Editing Song Alert Templates

This article is part of a series on Song Alerts.

The templates used when sending Song Alerts can be managed in the LDR dashboard under Social Engagement & Alerts > Song Alerts. Then, select the delivery method (Email / SMS / Push / X) from the tabs.  Remember to save the template for each delivery method before moving on to the next one.

Types of Alert Templates

The following can be edited in the LDR dashboard:

  • Song Alerts - The message a listener receives when their chosen song plays
  • Opt-In Message - The message sent to email and SMS subscribers to confirm their desire to receive the alerts

Character Count Restrictions

Character count is an important limitation to note when modifying your SMS and X alerts templates.

SMS alerts longer than 160 characters will be split into multiple messages and then reassembled on the user's device. However, it is possible that some carriers or devices may not recombine templates or may deliver them in reverse order. Futuri will make every effort to split messages at the ends of words/links to make them as legible as possible, but we recommend keeping SMS alert templates safely below 160 characters.


X alerts longer than 140 characters will be rejected by X and will not be posted; therefore, it is essential to ensure that X alerts are kept under 140 characters.


As you're typing each SMS and X template, a character count will appear under each text box, with sample data substituted for each replacement token (i.e., title, artist, X handle). Please keep in mind that your real data will often be longer than this sample data, so you should aim low with your character count.


Email HTML vs. Body Template

In each email template, you'll see a text box for "Text Body" and another for "HTML Body." If a user opens the email in a client that reads HTML (such as Gmail or Outlook), they will see the HTML body. However, if the user opens the email in a plain-text client (such as some older webmail interfaces), they will see the Text Body template.


It is a good idea to fill out both. If you have any questions about formatting HTML, please check with your station's digital team or Futuri VIP Support.


Rotating Alert Templates

For SMS and X alerts, you can rotate multiple templates so that users don't receive the same message each time. To add more templates, click the +Add Alert button under the last template and type a new message. Once you have multiple templates in place, you can then click the red trash can in the upper right corner of any template you wish to remove. Remember to save at the bottom of the page when you're done adding and deleting templates.



Available Replacements

The following replacement variables can be used when filling out Song Alert templates in the LDR Dashboard. The variables described here will automatically be replaced with the appropriate value when an alert is sent.  For ease of use, you will see handy buttons that will automatically insert the selected tag.


Replacement VariableDetails
%aArtist Name (valid for Song alerts)
%tSong Title (valid for Song alerts)
%nAlert Requester's Name (for Futuri Mobile app users)
%sStation Name
%wVoting Window Name (i.e., "You Control the Music")
%lShortened URL of your website with your Voting Window 
%uShortened unsubscribe URL (must be included in all email and SMS templates)
%oShortened opt-in URL (valid only for opt-in templates and should always be in them)
%@Username or email of the subscriber
%pSponsor tag. If you need to daypart a sponsor or set a start/end date for a campaign, Futuri VIP Support can schedule a sponsor tag for your templates. The scheduled sponsor tag will then be inserted in place of %p. If you don't need to daypart/schedule the sponsor, you can just put the text directly in the template, without using %p.

NOTE: If any of the above values can't be replaced, they will be removed from the alert. Users should never see these replacement tokens in the final alert.

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