MusicMaster Blog

By Brian Wheeler

Once in a while, I’ll have a couple back-to-back phone calls from MusicMaster users that will give me an idea for blog content. This blog is a result of such a phenomenon.

The first call was from a programmer who played a good amount of gold that were regional hits and wanted to manage those tracks so they didn’t have quite the same impact as the regular gold in his categories. With a couple of tweaks we’d set up two kinds of packets for him.

The first kind of packets we set up were standard packets for his depth cuts from core regional artists. These were all ‘bubbling under’ tracks that were still pretty big regionally but didn’t do much nationally. He wanted them to continue to get exposure but at a reduced level from the rest of the category. We talked about how the size of the packets determined their exposure. A packet of 2 splits the exposure in half. A packet of 3 reduces exposure by 66%, etc. It’s that pesky math, always creeping into programming.

Here’s a sample of what his standard packets would look like:

For the songs we were packeting, a standard packet was going to get the job done. These songs didn’t have much that was going to prevent them from scheduling as far as rules go. So when that packet came up in the schedule order, the song at the top of the packet was scheduled, then sent back to the bottom of the packet list and the next song in the packet would be considered the next time around. It was perfect.

But then he had some one-hit wonders that he also wanted to control with packets, and some of those songs regularly challenged his rules. He found that he was getting unscheduled positions when he’d encounter these packets and it was causing him to rethink the packet concept. I proposed the diggable packet, which allowed MusicMaster to dig through the packet to find a song that satisfied his rules. He loved that idea. His minimum rest rule would prevent these songs from playing too frequently, but if he ran into the rare one-hit wonder within that packet that violated the rule it wouldn’t prevent the scheduler from finding a song that DIDN’T violate. He was reducing his exposure to these songs and still able to focus on the other aspects of his programming rather than micromanage a handful of one-hit wonders that he rarely wanted to appear.

The next call I got was from a programmer who wanted to play live versions of a particular song, but in a reduced ratio to the regular recording of the song. She didn’t have many live versions that she wanted to play, but enough where she felt there needed to be an element of control. I proposed the weighted packet. She could place the live version in a packet with the regular version, then control the ratio to regular plays to live plays by placing a weight on the regular version. In some situations, she applied a ‘2’ to the regular version when the live version was a hit, but she still wanted the regular version to play twice for every single live version play. Then on a few others where the live version wasn’t a hit and she just wanted to add flavor, she applied a ‘3’ or a ‘4’ to the regular version. This meant the regular version would play that many times before the live version would come up for airplay.

Control achieved. She is still playing the live version, but at a reduced rate and very much within her comfort zone.

If you’ve not created a packet before or would like a refresher course, here’s a brief video demonstrating creation of packets.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your Music Scheduling Consultant for assistance.

By Marianne Burkett

Today I’d like to dive into something new in Version 7, Song Merge.  What exactly is it?

Let’s say you identify a few duplicate songs in your station.  You can A: delete one of them; or, B: Merge the two or more duplicate songs into one; or, C: hoard all your duplicates!!   We don’t recommend A because you’ll likely lose information, like play history.  We recommend B using the new feature in Version 7, Song Merge.  The benefit of this feature is that it looks in many places to consolidate information.  That means you’ll have all your play history and trivia combined.  Things like forced instances in a clock, listings in a song list and play/library counters are all updated.  Song Merge combines all of that while deleting the duplicates.  Nothing is lost and you’ll end up with one song card that combines all the important information you want.

The first thing you’ll do is select all the duplicate songs.  Right click on the pointer column (blue arrow in the left column) and select the songs.  Right-click to open the context menu and select “Merge” then pick Selected Songs.  There are other options here and depending on how you made your list, you can pick the right one.

Here’s a capture of three different instances of Gerry Rafferty “Baker Street”.  The first column shows the song as played in its original category followed by two other instances.  Notice each instance has a different WO Number.  One new instance is longer and the other is a radio edit.  Okay, now decision time!  I think I’ll start using the radio edit rather than the full six-minute version.   How to do this?  Click on the fields you’d like to retain.  The boxes will turn blue. Be sure you scroll all the way down the list to see all the fields.

After I click OK I’m keeping/merging the song in the first column (note Save as the column header), adding any play history, trivia from the songs on the right (note Delete as the column header) and replacing the data I want to replace with the information in the blue boxes.  I can click any cell to make it blue so its information is saved.

Click OK and you’ll get a verification pop up:

Once I’ve completed the operation, the duplicates disappear and only one “Baker Street”, the radio edit, will be in my library.

If you have a reason to keep your duplicates, be sure you have something in place to help you at least combine the histories, like putting a Title Keyword in place or a History Link.

As always, if you have any questions about any feature in MusicMaster, please contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.

