How Do I Use The Playlist Manager in Centova?

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The playlist manager allows you to create and configure playlists to control how and when your media is played. You can create as many playlists as you like, each with its own distinct settings, and Basic DJ will automatically determine when to play each one.

1. Creating a Playlist

To create a new playlist, click the Create Playlist link in the upper, right-hand corner of the page. This will launch the playlist editor, described under Playlist Editor below.

2. Editing a Playlist

To edit an existing playlist, click the Edit Playlist icon next to the playlist you wish to edit. This will launch the playlist editor, described under Playlist Editor below.

3. Deleting a Playlist

To delete an existing playlist, click the Delete Playlist icon next to the playlist you wish to delete. This will permanently remove the playlist, its settings, and its list of tracks.

4. Updating your Media Library

Basic DJ maintains an internal list of information about all of your media – artists, albums, and tracks – which is used to allow you to browse and search your media in the media library.

Whenever you add or remove media from your collection, you will need to click the Update Media Library link, at the bottom of the Playlist Manager page, to allow Basic DJ to update its internal list. Note that any new media you add to your collection will not appear in the media library until you've clicked the Update Media Library link.

5. Playlist Editor

This will launch the playlist editor and allow you to configure the new playlist. The following fields are available:

Title

Specifies the title for the playlist. This is used only to help you identify the playlist, and is completely ignored by Basic DJ. Use a descriptive name like “Heavy rotation” or “Friday night's top 10 countdown” to ensure that you'll remember what this playlist is for.

Status

Specifies the status of the playlist. If the playlist is Enabled, it will be included in your stream; if it is Disabled, it will be ignored by Basic DJ and its tracks will never be played.

Type

Specifies the type of playlist. There are presently 4 playlist types available:

General Rotation: General rotation playlists are used to play media from your library when no scheduled, interval, or immediate playlists are due to be played. This is the “default” playlist type, and most stations spend the majority of their air time playing random tracks from general rotation playlists.
Scheduled: Scheduled playlists allow you to schedule a list of tracks to be played at a specific date and time. These playlists can also be setup to repeat on a schedule, making them ideal for daily/weekly countdowns or pre-recorded shows.
Interval: Interval playlists allow you to play tracks at regular intervals of several minutes or several songs. These playlists are useful for playing frequently-recurring content, such as station identification or commercial advertisements.
Immediate: Immediate playlists allow you to queue tracks to be played immediately after the end of the current track. These playlists are useful for playing tracks on demand, such as song requests.

For more information about how tracks are selected when multiple playlists of different types are activated, please see the section entitled Track Selection below.

Playback order

Specifies the track playback order for General Rotation, Scheduled, and Immediate playlists. If set to Random (shuffled), tracks will be selected at random from the playlist. If set to Sequential (in order), tracks will be selected in order from the playlist, starting with the first track, and restarting when the end of the playlist is reached.

The playlist editor also includes a number of additional fields depending on the playlist type. Those are discussed in the sections following immediately below.

5.1. General Rotation Playlist Options

General Rotation playlists include the following additional fields in the playlist editor:

Playback weight

Specifies the “weight” for the playlist, which controls how often tracks from this playlist are played relative to tracks from other General Rotation playlists. This can be used to ensure that, for example, new releases (in one playlist) are played more frequently than older tracks (in another playlist).

Take, for example, a scenario in which you have the following General Rotation playlists:

Title Playback weight

Power rotation 6

Heavy rotation 3

Light rotation 1

In this example, for every 10 tracks that are played, on average, 6 will be selected from the Power rotation playlist, 3 will be selected from the Heavy rotation playlist, and 1 will be selected from the Light rotation playlist.

As such, you might place your most popular tracks (new releases, for example) in your Power rotation playlist, to ensure that they are played most frequently. You might place older favorites in the Heavy rotation playlist to ensure that they are still played often, though less often than the new releases. And you might place your less popular tracks in the Light rotation playlist to ensure that they are played only occasionally.

For more information about how tracks are selected when multiple playlists are activated, please see the section entitled Track Selection below.

5.2. Scheduled Playlist Options

Scheduled playlists include the following additional fields in the playlist editor:

Scheduled date

Specifies the date on which this playlist should be activated. The playlist will remain inactive until this date. You may optionally click the “...” button to choose the date visually on a calendar.

