TuneTracker™ QuickTip
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Gourmet Playlists Part II: "Using the Rating Attribute"
In a previous Q-Tip, we talked about the use of the "Kind" concept and how it can add a third dimension to music selection when creating your program logs (playlists) in TuneStacker, by taking advantage of the Comment attribute, like this:
Random Genre Cool_Jazz Tempo Slow Comment Female
Interpretation: "Find all of the slow, cool jazz songs by female artists, and randomly select one of them to be added to the playlist"
This time, we'll pull in a fourth dimension: the Rating attribute. First an example, then a description:
Random Genre Cool_Jazz Tempo Slow Comment Female Rating 3
Interpretation: "Find all of the slow, cool jazz songs by female artists, with the Rating "3" and randomly select one of them to be added to the playlist"
The Rating attribute, which is simply a number from 0 to 9, can be used in many powerful ways.
1. Use Rating as a way to "rank" songs by any method you like.
Your station might have songs that are commonly requested by listeners. You can rank the songs based on their local popularity.
0 = Never requested
1 = Sometimes requested
2 = Frequently requested
3 = Constantly requested
2. Use the numbers 0-9 to represent an era.
0 = 1965 to 1969
1 = 1970 to 1974
2 = 1975 to 1979
3 = 1980 to 1984
4 = 1985 to 1989
5 = 1990 to 1994
6 = 1995 to 1999
7 = 2000 to 2004
8 = 2005 to present
3. Use the numbers to represent a subcategory of music.
0 = Mainstream Commercial Artist
1 = Indy (independent) Artist
4. Use the numbers to indicate where the songs peaked on the pop charts.
1 = Top 10
4 = Top 40
0 = Top 100
Let's use that final example for a moment. We'll use Rating to indicate chart performance, and Comment to indicate the era.
Random Genre Pop Rating 1 Tempo Fast Comment 1960s
Interpretation: "Find all of the fast Top 10 songs by 1960s-era Pop groups and randomly select one of them to be added to the playlist"
Think, and use your imagination, and we think you'll discover there are many other ways Ratings can put power into your programming!