By Jesus Rodriguez

Recently I had a client call me wanting to send the same log to multiple studios. The client did have one request that his station local imaging did not export along with it only the generic imaging. This meant we couldn’t allow his frequency or city imaging to be exported because this would be going to an HD and a stream channel on the company’s app. Additionally, the two studios use different automation systems!

Given all those considerations, my first instinct was to introduce him to Export to Affiliate/Import from Network. With this option, he’d create a second database, export the relevant categories to the affiliate station, schedule the imaging and then export to the second station. However, he said that sounds too complicated and more work than he wants to do. We discussed it some more and he got straight to the point that he just doesn’t want these specific categories exported where they are at the few times in the hour the songs can segue.

Now if you think that Export to Affiliate/Import from Network is more your thing, I invite you to look up those blogs and videos on that topic from our site.

Fortunately, he had already prepared for this by loading the audio for all his items to both of his automation systems and had a designated field for each cart number. Each song and imager had a field for automation cart 1 and automation cart 2. I was able to create a second export design for him now that was designated to only export the information needed for the second automation, and in this case, the critical factor was to export with the correct cart number field. We were also able to exclude specific categories from participating in the second export design. In this case, we double-clicked on the song window to get another window where we selected only the categories that he needed to export which then gave us a random sequence of a song-to-song segues where we scheduled but did not export the local frequency imaging.

Presto! He got what he wanted and added no additional work to his daily task. We can now export two versions of his station, one localized, and another a bit more generic. He is using the same one log he does every day, sending it to two different studio locations with two different automation systems ultimately saving him money by being able to maximize his time because time is money. As an added bonus he’s not using an expensive automation system for this jukebox of a station.

I’ll be the first to admit the export design section can get a little tricky even for me but fear not for you are not alone! Contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant for assistance.

By Paul Ziino

MusicMaster Version 7 offers a new way to edit clocks.  Introducing Quick Entry!

Open a clock or create a new one, then click the wrench icon.  Here you have two columns of options: Show/Hide Elements and Show/Hide Columns.  If you don’t want to view specific element types you can un-check them.  For this exercise we’re going to add a check to Quick Entry under the Show/Hide Columns.  If you want to keep these settings, check the box to Save as Default Settings.

Each element type has a keyboard shortcut associated with it now.  You can enter that shortcut in the QuickEntry column of your clock editor.

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The latest service release is now available for Version 7.  Go to Help, Check for Update to get 7.0.4.  This update corrects various problems, including issues with copy/paste operations in various areas and drag and drop. New options include the ability to set up more than one traffic definition file in your export design, the ability to use macro commands in the file path specification that work off the standard folders on the computer and the ability to limit definition files that are shown by adding an option that indicates the database name when building the definition file. Finally, MusicMaster is used around the world so we’ve added a Special History Report for our friends in Romania.

By Jerry Butler

Does your active library skew older or newer?  What is your target year?  I occasionally get calls from programmers wanting to find out the average year for the music in their library.  Here is a quick way for you to analyze the yearly breakdown of your library.

First thing you will want to do is confirm the field you are using for your year data is a numeric-fixed field.  Many stations use a text field for this, but there is an advantage of using the numeric-fix field.  To check what your field is, you can hover your mouse over the header for the field in your library maintenance window.  You’ll notice I have both a year (numeric-fixed) field as well as a text field side-by-side for this demonstration.

You can also click dataset, library and fields and locate your “Year” field.  The description will be on the right telling you if it is a text or numeric-fixed field.  If it is a text, you may consider copying your year data over to a numeric-fixed field.

If you have a numeric-fixed field already, I recommend creating a category group for your active categories.  This give you a more accurate view of what is airing on your station. You can do that by right clicking in your info bar (list of categories) and selecting category groups.  You may also go to Dataset, Library and Categories and click Groups on the popup.  Click new, type in the name Active Music and click “OK”.  Select categories that are scheduling to be included in the group and click OK.

You can now pull up all active music by clicking on your new category group Active Music.  Once the group is showing in the library maintenance window, you can right click on the “year” header and select library analysis.

You will get a year breakdown in both the text and numeric-fixed fields as well as unique values.  However, if you are using numeric-fixed, you will also be able to see Min (earliest year), Average year and Max (latest year) at the bottom of the display.  This will give you a better idea of the music that makes up your active library and how many songs still need coding.

If you have any questions, reach out to your Music Scheduling Consultant.

By Brian Wheeler

Your consultant or regional PD calls and says “I want to take a look at your gold category. Can you send me a list?” Oh, man…how do I print that out again? I think I can do a quick print somewhere…I wish I could just drag this category to Excel and be done with it.”

Now you can.

