Categories (formerly called Tags) are a user-defined way of organizing tracks in your Live365 library. Categories can help to make searching your Library and building Playlists and Clockwheels easier.


In this help article we will cover:


First, make sure you have selected the station where you want to make changes. Highlight and click the station name to select it. If you are unfamiliar with how to navigate this part of Live365, please see this help article which describes dashboard navigation. 

Once you have selected the appropriate station, you will be taken to that station's menu page. From this page, you will be able to navigate and make changes and adjustments to your station. 


What are categories?


Categories are a Live365-internal way of labeling tracks in your Library. Track Categories (formerly called Tags) are different from Types; Categories are customizable and user-defined, whereas media Types are static, defined by Live365. 

A track can have multiple Categories, but it can only have one media Type. You can read more about Types here. You can use the flexible Live365 Categories feature to organize your library in many ways. Here are some common ways to organize your library:


  • By genre - Probably the most popular way to organize your library if your station intends to play more than one genre of music. Some examples include rock, pop, gospel, classical, etc.
  • By decade - You might have songs from different decades. Use Categories like -'70s, -'80s, -'90s, etc. This can help you build decade-centric Playlists. 
  • By mood - Categorize your tracks as “upbeat,” “chill,” “happy,” “fierce,” etc. These Categories can help you make smoother transitions in your Playlists by matching tracks for the mood they convey.
  • By upload date - Categorize by year or month that the Track was uploaded. When you run low on room in your library, delete the oldest tracks, and add some new tracks. 
  • By language - If you have multiple tracks in Japanese or Spanish, for example, it would make the foreign tracks easier to recognize.
  • By popularity - Create codes for recent hits and timeless tracks so that you can work the biggest hits into your Playlists regularly. Read more about library coding here.


You can have more than one Category per track, for example, something can be categorized as “'90s,” “rock,” and “upbeat” at the same time.

Why do I need Categories?


Categories make it easier for you to search your library. They also help in Playlist and ClockWheel creation. Categories can help you rotate new songs into your library as well. 



You can use the Filter menu (pictured above) in the Tracks pane to search your library for songs that have a specific Category, or number of Categories simultaneously.



Can I use the same Category for Music and Station ID files?


You should use different category tags for your music and jingle files, even if they are of a similar genre. You can assign as many categories as you would like, but you need to make sure a category only has tracks from a single type (music, talk, station ID, promo). 


Note: In order for the automation systems to work properly, they need to narrow down each category to a type, so that we can properly follow DMCA or separation rules. If categories have tracks of different types, it's hard for the track generator to know what to do with these tracks, which causes unexpected results.



For example, you may have music and jingles that are winter holiday-themed and you want to be able to group them together. You'd tag the Music files with a "holiday" category and the Station ID files with "holidayID." This way, you'll be able to call the correct file types when using ClockWheel templates. 



How do I make Categories?


Add new categories by selecting Media ➡ Categories from the station menu navigation bar, as shown below



In the Categories pane, click the orange "Add Category" button.



Follow these steps to add a new category:


  1. Enter a descriptive name for your new category.
  2. Choose a color to associate with the category.
  3. Click the green Save button to record your changes.


  4. Once you have clicked the "Save" button, your Category will appear in the Category pane.



Edit or delete track Categories


  1. Select Media ➡ Tracks from the station menu.


  2. Use the checkboxes in the column on the left to select tracks. All of the tracks that you select will receive the same category. You can also select only one track if you don't wish to bulk apply changes.



  3. Once you have selected tracks, click on the "Change categories" button to add or remove categories. Click on the small arrow from the right side of the field to expand and select the desired categories.



  4. Click the Save button to apply the changes:



Adding Categories while uploading tracks to your Library


  1. Upload tracks by selecting Media ➡ Tracks from the side pane.


  2. Next, click the orange "Add tracks" button on the top right of the Media ➡ Tracks page. For best results, we suggest that you upload similar tracks in each batch. This is because you can only select one Type for all the tracks in each upload batch.



  3. Once you have clicked the orange "Add tracks" button, select the type of files that you wish to upload. Be sure to set the correct Track Type for the files in order for your station to function correctly!


  4. Choose Tracks from your computer or external hard drive to upload. These will be stored in your station’s media library and will ONLY be available to you. At this time, Live365 does not have a shared music library. Live365 will detect if you have already uploaded a copy of the current track and will not upload duplicate copies.


  5. Once you have added the desired tracks, you can then make adjustments to the Categories and metadata tags of the files. You only need to edit the metadata if it is needed. Otherwise, the original metadata is retained.
  6. To adjust the Categories of each uploaded track, click on the "Categories" droplist and check the ones that you would like to apply.



  7. Whether you are making adjustments to the categories at this time or not, you will next move forward with the uploading process by clicking the orange "Done" button as indicated in the image below. Then, wait for the process to finish and you'll see your uploaded tracks appear in your media library.


Related Article:

To learn more about "Media Types" click here.