Tether offers several voting features that allow listeners to engage with a list of songs in order to determine what will play on the air (including Takeover, Top Song, and FaceOff). The available songs are determined by you, and there are two ways to populate one of these playlists:
- CSV Upload - You can provide a spreadsheet (as a .CSV file) of your active library with any attributes you'd like to use for separation (i.e. category, sound code, era, vocalist), which is generated from your music scheduler and uploaded to the Tether dashboard each time you update your rotation.
- "Autopop" - The top X songs played over the last Y days (with X and Y determined by you) are made available for voting. Because this type of playlist is based on your Now Playing feed, complicated separation goals such as category, sound code, and era are not possible. However, basic artist and title separation are still possible. You may find that an "autopop" list is easier to manage, especially if your station doesn't schedule music locally. Click here for more information on "autopop" playlists.
NOTE: These same instructions can be used to generate playlists for Top Song, Takeover Countdown, and FaceOff, though we advise against complex sound-code-related goals for those features.
This article will focus on generating the playlist export needed to supply your playlist via CSV Upload.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Configuring the Export for the First Time
- Running the Export
- Uploading the Export to the Tether Dashboard
Configuring the Export for the First Time
In your MusicMaster Windows directory, there is a program called MMExportDesigner.exe (or possibly MMExportDesignEditor.exe). When launched, you will be prompted to pick the dataset to use. If you don't know where your MusicMaster database lives, check with your engineer.
When you pick your dataset, a second box will pop up that will allow you to choose the Design Type (either a Schedule Export or a Library Export). For Tether playlist exports, you'll choose Library Export and then click New.
Give the design a name (something generic like "Takeover" or "Top Song") and choose Fixed-Length ASCII Text. Then, click "OK".
Start with your Artist field, and then add a "Fixed Text" field afterward, with a comma in the "Text" box (on the right side of the screen) as shown in the screenshot below.
NOTE: Make sure that the "Length" of your Artist field is a reasonable value. Sometimes it may default to 255 characters, but you should make it shorter (in the neighborhood of 30 characters) in order to prevent your songs from taking up multiple rows in your CSV file.
Add the rest of the fields that you need, with a "Fixed Text" comma in between each one. The minimum required fields are Artist, Title, ID, and (for WideOrbit and SS32 stations), the Media field (or wherever your automation category is saved). If you want to add Takeover separation goals for other fields, like Category, Sound Code, Tempo, Era, or Role, those fields should also be included.
NOTE: If you need to change an export's field order after configuring (i.e. if you forget to add commas in between each field and need to add them at the end), you can re-order your fields by clicking on the grey pointer column and moving the line up or down to the new location.
When you're done configuring your export, click File > Save so that you can then use it in MusicMaster.
Running the Export
To run a playlist export from MusicMaster, simply navigate to Dataset > Library > Export as shown below.
Then, select the categories you want to include, choose the Output Design that you created in the setup process, determine where you want to save the file, and give it a filename as shown in the screenshot below. The filename must end in ".csv".
Once you've generated your playlist, you'll upload the list to the Futuri Control Room (see below).
Uploading the Export to the Tether Dashboard
For instructions on uploading and managing your playlists in the Tether dashboard, please click here.