MusicMaster Blog

By Drew Bennett

These days it’s tough to get everything done. We always seem to be saying things like, “I wish there were more hours in the day, “ or, “…if I could just clone myself!”

An online company has made an attempt to automate certain corners of your life to make those days seem a little easier. It’d called IFTTT. That stands for, “If This, Then That.”

IFTTT can help you automate anything. Maybe you like to turn on the house lights when you get home or maybe you’d like to start the slow cooker at home while you work in the office. IFTTT can help you do those kinds of things. Today, I’m going to show you how IFTTT can help you automate tasks in MusicMaster. It will be like having your own Music Director who performs tasks when you want them done but without all that salary and benefits mumbo jumbo.

Today, I’m going to show you how you can send a text message to yourself that tells your office computer to open MusicMaster and schedule the next days’ log.

You need several things to get it done.

1. An account at IFTTT.
2. A recipe at IFTTT that creates a file in Dropbox when you send a text message to yourself.
3. A batch file that is used to run a Windows Script file from a Windows Scheduled Task.
4. A Windows Script file that monitors the Dropbox folder for the text messaged file, deletes the file if it exists and runs another local batch file.
5. A batch file to run a command definition file inside MusicMaster.
6. A command file to automate a MusicMaster task like scheduling a day.

First, head to http://www.ifttt.com and create an account. Login, and activate the Dropbox Channel. Create a recipe where “THIS” expects a text message sent by you and “THAT” creates a file in Dropbox. I’ve included a screenshot to show you what that setup will look like. In the example below, I’ve chosen to create the file in a Dropbox folder called, Remote_Control.

When this recipe is performed, IFTTT creates a file in your Dropbox folder called —.txt. Test this by texting your IFTTT number to make sure the file gets created in your Dropbox folder.

Next, let’s create a batch file we will use with a Windows Scheduled Task. The batch file will run every 5 minutes or so via scheduled task. This file runs the script file for us. Open Notepad and paste the following:

@Echo on
cscript IFTTTSCRIPT.wsf

Save this file and call it IFTTTSCRIPT.bat

We need to create a Windows Scheduled Task that runs this file at an interval of your choosing. Open Windows Scheduled Tasks and create a new task.

This scheduled task runs the IFTTTSCRIPT.bat file that handles the Windows Script file you’ll make next. Schedule this task so that it runs at a regular interval.

Now, it’s time to set up the Windows Script file that looks for the SMS file in Dropbox. To save you some time and heartache, I’ve pasted the file here. You’ll make changes to the sections highlighted in red.

<job>
<script language="VBScript">

Dim file1

Set file1 = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If (file1.FileExists("C:\Users\Owner\Dropbox\Remote_Control\---.txt")) Then
file1.DeleteFile "C:\Users\Owner\Dropbox\Remote_Control\---.txt"

dim shell
set shell=createobject("wscript.shell")
shell.Run """C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicMaster\IFTTT.bat"""
set shell=nothing

end if

Wscript.Quit

</script>
</job>

In the Windows Script file above, make sure the Dropbox path is the correct path on your machine. In the path to IFTTT.bat, make sure this is the correct path on your machine as well. Paste this text with your changes to a Notepad file and save it as IFTTTSCRIPT.wsf.

The Windows Script file’s job is to monitor the Dropbox folder for the existence of “–.txt.” If it exists, the script file deletes it and runs a batch file that launches a command def, scheduling a day in your database. If the file does not exist, nothing happens.

Let’s write the batch file that we use to run the command def in MusicMaster. It looks like this:

MUSICMASTER.EXE SAMPLE.mmd /STARTUP=SAMPLE.DEF /AUTOEXIT

The database and command file are in bold. Change these values to reference your database filename and your command file. Save this file and call it IFTTT.bat.

It’s time to make the command file that performs the automated task in MusicMaster. Command files can be used to automate tasks in MusicMaster like scheduling a day, exporting a log or running a history report. In fact, I’ve written another article on command files and how to set them up. Check it out here and once you’ve built your own command file, use it in this project to automate tasks in MusicMaster.

That’s it. Now, when you send yourself a text message, the scheduled task launches the WSF file which monitors Dropbox for the txt file created when you send the text. If that condition is true, the batch file runs and MusicMaster schedules a day, or whatever the command def tells it to do.

In fact, the text message doesn’t have to be the trigger. It could trigger when you pull into your driveway, when you send an email or when you turn on a light! IFTTT allows you to use all sorts of conditions in a recipe. If you have questions about this project or any MusicMaster related question, please contact your assigned Music Scheduling Consultant and happy scheduling!

