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Organizing Content

Organizing Content

The bigger your library of music, the more you will love SAM Broadcaster Cloud. It makes it so easy to manage a large library by simple drag & drop operations.

 

Step 1 – Set the Correct Media Type for Tracks

If you import tracks into the Queue, Playlist or “All Media” Library filter, then the items will be set to the Media Type of “Music” by default.

However, you probably have lots of different types of content – like Music, Sound Effects, Jingles, Promos, Station ID, News, Commercials or Interviews.

Your first job is to make sure all your content has the correct Media Type and this can be achieved in a number of different ways, a popular method is to do this immediately when importing new tracks. Instead of dragging them to the Queue or Playlist, open the Library tab and drag or import the new tracks directly into the correct Library -> Media Type filter. Doing so will also automatically set the Media Type to the correct value.

 

TIP: You can import files into the correct Media Type filter even if you previously added the files before. SAM Broadcaster Cloud will then simply not upload the file again, but only set the Media Type.

 

Alternatively, search for the items in the Search window (or basically from any list where you see the item you are looking for) and simply drag the item(s) onto the correct Media Type filter category.

You can also use the more laborious method of editing the Media Type from the “Media Info” editor. Select the tracks you wish to edit and then press Alt+Enter. This will open up the Media Info editor where you can edit the Media Type, along with the other info like Title, Artist, Album, Priority, etc.

 

Step 2 – Organize Tracks into Playlists

This is the part where your own skill, tastes and creativity comes in. You need to organize your content into logical groups. This will make a bit more sense once you go through the schedule and rotation logic lessons, but we’ll try and give some direction here.

Say you wish to start a radio station that plays the most popular current music – basically what is called a Top 40 station – you might want to create the following logical groups:

  • The current top 40 tracks by popularity
  • New releases by top artists
  • The top 100 tracks from last year
  • The top 200 tracks from the last decade
  • A list of new or unknown artists that you personally enjoy

So to create these logic groups go to the Playlist tab and click on the “new playlist” button. Name the playlist something descriptive like “Current Top40”. Create a few more for the rest of your logical groups, for example, “New Releases”, “Top100-LastYear”, “Top200-LastDecade”,”MyPicks”

Add all the appropriate tracks that need to fall into these logical groups by either dragging them from Windows Explorer, using the import functions or searching for them within SAM Broadcaster Cloud and dragging them onto a playlist.

 

TIP: Visually impaired users may find the “Add to -> Playlist” command helpful (ALT+C) if dragging files are problematic.

 

We recommend starting with only a few categories initially and adding more ones as you define the “personality” of your station.

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Comments

  • Avatar
    Robert Chalmers

    So I can't have a playlist that has a directory hierarchy in it, like,

    World ->

               /French

                           / Putumayo Presents French Café/

                                                                                  /04 Enzo Enzo - Juste quelqu'un de bien.flac

     

    What you are saying is that I need a separate playlist for each and every album?

  • Avatar
    Mathew

    Hi,

    The hierarchical layout you describe appears to show a folder for each album which in this instance is contained within a French Playlist.  You can do the same by creating the album playlist and then adding this playlist to a French playlist if you wish but it will not display as a sub-folder but will in fact simply add the contents of the album playlist to the French playlist.  In this manner you can also remove any duplicate tracks from Playlists.