Scheduling music

[bobdavcav]

How far out is music typically scheduled? I know modern automation systems automatically schedule music for a particular period once the last schedule runs out, but is there a standard for what that time period is?

 

[TheBigA]

What format? Timeliness is more of an issue in currents-based formats. Classical stations might work months in advance.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

How far out is music typically scheduled? I know modern automation systems automatically schedule music for a particular period once the last schedule runs out, but is there a standard for what that time period is?

some stations only do a day in advance

some do a few days at a time

One station im on does a week at a time

At KSKO i do 3 weeks at a time

 

[DavidEduardo]

How far out is music typically scheduled? I know modern automation systems automatically schedule music for a particular period once the last schedule runs out, but is there a standard for what that time period is?

Automation systems don't schedule music. RCS's Selector and MusicMaster do. Google 'em and read the descriptions.

(Some smaller stations use cheap scheduling software. They get what they pay for)

The output of those scheduling programs is fed to the automation along with the commercial schedule. That merged data tells the "automation"* system used by the station what to play off the various audio sources.

Typical system: RCS's Zetta Zetta

or WideOrbit Radio Solutions - WideOrbit

* "Automation" is a broad term here. Very often systems are used for live assist, where there are DJs or talk hosts or newscasts going on and the "automation" just runs the stopsets and features. In other stations, the whole thing is run pre-recorded off the system and in others, some dayparts are live and other automated with voice tracking or network feed.

 

[Greg Strickland]

Bobdavcav-

I think a distinction could be made between:

1. Broadcasters who operate music scheduling software and traffic software, and then "merge" the music playlist and the traffic playlist into a playlist the automation system runs.

and

2. Broadcasters who manually create a playlist within automation software that has this capability. As I understand it, some automation software has a basic music scheduling feature that can be used. The automation software may permit only a few days of scheduling, and it may not be possible, or be challenging to "import" a playlist from music scheduling software or a flat file (text database) file you create.

This is essentially a line in the sand.

The marketplace has responded to the needs of broadcasters at all levels:
A broadcaster can own hardware and purchase or lease software to run on it.
Or, a broadcaster can lease the whole enchilada as a service "in the cloud" as they say.

Some streaming providers ( a broadcaster-oriented content delivery network or CDN ) enable a customer to upload audio content and create playlists. The CDN handles it all. All the broadcaster has to do is pay by the hour for each streaming listener.

Suggestion:

If you are purchasing automation software, you should know what you want to do upfront, and make certain the software you are considering can do this. And you should decide how you feel about renting vs owning.

 

[bobdavcav]

Automation systems don't schedule music. RCS's Selector and MusicMaster do. Google 'em and read the descriptions.

(Some smaller stations use cheap scheduling software. They get what they pay for)

The output of those scheduling programs is fed to the automation along with the commercial schedule. That merged data tells the "automation"* system used by the station what to play off the various audio sources.

Typical system: RCS's Zetta Zetta

or WideOrbit Radio Solutions - WideOrbit

* "Automation" is a broad term here. Very often systems are used for live assist, where there are DJs or talk hosts or newscasts going on and the "automation" just runs the stopsets and features. In other stations, the whole thing is run pre-recorded off the system and in others, some dayparts are live and other automated with voice tracking or network feed.

Well, I guess the posts above yours answered my question, but you raise an entirely different one, do not all systems work the way the two I have worked with handle things? I've worked with Zara and Station Playlist.
With Zara, all you have is a playlist that contains various file types, which the system knows what to do with. I've heard of it done where you can use timed events to create some form of a schedule, but I'm not sure events were intended to be used this way. Unless you manually schedule your playlists by hand though, there's really no schedule, just a bunch of files that you can somewhat control the order of.
In Station Playlist, Creator handles the scheduling and Studio plays the tracks at the appropriately scheduled time. To schedule a playlist, all you have to do is set up your rules then hit schedule, and by default it will schedule for two days. I've never worked with it using traffic software, but I would imagine that the data from the traffic software is also integrated into the playlists when they are scheduled, as they are simply M3U8 lists underneath. Do some of the bigger scheduling programs still work this way, or are they completely different from the way Station Playlist operates? I do know that Creator has some limitations that the bigger systems do not, but again, is the principal the same or completely different?

 

[Greg Goodfellow]

When I operated a high school station, we used Simian. It did everything I wanted it to do, but we couldn’t buy it outright, but purchased the yearly maintenance plan. Once everything was set up, it ran virtually flawlessly.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Well, I guess the posts above yours answered my question, but you raise an entirely different one, do not all systems work the way the two I have worked with handle things? I've worked with Zara and Station Playlist.
With Zara, all you have is a playlist that contains various file types, which the system knows what to do with. I've heard of it done where you can use timed events to create some form of a schedule, but I'm not sure events were intended to be used this way. Unless you manually schedule your playlists by hand though, there's really no schedule, just a bunch of files that you can somewhat control the order of.

Both Selector and MusicMaster have the ability to set a highly complex set of clocks and rules.

Songs are coded on artist keyword, station category, day-parting rules (such as "nights only" or "not in AM Drive), year of release, tempo, type, style and other definable qualities a programmer wants. Many categories are definable with each one having specific rules on things like rest.

Rules can specify how many songs of each tempo or style or era or category or other quality go in each hour and where in the hour and next to what other qualities. Example: no B Current next to a new release. No slowest tempo within 4 plays of another. And so on.

Then you have clocks, as many as one for every hour of the week but usually less, such as one or two per daypart and special ones for holidays and weekends. The clocks have rules as to which category of songs go where in the hour (Example of categories: Powers, B Currents, A recurrents, B recurrents, power gold, regular gold, secondary gold, Fill, new releases).

Some songs that the PD wants to play less can be rotated automatically in and out of rotation on a calendar-based schedule. Or songs that are borderline between being an A Recurrent or B Recurrent can spend a period in each category and rotate back and forth.

In Station Playlist, Creator handles the scheduling and Studio plays the tracks at the appropriately scheduled time. To schedule a playlist, all you have to do is set up your rules then hit schedule, and by default it will schedule for two days. I've never worked with it using traffic software, but I would imagine that the data from the traffic software is also integrated into the playlists when they are scheduled, as they are simply M3U8 lists underneath. Do some of the bigger scheduling programs still work this way, or are they completely different from the way Station Playlist operates? I do know that Creator has some limitations that the bigger systems do not, but again, is the principal the same or completely different?

What you get for little or no money is little or no control over the playlists. What you get with Selector or MusicMaster is almost infinite control over.

Traffic is even more complex, as it controls how billing will be done as well as spot scheduling. Good traffic packages are very expensive. But they have some similarities, such as running spots in specific dayparts, hours or even times and protecting against coded competitive accounts. Traffic systems take the client contract and then perform scheduling based on the dates, times, specific pieces of copy and the like.

In both traffic and music, there is plenty of need for the editing of each day's log. With music, there may be unscheduled positions that could not be done automatically and that require manual editing. With traffic, there may be the need to do make goods for missed spots, or to figure out how to handle an oversold hour.

 

[bobdavcav]

Wow, it sounds like things like Music Master and Selector can do some cool stuff. Do you know how these systems actually schedule the music, as in are the playlists generated something simple like M3U8s, or are they all stored internally in the system's database?