MusicMaster Blog

By Paul Ziino

I want to schedule my music in an unpredictable pattern. But I don’t want to create a bunch of different clocks to handle it. Do you have any advice?

The answer to this question is “Format List.” The Format List allows you to schedule a sequence of items that repeats itself over and over. A Format List can contain Category items such as Fixed positions, Combos, and Library Query elements as well as non-category items like Traffic Merges and Lognotes. You build your Format List, and then schedule it in the clock like you would any other element. Here’s an example.

I have 5 music categories. A-Heavy, B-Medium, C-Light, D-Recurrent, and E-Gold. I want these items to schedule in a pattern like this: EDADEBEDC. It looks like this.

See how the first position is highlighted in blue? This is where our Format List will start next time we schedule using it. Let’s say our clock has 13 format list elements in it. That means we’ll go through the format list one full time, plus four more positions, so the next hour would pick up on element 5. The pattern just keeps repeating itself so that you never know for sure what’s coming next in the list.

I worked with one customer who decided to use the format list for his station. His list was over 60 elements long when all was finished. He spent time, did the math, and figured out all the different acceptable segues based on category and made a Format List to do it for him. That same customer also had a bunch of non-music categories that he wanted to rotate through, coming up with every possible combination of items. That list was over 50 elements long. His clock looks something like this.

(In MusicMaster version 6 and earlier, Format Lists display with a default length of 3:30, which is why this clock looks long. But here’s a little sneak preview for you…in version 7, MusicMaster does calculate the average runtime of items contained in the Format List, giving you more accurate timing!)

Looking at that clock, we bounce back and forth between two Format Lists and MusicMaster just keeps on chugging along. The customer loves it because he went from needing dozens of clocks to just three. His drive time clock has an extra Traffic Merge position, and each is six minutes long, so he schedules eleven Music Format List positions in that clock. Overnight has 1 three-minute traffic merge position so that clock schedules fifteen Music Format List positions. The rest of the time he uses the clock like the one above. It’s a very clean and easy way to keep things sounding fresh from one hour to the next.

If you have questions on Format Lists or any other MusicMaster features, make sure to call your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant for advice.

Dave Tyler

As one of the Music Scheduling Consultants here at MusicMaster I get calls from Programmers from all across North America on a daily basis. Every day is different and so are the questions. I enjoy the challenge of finding solutions for our clients to unique questions.

Recently on of these terrific programmers called and said that because of great numbers in a recent book they are sold out! Great news! He also said because of this their stopsets are full and sometimes even over what they are set for and he knows as a result they are playing less music. His boss wanted to know how many songs are being played each hour given this “Sold Out” situation. With Turnover Analysis we can easily see the average song count and the actual calls for the category per hour. In the screen shot below you will see that I click on the Turnover Analysis icon (2 blue arrows) and in my example we are looking at the B category (Secondary 70s) in the top part of the graph we can see how many songs are in the category how many times the category is scheduled weekly, how many hours the category is used in, the average plays per hour and a whole lot more information that pertains to the category. I can also see exactly how many times per hour, specific to the hour, that category is being used by clicking on the small musical note in the bottom half of the screen for “Format Clock Category Usage” then using the dropdown I select my B category and there is a grid with the exact clock calls.

This was all good information but this particular Music Director said his PD actually needed to know not how many songs were scheduled from each category but how many songs were actually playing on the air each hour. Like most of us they overschedule the end of their hours in the event that they run short and songs get bumped and being sold out is only amplifying this in their case. Finding this information is different but totally doable in MusicMaster Pro. This client reconciles their music against their aired log from their automation system on a daily basis so MusicMaster knows what actually played. To see this very specific information simply open any day you wish to find this information for then click on the Schedule Analysis button.

Now click the “SetUp” button and enter the settings below. We want to test the current day and test just the Song Elements (which are Music from the dropdown) the against setting would be “[None]” and the Display is count.

Now click OK and you will see exactly how many actual songs played during that hour.

This very specific data about actual “Aired” plays is very important especially if you are positioning with “We Play The Most Music” or “12 Songs Every Hour GUARANTEED”. This particular feature also requires a reconciliation.def file. If you do not have one just contact your MusicMaster rep and they will create one for you based on your automation system.

Musicmaster Pro is developed by radio people for radio people and this is just one of many functions to help you better know and program your station.

By Jesus Rodriguez

Some may call them “Powers” others may refer to them as their “A” category. Call them what you wish but for this blog I want you to think about the most important category you have in your library. One of my frequent calls are concerning the question, “My Powers are not scheduling right I need them to schedule every X minutes the way I have it designed in my clock!” Is this currently happening to you where you have an amazing clock but your Powers aren’t scheduling perfectly and naturally?

Here is a trick that will seem very unorthodox but it works. Get rid of all of your rules in that category! Ok now just take a breather and put your computer screen down before you throw it out the window.

Rules are there to protect items from scheduling too close to other items already in the log. Assuming that your most important category always schedules first there is nothing in the log yet to conflict with where it wants to place itself. If it is not already scheduling first or you need to confirm that it is, go to Dataset, Schedule, and Schedule Properties. Here you can drag the category to the top of the list while pressing down on the blue arrow to left as you move it into position. You can organize your order for all of your categories here too by doing the same, but that’s for another blog.