By Marianne Burkett

(Disclaimer: The title of my blog may be offensive to cat lovers. I love cats, and own a giant cat that eats three cans of cat food a day…and will eat your cat food too… if you let him. It’s just a saying.)

I’ve been scheduling Music for radio most of my adult life and writing MusicMaster blogs for years now. MusicMaster is the most versatile software available on the planet, for music OR content scheduling. With MusicMaster every database IS different by design, because it is totally customizable. From data fields to custom appearance of everything, MusicMaster allows for you to design your views, colors schemes, font sizes etc. When new users come in and realize they now have a pallet of unlimited colors to mix and match to make editing or handling the library easy on their eye. It is very exciting for them. Every user can set up personalized views. Some like a dark font and white background and some users like a black background with colored fonts. It’s just a matter of creating the combo that makes you tick!

Here’s a sample of how I like to look at my logs:

So with my view when editing, I don’t focus on the words, I focus more on the color highlights to the right of the artist/title area. Recently I helped a client set up her highlights and she’s editing her logs in MUCH LESS TIME than she used to. That makes her happy and as her Music Scheduling Consultant and friend, it makes me happy too.

I do have another more conservative view in my demo database, for folks that find my crazy color view a bit too much!

You have these amazing color options in the Schedule Editor and while viewing the library, so take advantage of the appearance customization process. Here’s how:

At the top of your Schedule Editor or when you are in library maintenance you’ll see some smaller icons. Look about three-quarters of the way to the right and you’ll see these: Click on the center icon (with the pencil) and you’ll see this:

Drag what you want to look at into the Selected Fields in the middle. You can drag the fields up and down once they are in the middle. Then, you can play with the color combos and fonts until you find your perfect match.

Click on the small icon to the right of the pencil and save your view.

You can have as many views as you’d like. Everyone can have their very own view and of course, let the boss have the default view. To load your view, click on the icon to the left of the pencil icon.

Simple changes can create dramatic results and help you spend your time enjoying your custom view while editing or managing your library.

Happy Programming!

If you have any questions about today’s topic, feel free to contact me or your Music Scheduling Consultant.

By Drew Bennett

Aren’t Rule Groups awesome? You can group similar rules together, you can daypart rules in a group and you can even apply filters like category filters and song filters so Rule Groups only apply to certain categories, songs or clocks. Rule Groups can really seem magical when you apply them to a Rule Tree and today, I want to dive into a specific setting inside Rule Groups called, Group Mode. This is a super powerful setting that you’ll want to have in your toolbox of MusicMaster tips and tricks.

Group Mode appears on the right hand side of the Rule Group Properties window and it is located at the top. Group Mode has three options:

• Rule Group fails when any included rule fails
• Rule Group fails when all included rules fail
• Test rules as if they’re not in a rule group

Rule group fails when any included rule fails is a really neat way to save some scheduling time with groups of similar rules. It means if any rule within the group fails, the entire rule group will fail and the auto scheduler will move on to the next song. The program won’t waste time testing any other rules in the group once a rule fails. In the editor the Rule Group would show a failure of the rule group. When might this be useful? Let’s say I have a song with a lot of sound codes on it. Let’s say I have many songs with a lot of sound codes on them! It might be smart to place all my sound rules into a rule group called Sound. If any rule fails in it, I’ll know this fails my policy of sound. All other rules in this group are ignored and the scheduler moves on.

Rule group fails when all included rules fail is another really neat way to create some relationships between rules. It means all rules must fail in order for the group to fail and thus the song. If one condition is met, but not the other, the song passes. Let’s say that I’m ok with playing two ballads back to back and I’m ok playing two hairbands back to back at my Classic Rock station. The trouble is, I really don’t want to hear two hairband ballads back to back. I might put a rule group together with two rules in it. No two hairbands back to back and no two ballads back to back. If both of those conditions are met, the rule group fails and I’ve made sure that no two ballads performed by hairbands will play without breaking the rule group.

Test rules as if they are not in a rule group is a great way to keep things tidy! This setting tests rules as if they are not in a rule group at all and independent of one another. Group your like rules together using this setting to make it easier to find similar rules like sound, tempo or gender. You could also group some rules to keep other rules out of the group and higher in the rule stack. For instance, you might have an important sound code unlike the other rules in your data. Placing all your sound codes into a rule group and keeping one rule out allows you to favor that rule over others in the Rule Tree.

