Packets to Limit or Increase Airplay of Songs

A Packet is a category within a category. You can use them to limit the amount of airplay some songs get within their ‘master’ category. You can also use them to increase the airplay of a song, to have it scheduled twice as often as other songs in the same category. Or, you might want to rotate two versions of the same song without doubling up on the number of times the song itself gets scheduled.

This video shows how to have M1 schedule a long version of a song at night and the shorter version of the song during the daytime. And, it demonstrates how to get one song to play twice as often as the other songs in the same category.

Watch the video on YouTube: Music 1 - Using Packets

Making some songs by an artist play more than others

I’ve got a category with a bunch of songs by one artist. I want some of those songs to get less play than others. How can I get that to happen?

You can do it with Packets. A Packet is a Category that is placed into another Category. The Packet “rotates” as if it were a single song. M1 schedules the Packet, then it schedules one song from within the Packet. All the songs within the Packet get the same number of spins, but since the packet rotates as if it were a single song, the songs inside the packet get a lot less airplay than the other ‘regular’ songs in the Category.

Let’s say you have a Category with nine songs and one Packet with the Packet containing two Adele songs. There are 10 “units” in the Category. Adele, the artist, will get just as many spins in the week as the other nine artists in the Category, but each of the two songs within the Packet will get 1/2 the number of spins as the other individual songs. You could increase the number of spins of the two Adele songs by adding the Packet into the category TWICE. Then you’d have eleven units in the category…nine songs and two Packets. Now the two Adele songs in the packet will each get a few more spins each week, but still not as many spins as the other individual songs in the Category, but also Adele the artist will get twice as many spins as the other artists because she is in the Category twice (two packets).

When to packet

The question came up again about Grouping solo songs with the singer's Group for Artist Separation. The Jacksons was one of his examples and the PD asked if packets might be a way to get Jermaine and The Jacksons and the Jackson Five and Michael all the better spaced out through the broadcast day. The short answer is yes, packets are handy for that. But that also makes for the other benefit of packets, which is to keep the 'lesser' hits by the Big Stars in play. Here's a short example: If I had an Oldies station playing just these five Michael Jackson songs, I'd have "Billie Jean", "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" in full rotation. Those were Monster hits. Then, I'd put "This Is It" and "Human Nature" into a packet. They were hits, but they weren't nearly as important and popular as the iconic first three. Being in a packet, then those two would get played, but only half as much as the real biggies in the Category.