Scheduled time

Specifies the time at which this playlist should be activated, on the date specified in the Scheduled date field. The playlist will remain inactive until the scheduled date at the scheduled time.

Repeat schedule

Specifies when (if ever) this playlist should repeat. If enabled, this allows you to have the tracks in the playlist automatically re-played several times per week, month, or year.

Possible values for this field include:

Never (one time only): If selected, the playlist will play only at the scheduled date/time. After it has played, it will effectively be disabled.
Daily: If selected, the playlist will play every day at the scheduled time, starting on the scheduled date.
Weekly: If selected, the playlist will play every week on the selected weekdays, at the scheduled time, starting on the scheduled date (or rather, on the first selected weekday after the scheduled date). The weekdays on which the playlist should be activated can be selected using the Repeat on field, which appears only when the Weekly repeat schedule is selected.
Monthly: If selected, the playlist will play every month, on the scheduled day of the month, at the scheduled time. You can alternately use the Repeat on field, which only appears when the Monthly repeat schedule is selected, to have the playlist played on the first or last day of the month instead of on the scheduled day of the month.
Yearly: If selected, the playlist will play every year, on the scheduled day and month, at the scheduled time.

Interruptible

Specifies whether or not this playlist may be interrupted by other scheduled playlists. Possible values for this field include:

No, always play to completion: If selected, the playlist will always play through to completion before any other scheduled playlists are permitted to play. If any other scheduled playlists have been scheduled to start while this playlist is still playing, they will be delayed until this playlist finishes.
Yes, terminate if another scheduled playlist is due to begin: If selected, this playlist will be aborted if another scheduled playlist is due to start while this playlist is still playing. Note that for technical (and aesthetic) reasons, Basic DJ cannot interrupt individual tracks while they are still playing, so the new playlist will be started at the next available opportunity (i.e., when the current track finishes).

For more information about how tracks are selected when multiple playlists are activated, please see the section entitled Track Selection below.

5.3. Interval Playlist Options

Interval playlists include the following additional fields in the playlist editor:

Repeat every

Specifies how often the playlist should repeat. You may specify that the playlist should repeat either after every few songs, or after every few minutes. You may also specify an interval (in songs or minutes) at which the playlist should repeat.

Playback style

Specifies how tracks are selected from the playlist. If Play only one randomly selected track from this playlist is selected, Basic DJ will choose a single track from the playlist, then consider it “inactive” until the next interval. If Play all tracks from this playlist in order is selected, then Basic DJ will play the all tracks from the playlist, in order, at each interval.

For more information about how tracks are selected when multiple playlists are activated, please see the section entitled Track Selection below.

5.4. Track Selection

When creating playlists, it is important to understand how Basic DJ will select tracks when multiple playlists are activated. At the end of each song, Basic DJ performs a number of checks, in order, to determine which playlist to select a track from next.

Note that Basic DJ will never interrupt a track to change playlists. That is, if a playlist is scheduled to start at 10:30, and a 10-minute track starts at 10:25, the scheduled playlist will be deferred until 10:35 to allow the track to finish.

The following checks are performed in the order shown to determine which playlist to select a track from:

Immediate Playlists. If an Immediate playlist is enabled, it will always take precedence over all other playlist types, and it will be played through to completion before any other playlists will be consulted, even if this requires interrupting another playlist. Upon completion, the status of the Immediate playlist will be set to disabled to ensure that it is not repeated.

Scheduled Playlists. If it is time to play a Scheduled playlist, it will always take precedence over all other playlist types (except Immediate playlists). Once a Scheduled playlist starts, it will be played through to completion before any other playlists (except Immediate playlists, and possibly other Scheduled playlists – see below) are consulted.

If two Scheduled playlists conflict (i.e., if one is scheduled to start while another is still playing), Basic DJ will consult the active playlist's “Interruptible” flag. If it is configured to be interruptible, Basic DJ will immediately abort the active playlist (leaving the remaining track un-played) and begin the second playlist. If it is not configured to be interruptible, the second playlist will be deferred until the active playlist finishes.

Interval Playlists. If it is time to play an Interval playlist, it will always take precedence over General Rotation playlists.

General Rotation playlists. If no other playlists are due for playback, a track will be selected from one of the General Rotation playlists. Selection of tracks from General Rotation playlists is “weighted” as described under General Rotation Playlist Options above, to ensure that tracks from “heavier” playlists are chosen more often than those from “lighter” playlists.

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