Group mode is a very powerful setting inside of Rule Groups and once you have it mastered, you can turn your Rule Tree from a task master to the main brain of your perfect music logs! If you have any questions about this or any other MusicMaster feature, please call you assigned Music Scheduling Consultant and Happy Scheduling!

By Sean Ross (@RossOnRadio)

I’m looking at the Nielsen SoundScan sales charts for another week, and for another week I’m struck by how little the top selling singles and albums look like the radio landscape – at least if you define the radio landscape as mainstream top 40.

The top five albums this week include Mumford & Sons, Josh Grobin, Tech N9ne, and the Zac Brown Band. The only representation of mainstream top 40 hits in the top five are those on the compilation album “Now 54.” And in recent weeks, the list of albums not represented at top 40 has also included Drake and Alabama Shakes. Only scrolling down through the rest of the top 10 selling albums does one find radio mainstays Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, and Ed Sheeran.

There are often high-debuting albums without pop radio hits, but there’s a story in digital songs as well. In the top five, you will find only one song from mainstream top 40’s rhythmic pop center lane, Jason Derulo’s “Want To Want Me.” At the other end, there is T-Wayne’s “Nasty Freestyle,” and in recent weeks, there was Little Big Town’s equally unlikely “Girl Crush.” Rounding out the top five are three songs that did become mainstream pop hits—Wiz Khalifa, Fetty Wap, and Walk The Moon—but came from R&B/hip-hop and alternative.

There’s nothing particularly extreme about Wiz Khalifa or Walk The Moon sonically. “Shut Up And Dance” is almost of a piece with the Jason Derulo song. And yet, both come from places where mainstream top 40 rarely finds hits these days. Walk the Moon has an eight month journey from its initial alternative airplay last September to prove it. For a while, top 40 has made a point of growing its own alternative and hip-hop hits. In this case anyway, it had to send out for a pop song.

Meanwhile, as Memorial Day approaches with every major EDM act lined up to compete for the Song Of Summer 2015, there is little representation of EDM on the digital songs chart. The only EDM act in the top 10 is David Guetta, fronting Nicki Minaj’s “Hey Mama,” really hip-hop/pop, with title cribbed from the Black Eyed Peas to prove it. It’s the low teens/high 20 range before you start to see sales stories from DJ Snake, Skrillex & Diplo, etc.

For some observers, the lack of sales activity will mean little in an age where Spotify and Shazam have become the new currency. But willingness to pay for music should be taken seriously, especially now. And when mainstream top 40 was at its healthiest, the top-selling singles had their greatest overlap with top 40’s most-played songs in several decades.

Some readers now are probably jumping ahead to the oft-invoked notion of the format being headed into an “extreme cycle,” or moving past that into the “doldrums.” The cancellation of “American Idol,” and seeing Kelly Clarkson stall mid-chart at top 40, even when she’s not openly fighting with her label, will probably convince some that we’re coming to the end of pop music’s reign.

But top 40 hasn’t been that helpfully symmetrical for the last 10 years. Proponents of the cycle theory were looking for the doldrums two years ago, but CHR’s ratings were up only country had emerged as any kind of serious format competition. Doomsayers have been confounded again by a series of jumps for some CHR stations, (although there is speculation that processing, not programming is the cause.)

Still, even by the 2014 holidays, top 40 had become an odd mix. It didn’t play all the hits, but the ones it did play came from seemingly far-flung corners. CHR was dominated by dense, meandering mid-tempo pop, but also played EDM (increasingly a ‘90s-flavored version that recalled “Show Me Love” by Robin S.) and ‘60s-flavored retro soul ballads, which had become not a novelty but a category.

If top 40’s music didn’t all sound the same, it didn’t all sound like it went together, either. Only by playing “Six Degrees of Separation” could you get everybody in one format. Vance Joy goes with Hozier, who goes with Sam Smith, who fits with The Weeknd, who goes with Jeremih. Or you could go from The Weeknd to Ellie Goulding to Taylor Swift.

So with apologies not to Jerry Seinfeld but to the rapper Wale, another recent No. 1 album artist who wasn’t driven or acknowledged by CHR, one wonders if top 40 has become a format about nothing recently. “All the hits” will always work as a mission statement, but it has to be true, and they have to be hits The troubled early ‘90s CHR format rallied around “today’s best music,” but until the available music got better in the mid-‘90s, it was a hollow promise.

The early ‘90s were also defined by a gap between what mainstream top 40 played and what was selling, made obvious for the first time by the switch to verified SoundScan sales data. The problem was that acknowledging what was selling would have only exacerbated things. Playing a Josh Groban showtune at top 40 now wouldn’t solve everything. It now seems clear that throwing in Ice Cube’s “Wicked” between the Amy Grant and Michael Bolton records in 1992 wouldn’t have solved anything.

