Adding songs to multiple groups : PlayIt Software Support

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Samuel Hunt

started a topic about 7 years ago

Is it possible when adding songs to the manager to select multiple groups to add it to? We often songs that fit in to multiple categories and have things such as Songs-Timeless, Songs-Easy, etc, as well as favourite songs for presenters that we put in their clocks to make their programmes feel more like them. It would be good therefore when adding a song to be able to add it to multiple groups at the same time, if this can't already be done.

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Jim Quinton

said over 5 years ago

I am trying to figure this out as well. I have a station that plays mostly classic country but also plays pop songs for a couple of hours and some of those I want to list in both pop and country

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Peter Naughton

said over 5 years ago

Yes, you can do this. Yes, it's tricky because when you add songs initially, it appears songs can only be added to one group. But there is a way to do it.

I use PIL to DJ weddings. All of my music is sorted by decade and tempo. But I have 3 additional track groups specific to each wedding: must play; nice to have; and do not play. After each wedding, I clean out these 3 groups and replace them with the requests the couple made for my next wedding. But the tracks stay in their original track groups as well.

Top Menu > Manage > Track Groups

Find your "destination" group and double-click on it (or single-click and then click the "Edit" button).

Now, you'll see a window with 2 columns. On the RIGHT is every track currently in that group. On the LEFT is your entire library, minus the tracks on the right.

If you want to add tracks to this group, find them on the left (either manually or by using the search field above it). Then select the track(s) you want to add to the group, and press the ">" button to move those tracks over to the right. Once you hit OK on this window AND you hit OK or Apply on the Track Groups window, your changes are done. The track(s) you selected should now appear under both their "original" track group and the new one.

Likewise, if you want to REMOVE tracks from a group (for example, a CHR station is likely replacing some of its "Currents" weekly), it's a similar process. Open the Track Group you want to remove things from. Find the track(s) you want to remove on the RIGHT side of the window, then click the "<" button. Again, click OK to close the group editor, then OK or Apply on the track group list window, and your changes are saved.

Just one note: if you're using PIL to schedule music automatically (as opposed to importing logs), you want to make sure the separation rules are set properly. If you have the same song in 2 different categories (for example, "80s Gold" and "Samuel's Favorites") you want to make sure the "separation" rules in the Edit Playout Policy WIndow apply to BOTH categories.

http://docs.playitsoftware.com/PlayItLive/203/Edit-Playout-Policy-Window.html

Otherwise, you might wind up having the same song come up twice, within a shorter-than-desired timeframe, if the two categories appear close to each other on your program clock. The chances of that happening would depend on how many songs you have in each category... and obviously it can be manually overridden if the DJ is live, but you have to depend on the DJ keeping a keen eye on the log.

Even if you use an external program to schedule music, the same precautions need to be taken to make sure you don't wind up scheduling the same song twice within the same hour (or shift ... or day, if you happen to have a "no repeat workday guarantee" or anything like that).