 monthlies. Remember there is no difference between a daily, weekly and monthly backup. The only difference is where you store it and for how long.

For more information on testing restores of your backups of MusicMaster data, contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.

Protect yourself, because stuff happens.

By Brian Wheeler

Your MusicMaster database is your baby. It’s what makes your station like no other on the planet. You’ve pored over the rules, you’ve edited and exported countless logs, added and moved countless songs. It is the essence of the station. It’s your product. What would you do without your database?

Let’s not find out! You’ve heard MusicMaster scheduling consultants hound you for years to perform regular backups, so you know the drill. You may already dutifully perform backups. I know several users who back up their data daily. But there is a NEW threat that you should be aware of, if you’re not already.

At least three major broadcast groups in North America have been hit by ransomware in the last year. Ransomware shuts down your systems and holds them hostage, hoping for a big payday. Cybercrime is on the rise, and everyone is a potential target. Hopefully your IT/Engineering department has taken steps to lessen the threat. But YOU can do something for yourself, too!

Under Tools, Backup, you can not only create a standard backup, but you can create a CUSTOM backup.

This enables you to put a backup of your data in another location besides the standard backup to your data folder, a place that could be vulnerable to ransomware or crashes. One extra backup to your thumb drive and you’ve got an extra layer of protection should the worst occur.

In this example, I am sending the backup to the Desktop.

Here, I’m setting it up to go to an external drive. Cloud options could also be considered for this.

Note the Additional Files option. If you use any utilities like Library Synchronization, Reconciliation, Traffic Merge or Nexus, you can specify those extra files as well. That means you’re external backup would contain your data and every file you need to continue working.

During a recent incident in which ransomware crippled a station, a MusicMaster user called me up, we installed a copy of MusicMaster on a personal laptop he owned, and he calmly put his flash drive data into his laptop. He was scheduling logs in a matter of minutes.

I hope you never encounter a situation where a thumb drive is your lifeline to keeping your station afloat. But if you do, you’ll be so glad you took this extra step in protecting your baby.

If you have any questions on how to set up a custom backup, feel free to reach out to your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant.

If you’re doing this already and think you’re done, think again. Come back next week to find out the one thing you’re probably not doing to ensure you are covered in an emergency.

By Dave Tyler

Everyone loves having the latest and greatest. For proof just look at the release of a new cell phone….cool features and abilities. MusicMaster software also regularly updates our software with great features and abilities too. However, I have found there is some confusion with the process of updating. Let’s go over why updating is a good thing and how to do it.

The Why

Updating your software keeps your program working optimally. We update our software for lots of reasons. Perhaps Windows released an update that has lots of systems running a bit wonky. Our folks will update on our end the files that the Windows update has problems with to get things back to good. All stations report to some organization be it ASCAP/BMI or SOCAN or Sound Exchange. MusicMaster has all of the reports for all of these companies globally, and when they change a requirement in their reports they let us know first so we can update it in the software. Then, when you run the required report it will have all of the information they need in it. Sometimes we update our software when we find a way to make it run even more efficiently than it already does. We love making your life easier and the process smoother. Updating your software keeps things running their best!

The How

Updating your software is easy and only takes a minute or two. Before updating I always suggest making a backup of your current data and putting it somewhere safe. To backup your data just go to Tools/Backup and either perform a standard backup which places the backed-up file in the same folder as your database, or you can do a custom backup perhaps to Dropbox or a flash drive.

Once your database is backed up, go to Help/Check for Updates.

At this point MusicMaster will check and see if there are any updates available for you and if so you can begin updating.

Once you begin the process of updating the software, go ahead and close MusicMaster behind the update and allow the process to finish. The entire process should only take a minute or two.

Here is one important thing to keep in mind when updating. If multiple people work in the same database from different workstations, then everyone needs to be on the same “Version” of MusicMaster. Although we recommend everyone be on the exact same version and release, if one person is on version 7.02 and someone else is on 7.06, then those are compatible version/releases because they are both 7.0. However, if someone who needs to work in the data is on 6.0 and you update to 7.0, they will no longer be able to open the data once it becomes 7.0 data. It is just important to communicate with your co-workers so everyone is on the same page and if you have an Engineering or IT department, I am sure they would appreciate you going to them first.

Updating your software is the best way to not only remain the most current but also the best way to have the finest tools for scheduling music literally at your fingertips and the process is simple and fast. As always if you ever have any questions do not hesitate to contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.

There is a confirmed bug in certain Microsoft Office security patches that were released on Nov 12, 2019 that can cause some operations in MusicMaster to display the error message ‘Query is Corrupt’. Specifically KB4484127, KB4484119, and KB4484113 are affected. Removal of these updates from Windows will resolve this issue. It can also be avoided by adding ADE=0 to the [Options] section of MusicMaster.ini.

Update Dec 16, 2019: Microsoft has released newer updates that correct this issue. These can now be installed instead of removing the original updates. Most users will need to install the 32-bit version of KB2986256. If this update gives the message ‘No products affected by this package installed in the system’, then additional solutions can be found here

If you are experiencing this issue and would like assistance in removing these patches, please contact MusicMaster support.

The latest maintenance release for MusicMaster PRO is now available.  It contains fixes for several recently reported issues.  We recommend that you update your software using Help, Check for Updates to get this new version.

By Paul Ziino

We’re all familiar with Turnover Analysis, which you can access by clicking the blue circling arrow icon in the Toolbar or the menu Dataset/Analysis/Turnover Analysis. It allows us to see predicted turnovers of the songs in our categories. There’s a cool little button in this part of the software that allows us to see the predicted turnovers of our coding called “View Coding Analysis.”