You may be asking yourself, “Jesus what about my rotation rules like rest and previous play rules to make sure things don’t schedule in the same place as it did yesterday?” Well if you know your clocks are a beauty that category will lay out perfectly every time based on the amazing clocks you created giving you the perfect spread day after day following that schedule order every time with no conflict. If our Powers or main category of your library is the best of the best I think we can agree that we need to make sure they are always scheduled perfectly.

So you removed all of your rules from the category but there is one other thing to check. Although your category rules may be empty you also want to bypass this category from your “All Categories” section of the rule tree so that those rules do not affect it either. You can do this by right clicking on the bold heading of your rule tree “MusicMaster Rule Tree” and selecting “Rule Tree Properties”.

You will now get a box where you can select which categories should not be effected by the “All Category Rules” as shown below I selected my “A” category by placing the check mark in the box to the left of it.

“Wait a minute Jesus how will my category know not to play a specific tempo, sound, or other attributes to close to other songs?” Remember rules are there to protect items from scheduling around things that are already present. If your category is the first one scheduled there will never be a conflict and when that second, third, fourth, category comes after it, they will respect what is already scheduled. Essentially making its decision on what can or cannot schedule next to the Powers allowing you to still have the sound you want while maximizing your most important songs.

I want to add a couple other things that may be of assistance if you use this little secret. One of which is the “Schedule Order” where you can adjust the order in which the songs will schedule. This is very important if you have an artist with two songs in your category to spread them away from each other. You can go to this through your menu bar at Dataset, Schedule, and Schedule Order. Here you can drag your song order up and down to organize your category or use the cool category arrangement tab to open an additional window for some fancy ways to shuffle your category. In my example, Optimize by Field where you select Artist or perhaps the Artist Keyword field would keep the two songs apart from each other as much as possible.

If you are still uncertain about your results it may be do to inconsistency with your clock usage if some hours you play the category more times than other clocks which will result in a math issue. You can add some band-aids to fix any math issue using our “Auto Burn” feature as show in the video below or contact your support representative for assistance.

I hope that you found this useful and results with your most important category scheduling perfectly every time. If you would like some assistance with getting some perfect Power rotations please contact your MusicMaster support representative.

By Drew Bennett

I schedule music for a few stations in my spare time. I really am passionate about music scheduling and different formats offer different challenges. When I have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a radio station and their music log, I get to learn a lot of great nuances about the format. To me, it keeps me knowledgeable about the current music landscape and it allows to me relate to just about any programmer out there who is tasked with managing a brand and a list of songs.

Each format comes with its own set of issues, challenges and things to monitor but they’re all the same at their foundation. Each database schedules music against a 24 hour period or some chunk of the day. When you build a database, there’s a way of going about it that ensures a good product. It can be easy to jump around and find yourself out of order and lost in the process. Today, I am going to give you steps to take to build a music database from scratch.

Step 1: Decide what the cume of the station will be.

In other words, what music are you going to play and how much of it are you going to rotate? Decide how many songs you want to spin. There are many deciding factors that come into play here; your competition, your market, your market’s size, your format choice, your consultant’s ideas, etc. The main thing is that you come up with a list of music to import into your music scheduler. Once you’ve imported things, you’re ready for the most important step in the entire process.

Step 2: Decide on turnover values.

The turnover of your library and how perfect that is or not, will determine a lot once you begin to schedule logs. It can determine anything from how long it takes you to get a perfect log to what your listeners think about your station. If that sounds like a tall order, it is. Turnover is the most important thing to get right when you build a database. We won’t spend too much time on what it means to achieve perfect turnovers but know this: If your clocks aren’t naturally scheduling your music correctly, there isn’t a rule in the scheduler that will correct that for you and not cause problems elsewhere. Use your hourly category calls and the number of songs in your category to get a great turnover throughout the day and week. Stay consistent with your math.

Step 3: Apply rules that complement the turnover and create the spirit and the sound of the station.

Too often, this step happens before step 2 and that’s where a lot of problems arise. After you’ve come up with a great list of music and you’re naturally scheduling that with some solid clock math, it’s time to create the station’s sound with attribute rules. Decide the sonic needs at the station and create rules that meet those needs. Keep nothing in the rule tree that doesn’t need to be there. If you’re unsure of a rule and/or what it does for you, remove that rule. Come up with a rule tree that catches unacceptable choices and plays nice with your great turnover. You will find that, when done correctly, the log will schedule with ease and your editing time will diminish.

Step 4: Schedule a day to see how it goes. Schedule a week to analyze the library.

Once you have a library, a turnover for those songs and rules to mix them together, you need to schedule several days to see how things look. Schedule several days and look at some metrics. What’s the most played song? Who is the most played artist after seven days? Is that what you want? If it isn’t, revisit your inventory.

When you’ve completed these steps you’ll have an excellent database that is ready to go. Keep these steps in mind when you build new databases. Perform them in order and you’ll keep your databases in great shape every time. Do you have other tips you like to use when creating databases from scratch? I’d love to hear them. E-mail me at drew.bennett@musicmaster.com.

By Marianne Burkett

I’ve been seeing a lot of databases lately using Special Sets in the clocks to match up liners to intro times of their music. While there is nothing wrong with using the Special Set clock element to do this, there is a way to do this without adjusting the clocks.

Using an “attribute multiple” field in MusicMaster makes this a slick, but simple method.

First, go to Dataset/Library/Fields. If you have an available “Attribute Multiple” field that is Tested in the rules… rename it to whatever name you want. In the example below, I’m calling mine Intro Match.

Now that we have a field to work with, go to Dataset/Library/Attributes.

We’re going to create just a few codes. One for 00-02 second intros where you would play a fully produced liner. Another for a Quick liner, Short Liner and Long Liner.

So far, it’s taken maybe three minutes to put this together.

Now, get to work coding your Liners and Music with the applicable codes in the IntroMatch field. You can sort by intro time and make quick work of it, or use Queries to isolate intro times and then use the mass changer.

But, once you’re done coding, there’s just one more thing to do.

Open your rule tree.

Go to your Liner Category and go to Available Rule Types – Attribute/Intromatch and drag in the IntroMatch Segue Protection Box.

You want to make sure you are testing forward. The song schedules and the liner that comes before it will just look at the song intro ahead. Really, the only thing you don’t want happening here is a long dry liner playing over a short intro, so put the X in each box where those codes intersect. I’m allowing Produced liners to go into everything, I’m allowing short and quick liners to go over the longer intros as well.

That’s it. Easy as pie and no work in the clocks.

If you have any questions, contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant.

By Jerry Butler

MusicMaster offers so many tools to customize what you see in your database. From specific fields and colors to window layouts and more. Many programmers have the infobar showing in their view allowing you to easily see all categories and category groups.

Did you know that you can also see specific information about each category? By clicking on Tools, Options and Library Editor Options, you can choose from three different options to show in your Infobar concerning your categories. You can show song count, slot count or average run time.

Select what you would like to show and click OK. I picked slots. You can see those numbers in parentheses after the category name.

Happy scheduling from MusicMaster!

By Drew Bennett

When I was young and just learning to program a day’s music log, my main issue was not being aware of what I needed to know about the music I was scheduling. Sound codes, Mood, Tempo, Type and Texture were mostly foreign to me. I can sit here and remember working on the DOS-based version of MusicMaster at KNNC in Austin, TX and thinking back then, “I guess I’ll just schedule this music the way the other guy showed me and then fill in these unscheduled positions and…done.” I bought my first PC in 1997. I got serious with learning about computers and the software I used at work every day. A majority of my time was spent reading the MusicMaster-DOS manual and that began my journey toward a passion for the science and art of music scheduling. Sound codes, Mood, Tempo, Type and Texture became my main daily focus. As a result, I listened to music differently than ever before.

My point is that I began to pay attention.  I developed a personal sense of music and what made songs slow or fast, pop or rock, etc. I have my own opinions about what constitutes a sad song or a happy one. You do too.  That personal sense of attributes that apply to a song needs to be in your music library if you program a radio station. If you landed a new job as the PD or MD of a heritage station in your favorite city, what would you do with the music when you got there? It might also be a good idea to ask what the last guy did with the music when he got there, too. How many programmers have touched this database in the last few years? Who uses this database day-to-day? Does a consultant have access to it? Do they make changes? These are big questions you should ask when you walk into a new situation at a radio station. You’d be surprised to learn that these questions are rarely asked by programmers and many times, databases are filled with data that’s been inputted by the last four or five programmers that worked at the radio station.

When you are tasked with a new job of scheduling music at a radio station, your first line of business after filling out a direct deposit form is to get into the database and make it your own. Take the bold move of wiping out every attribute in each song card and start over. If “Faithfully,” from Journey is a slow song, you need to have been the one who decided that and coded the song. If you do not, you are relying on the opinions of others to program your radio station. It’s as if someone is living with you in your own house! Perhaps not, but it is bad data. It is not yours and it could affect your music logs in a negative way.

To remain consistent with your music, it is a good idea to keep a one-sheet about your database. In that document, list coding examples in song cards and helpful notes about clocks or other areas you might use like Gold Recycling.

Slow Tempo = “Vision of Love” – Mariah Carey.

Rock = “New Sensation” – INXS.

“We use Migrating Positions during the afternoon to keep variety in the quarter hour between our ’60s category and our ’90s category.”

“Category P uses Gold Recycle. We pick up at 9am for 8 hours and we drop off at Midnight for 5 hours.”

You will save time exploring the software if your notes are thorough and you will help programming assistants and/or consultants get around the data if they need to review your work.

Making the database your own by coding every record yourself and keeping notes about your database for quick reference is the best way to keep good data and a tight ship in the programming department. Here are some extra tips to consider as you get started:

Clone your existing database and make your changes there. That way, you can keep a music log going in the original data and you can trade the old data for the new data when you are done. The idea that you can make mistakes in copied data is also a plus. Once you are done re-coding the data, think about a review of your rules and how they may need to be changed to adapt to new coding.

Happy scheduling!