Before you can schedule Events, you need to create Playlists. Playlists need to be at least one minute in length. If you are part of the Ad Revenue Share Program, you will need to insert ads manually into your Playlist according to the runtime.
Before you can make Events in your Schedule, you will need to make a Playlist. Even long tracks like pre-recorded interviews, talk shows, or storytelling tracks must be added to a Playlist before they can be scheduled into an Event. Each Event in the schedule needs to be associated with a Playlist.
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.
Note: We recommend a maximum of 6 hours runtime per Playlist.
Playlists help you curate tracks for your Events. All of the tracks in your Library can be included in your Playlists. The way you program your Playlist is up to you.
To get started with Playlists, click on the Playlists tab in the Station Menu.
Add and name your new playlist
To begin, click on the orange Add Playlist button located in the upper right-hand corner of the Playlists pane
- Create your first Playlist by adding a name in the Playlist Name textbox.
- Choose a color to help you organize your Playlists. The color of the Playlist will affect the color of the Event when the Playlist is added to the Event on the Schedule.
- Click on the green Save button to add your new Playlist.
When you have saved your new Playlist, it will appear in the Playlist pane.
Note: The way you program your station is up to you. One suggestion for beginners is to create Playlists labeled by the air date. There is no right or wrong way to label your playlists. It should be a format that helps you identify your Playlist with the Event in the Schedule tab. (Later, once your Playlist is finished, it's a good idea to add the runtime to the Playlist title for ease of scheduling.)
Add tracks to your Playlist
At first, your Playlist will be empty. The next step will be to add tracks to the Playlist. You can do this in one of two ways. You can click on the Playlist name (see image above) or select Edit from the Actions menu (. . .)
On the left side of the Playlists pane are the tracks that are currently uploaded to your Library. On the right will be your selected Playlist (empty at first).
You will find the Add (+) button to the right of the track length. Use this button to add a track to your current Playlist.
As soon as you’ve clicked the Add (+) button, you will see the track in the Playlist on the right. Keep adding tracks to create the perfect Playlist.
Note: You cannot edit track metadata from the Playlist itself. All metadata adjustments must be done from the Tracks tab.
Use the search bar to find specific tracks. You can add keywords from the track title, artist, or album. The search will examine all fields simultaneously as you type.
Refine the search of your music library by clicking the Filter button found at the right-hand edge of the search bar. You can use filters to refine your library according to Category or Media Type.
If you accidentally added a track that you don’t want into your Playlist, click the trash can icon to remove the song from the current Playlist.
Note: When creating Playlists you must comply with a law called the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). The DMCA was enacted to protect artists from having internet radio broadcasters upload their entire albums in sequence. DMCA primarily restricts you from repeating an artist too many times in a row. Much has changed with online music since this law was enacted, but it is still a law today and must be followed.
Arrange your Playlist
Tracks will play out in the same order that you’ve added them to the Playlist. You can arrange the songs by clicking and dragging the track to the desired spot in the Playlist (as shown below).
Manually arranging tracks in your Playlist might be an important step if you want to make sure that you aren’t playing the same artist too many times in a row, so as to comply with the DMCA.
Check the Runtime
As you add tracks to your Playlist, you will see a cumulative runtime at the top of the Playlist pane, displayed in hours, minutes, and seconds. Add tracks to the Playlist until you’ve reached your desired runtime. Playlists must be more than one minute long. We generally recommend Playlists with a maximum runtime of 6 hours.
Checking the runtime of your Playlist will also help you determine how many ads you will need to insert into your Playlist if you are part of the Ad Revenue Share Program.
Insert Ads
If you have not opted out of the Ad Revenue Sharing Program, you must manually insert the ad breaks into your Playlist. Find the Ad breaks in your Library by typing Ad Break in the Playlists pane search bar.
As per the Ad Revenue Sharing Program agreement, for each hour of programming, you must include 4 minutes of ads. Ads come in 30-second, 60-second, 90-second, and 120-second increments. That means if you have a Playlist that is 2.5 hours long, you will need 10 minutes of ads total, making sure that they are spread fairly evenly across all 2.5 hours. If you are using the 120-second ad breaks for your 2.5 hour-long Playlist, you will need to schedule 5 of those 120-second ad breaks in total.
Re-check the runtime after you’ve inserted the ads. This will help you know how long to make the Event for your Playlist.
Note: If you schedule a Playlist of 45 minutes into an hour-long Event, the Playlist will loop again from the beginning to fill the entire Event. If you want to avoid looping, you can create your Event with a length that matches the runtime of your Playlist. Note that Playlists need to be more than one minute long.
Save your Playlist
Once you have filled your Playlist, click on the orange Save Playlist button to make sure your Playlist passes the DMCA test. You can read more about the DMCA here.
If your Playlist passed the DMCA check and saved successfully, you will see a notification at the top of your Playlist pane.
Once you’ve created at least one Playlist, you’re ready to create an Event! Read more about Event creation here. It is also a good idea to add the final runtime to the name of the Playlist for ease of scheduling.
If you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns with Playlist creation, please contact the Support Team here.