One also needs to consider how top 40 so dominates the musical agenda now that any hit heard on one station is heard on four others in the market. I don’t side with those in the record industry lobby who claim that airplay hurts artists, and the enthusiasm with which label promotion departments still pursue airplay makes them a liar every Tuesday anyway. But if saturation airplay is still eliciting a “no thanks,” that does say something. For now, anyway, top 40 gets to keep setting the agenda until today’s hit music becomes more compelling to buyers.

For the last five years of the PPM measurement era, increasing TSL has been believed to be a measure of increasing listening occasions. With an average listening span of 10 minutes, broadcasters became existential about longer individual stretches, and began teasing like crazy, in hopes of making their TSL up in smaller chunks.

While I have larger issues with that type of programming, it raises a more immediate question. What would your listeners hear if they did give you that extra occasion? So I decided to listen to a market for 10 minutes at a time (or thereabouts), specifically market No. 37: Columbus, Ohio. In doing so, I was adding an extra dimension, not just the broadcast radio itself, but the streaming experience.

I started at 10 a.m., listened to 11 different stations, and went roughly until noon with a couple of do-overs (more about that later). My listening was timed to avoid morning shows and lunchtime specials.

Unlike a local listener, my listening required three different streaming platforms. Once I was able to listen, however, it was a largely positive experience. I did encounter some of the typical pitfalls of streaming and “today’s radio,” but overall I was favorably impressed with my “time in the market” as every station and its advertisers geared up for Mother’s Day.

Here’s my listening log:

9:58 – WLVQ (QFM96) – The classic rock outlet was running a “00 ID for its jockless “shut up and rock block,” then stagers for the listener-driven “Q on Demand” (one of which instructs the audience to “pick some good [bleeped].” The 12 minutes I heard were all hits: “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Killer Queen” and “Legs.”

10:10 – WNCI – The top 40 went into spots at :15, but before it did, I heard “Can’t Hold Us” and Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song,” set up with the “No. 1 for New Music” stager, followed by a Ryan Seacrest bit about curing a Cinco de Mayo hangover. When the spot break came, I heard a jock endorsement spot, then several mostly local spots, an ad for the iHeart Radio Summer Pool Party and then (apparently as a fill song) “Grenade.” This took me up until 10:21, overlapping slightly with the next station.

10:18 – WSNY (Sunny 95) – When I tuned in, the heritage AC’s middayer Trisha Moore was reading the weather; she’d come back before I left at 10:30 to tease an upcoming remote at a local supermarket and the giveaway that went with it. I also heard two stagers: one usage (“pick you up”) and one attitude (“just like free cookies in the breakroom”) in between “As I Lay Me Down,” Maroon 5’s “Sugar,” Scandal’s “The Warrior” and “Safe and Sound.”

10:30 – WCOL – The country powerhouse went from David Nail’s “Let It Rain” to Brett Eldridge’s new “Lose My Mind,” then went into spots at :36. But the station’s Andy Clark both front- and back-sold the Brett Eldridge enthusiastically, before teasing a chance to go on-tour with Kenny Chesney and win $1,000. When the spots did come, there were at least four different jock testimonials, followed by an iHeart Country Fest promo.

10:38 – WCKX (Power 107.5) – The big story here was the station’s upcoming Stone Soul Picnic, but DJ Dimepiece also took a minute for the “Celebrity News Buzz” (Chris Brown, celebrating his birthday, falls off stage; Jamie Foxx explains why his version of the National Anthem sounded off). I heard Kanye West’s “All Day” and Jidina’s “Classic Man” before the station went into spots. So far, by the way, I hadn’t come across any typical spot filler — bad PSAs, the same GEICO spot three times — and that continued here. Some of my Power 107.5 listening overlapped with my next station.

10:40 – WCVO (The River) – The longtime Christian AC had various stagers commiserating with listeners who experienced stress at work and on the drive home, and promising “songs and stories” that would be “uplifting and encouraging.” Middayer Mary O’Brien punctuated the Newsboys’ “We Believe,” Phillips, Craig & Dean’s “Revelation Song,” and David Crowder’s “Come as You Are” with a relatable about Tom’s Shoes’ upcoming “One Day Without Shoes” campaign.

