Categories 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:

Tip: You may have access to 1 or more Live365 stations. See our Dashboard Navigation article to learn more about selecting the station which you want to work with. Once on that Station's Overview page, you can then follow along.


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 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 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

During the upload process you can adjust the Categories of each uploaded track, click on the Categories drop-down menu and select the categories that you would like to apply. Multiple categories can be applied to the same track.


For a step-by-step tutorial on uploading, please check out this article: Upload tracks to the Live365 Media Library


Related Article:

To learn more about "Media Types" click here.