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By Jesus Rodriguez

Have I confused you with the title of this blog? You are probably thinking why anyone would ever want to stop their listeners from hearing their stations. I tell this a lot to my clients “You need to prevent your listeners from hearing your station to keep your flow going. The second a listener hears something you may have taken them out of their subconscious that could have them change the channel.”

For me to explain myself let’s review the definition of hearing.

Definition of hearing. 1a: the process, function, or power of perceiving sound specifically: the special sense by which noises and tones are received as stimuli.

If you want to increase your TSL, you have to think beyond your song’s tempos and moods. We also have to consider the same for the items in between the records. We need to code tempo and mood for jingles, sweepers, and any other form of imaging. The majority of our radio listeners will listen to your station’s music in the background whether at work or on the road. If you schedule both your music and non-music items in MusicMaster, you have the ability to control the entire experience.  Your audience might stop listening when something grabs their attention like a loud sweeper. Also, an imaging piece that has too many explosions, production effects and segues into a slow intro or ballad, or jingles that are just harmonically out of tune with the song that comes after it, can cause the person to wake up from a listening state of mind. It is important to devote as much time to your non-music items as it is to your music.

If you are not currently scheduling your imaging within MusicMaster, I would like for you to reconsider and I promise that you will notice a significant difference. This adjustment is so much better than having a random cart playing in front of each song. If you are scheduling your imaging within MusicMaster, I would like you to consider some of the following blogs to help you have a much better flow in between the songs than rotating an imaging category. If you need any assistance with any of the following suggestions, please contact your MusicMaster support representative.

https://www.musicmaster.com/?p=4905

https://www.musicmaster.com/?p=7103

https://www.musicmaster.com/?p=6270

By Jerry Butler

Roughly 80 percent of people have already given up on their New Year’s Resolutions.  Here’s one you can easily keep:  updating the look of your MusicMaster.  MusicMaster has always been known for allowing users to customize the database, views and more.  In MusicMaster Version 7, we have added additional themes/display options and added category coloring options to freshen up your look.

Click on Tools, Options and Themes / Display Options.  You can select various themes including Back in Black, Paint it Black, Purple Rain, Silver Bells, Song Sung Blue or Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White.

To update your category color scheme, go to Library, Categories and selecting Color Schemes.

Not only are there numerous different pre-set color schemes, note you can apply one color set to your music and a different one to your non-music.

These options ensure you’ll keep at least one New Year’s Resolution in 2019!

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

By Dave Tyler

I had an interesting call the other day. The client is a talented super-user at one of the great radio stations using MusicMaster and he had an interesting dilemma. He uses “Special Sets” to schedule customized Artist Intros into songs. He has 3 of these Special Sets in each hour but only wants them to play a maximum of once an hour and on top of that not always in the same spot. The first thought would be to use a Max Quota per hour rule or Min/Max rule of some sort but the problem would be that if we set it at 60 minutes then it would always become available at the same time. Here is our solution to this unique request.

We decided to re-purpose a Yes/No Field and then add a Time Separation rule to it. To begin with go to Dataset/Library/Fields. I clicked on the header for Type twice to list the fields in descending Alphanumeric order as you can see below.

It turns out there was an available “User” field that I could use. You may have a Yes/No field you are not using and you can simply directly enter the name(type) into Name and abbreviation. If for any reason you do not have a  field available any of our Music Scheduling Consultants would be happy go  “Under the hood” and add one for you. It is as easy as sending us your data. I renamed the field “Artist Intros”. Now I open my Artist Liners category and add the new Yes/No field to my layout by clicking on the Show/Hide Fields icon, locating the field and dragging into my layout.

Now when I return to my Artist Intros category I have the new field with empty boxes. Place a check mark in each box to indicate “Yes”.

Now we open our Rule Tree and open the “Unbreakable” folder for the Artist Intros category on the left and the Yes/No Rules on the right. We then dragged the rule into the Unbreakable folder and set it for 1:07 (1 hour and seven minutes) and saved the rule tree.

Remember our Programmer wanted to play only one an hour but have it rotate around the clock each hour. By setting it for 67 minutes it will schedule an Artist Intro (If available for that song) in say “Position 1” and then an Artist Intro would not be available for Positions 2 or 3 that hour therefore successfully keeping it one an hour but then it goes further because the setting is at 67 minutes it will also disqualify Position 1 in the next hour and be available for Position 2. In this way we are not only limiting how many can play in an hour to one but we are also forcing it to rotate into different positions within the hour and keeping it unpredictable.

At MusicMaster we love when you call us and want to accomplish something we haven’t heard of before! We are all lifelong radio programmers and jocks so we speak your language and get excited when you come to us with a new way of looking things and challenging us to make it happen. As always if you have any questions never hesitate to contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.