11:00 – WVMX (Mix 107.9) – I hit AC WSNY at the exact right time. I tuned into hot AC sister Mix in one of those unusual hours in which it staggered its ad breaks–stopping at :03 (after Magic!’s “No Way No”) and came back to music at :10 with the legal ID and “Love Me Like You Do.” I came back a few hours later and heard music from 2:50 to 2:58, then a five-minute break. (I also heard “Thinking Out Loud,” “Shut Up And Dance” and “Fight Song” again.) Mix did have a good Mother’s Day promotion – the “Mommy & Me” photo contest. I also heard a number of good quality spots on behalf of local advertisers.

11:11 – WODC – I also tuned in to this successful Classic Hits outlet in time to hear just one song (“Dancing With Myself”) before it went into a local break, which also had spots for local sponsors, before going into two fill songs (“Keep Your Hands to Yourself” and “The Rubberband Man”), then coming back with “Superstition.” There was a good relatable about the temperature at which the most crimes are committed (64 degrees, when the greatest number of people are out and about).

I also came back and gave WODC a second listen at the end of the hour. Between 11:58 and 12:10 was a different story. The former “Oldies 93.3” has evolved into more of a Classic Hits/Adult Hits hybrid, so I heard “The Joker,” Night Ranger’s “When You Close Your Eyes,” “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Lights” by Journey, and “Cuts Like a Knife.” There was also a “From Columbus Zoo to Nationwide Arena” stager that opened with a trumpeting elephant sounder.

11:21 – WCLT (T100) – “T100 HD” and “100.3 HD,” as the station called itself, is an anomaly: locally owned and focused on a nearby county, but still a part of the larger market. It was cold-segueing from Jo Dee Messina’s “A Lesson in Leaving” to Luke Bryan’s “Roller Coaster,” the end of a “no talk triple-play” before a promo for an upcoming NASCAR event. T100 stopped from :26 to :31, the last ad of which was a promo for Sprint and NextRadio, before returning with Miranda Lambert’s “Little Red Wagon.” T100 was the first station where I heard any traditional spotset fodder — a PSA and two RegionalHelpWanted.com ads — not unlistenable (largely because they were RegionalHelpWanted.com spots), just notable.

11:32 – WXMG (Magic 106.3) – The longtime Urban AC was also promoting Radio One’s “Stone Soul Picnic” (a mix of current R&B acts and old-school hip-hop artists). The station’s Nia Noelle came out of Anita Baker’s “Same Ole Love (365 Days A Year)” to take a caller for its Mother’s Day promotion, played Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison,” then “Uptown Funk,” and then played the winner. In between, there were teasers (tied to “Uptown Funk,” among others) for the upcoming ’90s at Noon request hour.

I had started listening just before 10 a.m. We now know that isn’t the real start of the workday, but it’s still best-foot-forward time for many stations, as I heard here. It was at 11:43, when I was done with Magic 106.3, that it was suddenly hard to find anybody left who wasn’t in spots. In fact, three stations that I tried to listen to were stopped around 11:45 and most of them were running more typical spotset filler. Finally, after punching around in a way that a typical listener might not, I tried the first station again.

11:47 – WRKZ (The Blitz) – I came back just in time to hear the active rock station’s Nuber play the top song of its “Top 10 All-Out Blitz” countdown: Slipknot’s “The Devil in I,” followed by Smashing Pumpkins’ “Rocket” and P.O.D.’s “Youth of the Nation.”

I ended my stretch of listening favorably impressed. On only one station, deliberately jockless, had I not come across an announcer. I heard mostly hits. I heard enough new music to stay interested (that this was a medium and not a major market guarantees nothing on that score these days). Mother’s Day gave both jocks and advertisers some extra topicality and kept things from sounding generic.

It’s worth noting that almost every station I heard was doing some teasing, recycling or cross-plugging of some sort — although none to the point of self-parody reached early in the PPM era. If the recent controversy about Voltair has made any broadcasters feel their success is driven by processing, not programming, nobody has thrown out the PPM-era’s perceived best-programming practices just yet.

I’m also happy to report that there was no time when the streaming experience became unbearable. That was a blessing, given the number of painful GEICO-related romantic breakups that I’ve been through in my other online listening recently. In one way, the experience showed me that no matter how stations place and stagger their stopsets, it’s still hard for even a five-minute break to not consume half of a station’s allotted time with a listener. Then again, by ratings law, if I had tuned out of every station at its first break, all but two would have earned the quarter-hour listening credit. My tuning around was unusually peripatetic, but it was also more generous than that of the average listener.

The two hours of listening were not without their frustrations, especially near the end. In large, though, it was a happy and energizing two hours. That’s not an experience I take for granted these days.