MusicMaster Blog

By Paul Ziino

Open a Music Category in Library Maintenance and add in the field called “Performance.” Performance is described as the average number of times a song tries to schedule unsuccessfully. So the higher the Performance score, the more difficult it is for MusicMaster to schedule that song. In the picture below, “Dance Hall Days” has a Performance score of 24 which means MusicMaster, on average, tries to schedule that song 24 times before it is successful. If the field is empty as it is on “Der Kommissar,” that equates to the song being very easy to schedule, or it is brand new to the category and has not yet scheduled.

In MusicMaster Pro (MusicMaster version 5.0 and later) there is a goal available that looks at those Performance scores to help schedule those difficult songs. You’ll find it in the Rule Tree under Available Rule Types/Optimum Goal Scheduling™. The goal is called “Optimum Rule Performance.” Add that goal into the Optimum Goal Scheduling folder for any of your categories. How does the goal work? When MusicMaster has narrowed its search down to the point where it is evaluating songs against the active Goals, it will favor a song with a higher Performance score when that Goal is active. The outcome is that those difficult songs will be given a little more preference when compared with those that are easier to schedule. In the example above, if “Dance Hall Days” and “Der Kommissar” are being evaluated against the Optimum Rule Performance Goal, MusicMaster would favor “Dance Hall Days” because its performance score is higher.

Give Optimum Rule Performance a try in some of your depth categories—Optimum Goal Scheduling is ineffective in categories whose depth in Schedule Properties is set to one.

If you have questions about this or any of the other options in Optimum Goal Scheduling, contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant.