June 2021

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MusicMaster Version 7.0.11 Available July 6

MusicMaster Version 7.0.11 is on its way and is chock full of brand new features and helpful updates for you to explore. You can download the latest version on Tuesday, July 6. Simply go to the Help Menu, Check for Updates. Some of the highlights include:

Keyless Licensing
A new licensing option is available which does not require the use of a physical USB dongle. This is ideal for cloud installations and remote access, where the use of a USB dongle or license manager is impractical or impacted by network security. Current users can also request a keyless license to eliminate the need to keep track of physical keys, or conveniently add a new license without waiting for shipping.

InfoBar Schedule Tab Icons
The Schedule tab now has access to open the Schedule Calendar. You'll also see a badge icon for each date. If the day is completely unscheduled, the badge is blank. The auto scheduler badge is shown for hours that have been automatically scheduled and a clock icon will appear for any hours locked due to manual scheduling.

Trivia Editor Updates
Some eagle-eyed users spotted that the Trivia Editor was missing a few things. We've put Copy/Paste functionality on the toolbar. You'll also have the ability to drag and drop the trivia lines to change their order.

Schedule Editor: Traffic Merge and Spots Display
Traffic Merge positions and Spots have always been linked in their display. If you wanted to see spots, you also had to have the traffic merge positions visible. This update separates the two so you can choose to view one or the other or both by adjusting your Show/Hide Elements display.

Scheduling Time Period: Single Day Default
So much of our day is habit and that extends right down to MusicMaster and how you perform many of the operations in the software. By default, many scheduling operations that export, print, verify or reconcile schedule data set their default time period to match the time period of the last time they were used. That means if you export one day, the next time, it will export one day. Export three and the next time it wants to export three, which is exactly what happens when you send your weekend logs off to automation. Then it's Monday and you want to export Tuesday and it's set for three days. If you'd prefer to always have it default to the next day, no matter what you did last time, you can now set the SingleDayOperations property. This is done by going to the Tools menu, Options, Additional Properties, Schedule, and setting SingleDayOperations to 1. Note, if you happened to do only a partial day, it will default to the full day.

Click to Keep Reading...

Song Replacement Window [F9]: Packets and History Link Weighting
We know our classical users not only have a lot of packets but also use history linking as well. The history of the linked songs is used when sorting by rest instead of packet rest when this is configured. This update refines how that sort is done. If you are using history linking and the pieces have no history link but are in a packet, they will be sorted by packet rest. If the piece has both a history link value and is in a packet, history link rest will still be used.

Custom Hotkey to Open in “Show All Available Songs” Mode
Many users utilize the Flag filters in the Schedule Editor F9 window and leave that default to only show perfect songs. When no perfect songs can be found, you can change this setting as needed, but it always remembers the last setting you used. For those times when you know that the category you are trying to replace isn't likely to have any perfect songs, you can now program a user hotkey to open the replacement song window in the triple flag mode that shows all songs regardless of testing status, and when you use this option, it will not change your normal default flag setting for F9. To set this hotkey, go to the Schedule Menu and select Key Mapping, then choose “Show all available songs in replacement songs window” under the dropdown for any available ALT key.

Import From Network
Import from Network will now save your field mappings when matching network songs. When you have songs that need to be added to the station, a category must be selected to indicate where the new adds will go.

Optimum Scheduling Goals
We have improved the way the Scheduling Goals Optimum Radial Spread and Optimum Spin Consistency work thanks to user feedback. The Optimum Radial Spread Scheduling Goal has been improved by adding some weighting to the individual hours where the song has rested for the longest amount of time. This was done to try to move the next play so it's within the larger hour gaps instead of placing them right next to an hour where there was a recent play. Optimum Spin Consistency wasn't working as well as we'd like when there were songs in a category that had widely varying numbers of plays over time. We've reworked this to be better in this type of situation.

Please contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant or visit MusicMaster Support if you have any questions about these features or installing this new version.

MusicMaster and ENCO DAD Integration:
Webinar July 7 3pm/ET

As part of their ongoing webinar series, the team from ENCO DAD Automation for Radio will be hosting a joint webinar with MusicMaster on July 7 at 3pm Eastern. Join us and see how the seamless Nexus interface between MusicMaster Scheduling and ENCO DAD can take your station’s workflows to the next level!

MusicMaster Director of Technical Services Jerry Parker will demonstrate powerful integration features, including:

Real-Time Metadata Exchange:
Save time and reduce inconsistency when entering songs. When adding or changing a song in ENCO DAD or MusicMaster, your changes will instantly be reflected in the other system's library.