Click that icon and select the field you’d like analyzed. Let’s start with Gender.

This tells us we have 45 F-Female coded songs in the library and that we should expect to hear approximately 79 plays of Female coded songs per day, 558 per week, and generally expect about 15 minutes between plays. Its density in the library is 20%. As we look at the screen we see that the density between Male and Female, when totaled, is greater than 100%. Why? Because some songs in the library may have both codes listed representing a male/female duet.

Next, I ran analysis on my Sound field.

This tells us we don’t have many ballads, Dance/Disco, New Wave, or Urban songs in the library, and as such we shouldn’t be hearing very many of those songs. Again, the Density totals to be more than 100% because songs have more than one code assigned.

You can even analyze keyword fields. By default they will be sorted alphabetically, but you can click on any column header to sort by it. In the following, I’ve sorted Artist Keywords by the Count column.

Here we see in this database that John Mellencamp is our most-used artist keyword and that we can realistically expect his songs to appear every hour and a half. That’s followed closely by Phil Collins and Huey Lewis. Why does Van Halen have seven songs but we expect to hear that artist every 1:33 whereas we have eight songs by Huey Lewis and can expect to hear that artist every 1:46? It’s because the categories with Van Halen rotate faster than those containing Huey Lewis.

Using the Coding Turnovers can really help when it comes to building rules. For example, we can’t expect MusicMaster to be able to sustain a rule that says we have to be 50% Rock when only 30% of our library contains that code. We can’t expect a five hour artist keyword separation rule to work when we have artists that should be playing every 90 minutes.

When you look at all the information MusicMaster can provide, it will really help you set up your rules and rotations. For more help, contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant.

By Marianne Burkett

When you’ve been using MusicMaster for a while, you get used to the occasional service release update. If you’ve been sitting in the same exact version and service release of Musicmaster for more than a year, it’s highly likely you are missing out on some new features! Don’t miss out on the new things our development team has been working on! We always get our best ideas from our clients and strive to make the software better day in and day out.

WARNING: Before attempting an update, sure to check with your IT department to see if you are permitted to update the software. Remember, some companies mandate which version to run. In addition – you should discuss this with your VP of Programming, Operations Manager or Program Director as well – as it’s important all users in a station cluster are on the same version. You may not have the proper credentials to update so it’s imperative you check with Engineering before doing anything regarding any update.

The updates come every so often, there is no set schedule. There are several ways you can look for the update:

When the software is open, you can go to Help/Check for Update.

From the Start Menu, find MusicMaster in the list and expand that to see Check for Updates

Login to the Musicmaster support portal and download the version of your choice.

Once you’ve updated your data to the newer version (main number, not service release), remember you cannot “revert” back to an older version unless you have a backup in that older version! As long as the first digit doesn’t change though you are okay. For instance, if you are on version 6 and upgrade to version 7, you would need a backup of version 6 data to go back to version 6. If you were on version 7.0 and upgraded to 7.0.6, you could go back to 7.0 without a problem.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.

By Jesus Rodriguez

Have you ever had to manage a song or promo as a priority? Have you ever been told that a song or promo should only air for a certain contract period? For our U.S. clients and some in certain parts of the world, your mind may be going a hundred miles per hour after that comment. (Let me take this moment to thank you for making MusicMaster the most used music scheduling software in the world!) That said, worldwide, many countries do not have the same regulations as others.

Here’s how to use this for either a song, a promo, or anything else that falls under this topic. Go to your library, right click on any element, and select Airplay Contracts. You will get the following screen:

If the item already has a contract, it will be listed here, or you can create one by selecting New. This will take you to the window where you can determine the Contract Period and its Daily Requirements, as well as the minimum plays. You also have the option to select days of the week where this contract should be applied.

There are no additional steps to set this up. This was created for when minimum number of plays are needed for an item in your library. If there is a promo or song that must play 10 times daily for a month, then using this tool, you can specify the number of plays during the designated time. Now, keep in mind that these songs should play naturally and that this is not a method to force plays. There are also no rules or scheduling tools that work with Airplay contracts at this time, but you can run the Ready Check to see if there are any issues with the contract requirements.

By Brian Wheeler

Building clocks is a task that most MusicMaster users visit infrequently. Many users will create a set of clocks and use them for long periods of time with little, if any, change. Other users may require more frequent changes but may not feel very efficient in this process. Are you maximizing the tools at your disposal?

There are many features in MusicMaster that make clock building and tweaking easier, but for now I’m going to focus on the Info Bar. The Info Bar is typically docked on the left side of your MusicMaster program if you have it visible at all. If you don’t have it visible, you can go to View, then select Info Bar to see all that the Info Bar has to offer.

The first thing you’ll likely notice is the list of your music and non-music categories from top to bottom. Not only can you click on these categories to get a quick view of each category’s contents, but you can also drag these categories into a clock that you are building. You can drag and drop an entire hour’s worth of music in a matter of seconds using the Info Bar.

You can also drag in lognotes. those commands for your playback system that you so carefully typed into your clocks are all retained under the clock tab at the bottom of the Info Bar. Click on the Clock tab, then select the ‘Lognotes’ header. There is your entire list of carefully created lognotes. You can drag and drop those into your clocks, too! No sense in having to type them all out again.

Also note in Version 7, the new Elements Tab in your InfoBar allows you to drag clock elements directly into place.

Using these tools, plus other great tools like the ‘clone’ feature in the clocks (use the toolbar or context menu option) can make the arduous task of creating or modifying clocks into a breeze.

If you’d like more tips and tricks to minimize your clock building/rebuilding time, give your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant a call and we’ll be happy to show you all kinds of time-saving features.