10 Tips for Better Music Scheduling by Robert Johansson 1. Avoid Mismatches: Make sure you do not have a mismatch between your music library and your music strategy. Very simply, are you playing the right songs? The right strategy and the wrong songs will not help you achieve your goals. Review each song in rotation and determine how it contributes to the strategy, then recode the library and run the analysis tools to check against your desired goal. 2. Mathematical Rotations: Proper turnover ratios are critical to the efficient scheduling of your categories. The wrong turnover will make it more difficult to schedule songs — or even worse, songs will play in the same daypart or hour day after day. Avoid having the same or similar turnover for multiple categories, or your rotation patterns will become predicable. Example: A six-song category played 1 time every hour will naturally be played every six hours, with a risk of having the song play at 0600, 1200, 1800 & 2400 every day. Remember, what does the computer know about the music? 3. Consistent Coding: In so many cases, stations have multiple people entering the songs and determining the sound coding. When a computer receives inconsistent parameters and values, the result probably will be inconsistent, too. Review the coding of your entire library at least once a year — more often on contemporary music station. And this must be done by one person — or by a small group, all at one time. The best way to do this is to set up a list of typical songs that describe each code used by the station, and use this as a guide. 4. Rules and Parameters: Rethink which rules really matter to your station. Prioritize. Don't use more rules than needed. The rules used must be in sync with the coding of the library. Watch out for which rules are breakable and which are unbreakable. Too many unbreakable rules will give you a false sense of security, while really working against the natural flow of your station. One typical problem is "Artist Separation." A separation of two hours with a category turning over in five hours will keep other songs by that same artist from ever playing. If "variety" is your claim, make sure to have rules that deal with Type, Style, Era and Tempo activated and leave others turned off. 5. Building Clocks: Build clocks that communicate what's really important for the station. To satisfy your listeners, you need to create clocks that make sure you're never far away from the songs that are most important to them. If you are playing "spice" songs or new unfamiliar music, play them between your truly strong songs. Example: If you're a CHR station, make sure to play your new cuts next to your "important songs" like Power currents or Power recurrents. 6. Multiple Clocks: Use multiple clocks to avoid having songs play in the same clock position every time. With a better match between the number of songs in each category and the number of different clocks, you can achieve a flow wherein the songs get exposed in different positions within the hour. With a setup of 5, 7 and 9 currents you can be very successful with four different sets of music sweeps where these current songs can appear in both first, second, third and fourth quarter hour. 7. Sound Code/Type/Category Balance: Poor balance can make a station sound inconsistent. Five songs from Type A in one hour and none in the next hour can communicate two different types of stations. An even exposure of all your played sounds is the way to go. This is especially important for your edgier sounds. The solution is primarily in Category Setup and secondarily in your Rules settings. By making sure to set up rules for your truly "edgy" sounds, you can control their distribution more easily. With too many rules for core sounds, you will make it unnecessarily harder for your music scheduler to work well. What does your music say about your station? 8. Inconsistent Categories: Each category should communicate one general theme. In many of the databases I review, I see big problems with categories communicating too many things. When that happens, the station is less likely to deliver the balance that they strive to achieve in each quarter hour. A power category with too many songs, for instance, risks not being able to communicate passion. Are all songs in the category really Power songs? If a category consists of both very new songs and former power songs, it is performing two different functions for the listener. Depending on the way these songs fall, the balance from hour to hour can be uneven when it comes to familiarity and strength. 9. Uneven Exposure: Poorly designed categories and clocks often result in some songs in a category receiving a lot of exposure, while others in the same category receive very little. If an average secondary song receives more airplay than many powers because the computer finds it easier to schedule, you need to fix either the categories or the rule settings. This also happens more often if you experience too many unscheduled positions. 10. Vertical and Horizontal Separation: Many stations make an effort to use rules to keep titles well separated. If a category is out of balance and the rules are too strict, you can end up scheduling the same songs at the same time day after day...or every second or third day. The scheduling software cannot perform miracles. If the natural rotation of a category is an even 2 days, there is only so much it can do to correct this problem. If your rules are too rigorous (and without a clear hierarchy), the scheduler must compromise somewhere to the detriment of your strategy and your TSL. Rethink how listeners are using the station. If the average midday listener is not listening in the evening, then a 1 day/1 daypart separation is more effective than a 2 day rotation for your station. Robert Johansson of Better Radio Programming is a European-based music programming consultant specializing in optimizing and creation of music databases. © 2007 by Robert Johansson All Rights Reserved