Bidirectional Playlist Synchronization:
Change your music logs on the fly. With this feature, updates to your playlist can be easily synchronized between DAD's playlist and MusicMaster's log.

Smart Replacement:
From within the ENCO DAD interface, on-air talent can replace any upcoming song by accessing a list of acceptable songs from the same category that also meet all the MusicMaster rules.

Immediate Reconciliation:
When songs are played, added, replaced or dropped in ENCO DAD, this is instantly reflected in the MusicMaster log. This means programmers are constantly working with the most accurate play history.

To get a sneak peek, check out this video as KMFA/Austin shares how the integration makes their lives easier.

Click Here to Register

"Level Up!" Using the Level Assignment Grid

by Dave Tyler

As a Music Scheduling Consultant for MusicMaster and a 35+ year radio veteran, I have used just about all the scheduling software programs available over the years. I see time and time again how intuitive and powerful MusicMaster is. If you want to do it, if you can hear it in your head, MusicMaster can make it happen. There is so much horsepower under the hood and so many tools in the trunk it will blow your mind.

Recently I had a top-notch programmer, who is very detail-oriented and knows everything about his database, contact me with an interesting question. He was running a “Quiet Storm” type program on Saturday nights and in keeping with that style, it was all slow songs. His issue was that he knew he had to increase his search depth but when he did that he did not like how it affected his regular week rotations and asked if there was a solution.

It was my pleasure to say “YES!!!”. During the week, he wanted his A category to only dig 1 deep and other categories no more than 50%. However, on Saturday nights he needed to dig deeper because he had clock filters in place calling for only Tempo 1 and 2 (Slow and Slow Medium) songs. Looking at his Schedule Properties window for his normal week (Dataset/Schedule/Schedule Properties) it looked similar to my example below:

You can see in the top left corner that in “Level 1” his settings are consistent with what I mentioned above. This is the search depth settings for the entire week. Keep in mind though, he wants these search depths to increase for one 5-hour period each week. To do this we need to level up!

By pressing the little calendar icon to the left of where it says “Level 1” we will launch the “Show/Hide the Level Assignment Grid” and we see that it is all 1s across the week.

So let’s change the grid so Saturday night from 7p-Midnight now reflects a level setting of 2. Once we do that, the drop down box displaying the level will also change to 2. We change our search depth settings to 100% and then click Save and we are done.

Now the client has accomplished the goal of increasing search depth during a certain time period automatically. This takes very little setup and is such a powerful tool!

For more information on how to do this or any other question you may have please contact your dedicated Music Scheduling Consultant. Our goal is for that great radio station you hear in your head to be coming out of the speakers of every radio in your market. Let’s make it happen!

Quick Tip

"Close To" Query

When you are doing a query looking for music that is within a specific runtime, many might choose a Prompted Query that allows you to specify a high and/or low runtime. Another option is to adjust the "Close To" setting. By default when you do a query on the Runtime or Length fields, there is a window size of 10 seconds when it looks for the time you specify. That 10 seconds is split on either side of what you've listed. For instance, if your query is for Runtime using the Close To operator and you put in a value of 4:00, by default the results returned will be elements from 3:55-4:05 in length. By adjusting the "Close To" time, you could make that wider to help you find what you're looking for. This setting is in Tools, Options, Additional Properties in the Library section. Simply put in the time you'd like here. This will then be applied when you use the Close To operator as well as the Not Close To operator in your queries.

New From the MM Blog

MusicMaster WideOrbit Voice Tracking

by Jesus Rodriguez

Recently because of our industry’s current state and lockdowns, more stations have to resort to voice tracking. This blog will show you the standard and preferred method of setting up your MusicMaster database to voice track with WideOrbit, formerly known as SS32 or Scott Studios.

It is first essential to understand the different voice tracking “Join Types.”...

Continue Reading in Blog

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Randy Roadz

Program Director, Icicle Broadcasting Co. - Wenatchee, WA

"Hey, Randy Roadz here, Program Director of Icicle Broadcasting Co. in Wenatchee, Washington.

"It seems that my first experience with music scheduling software as a user was a DOS program around 1992. Sure, I've used numerous music scheduling software over my time on Radio. But I've been using MusicMaster for the last decade and absolutely love it.

I can't think of anything that I'd like to do that I can't. Pretty easy learning curve for settings and rules, the support is second to none, and with the numerous YouTube tutorials, you can find out what you need to know.

My MusicMaster rep, Chris, is always ready and willing to help with ideas "from the outside looking in" and has been a huge resource in my training along the way. Two thumbs up to my friends at MusicMaster!"

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