Music scheduling is at the heart of any radio station, but doing it right is no easy task. Random selection often feels anything but random, overplaying some songs while ignoring others. This lack of balance can turn an engaging playlist into a predictable, monotonous experience.

Within PlayIt Live, I’ve reimagined what random can mean. Smart Selection introduces a revolutionary approach to track scheduling, balancing randomness with fairness to ensure every track has a chance to play its part in your playlist. In addition, if Smart Selection isn’t the right fit for a specific part of your schedule, you can switch to either random selection or the “most rested” strategy for individual track group clock items.

In this blog, I’ll dive into how Smart Selection works, compare it to other scheduling methods, and explain why it’s the ideal solution for maintaining a balanced and engaging playlist.

What is Smart Selection?

Smart Selection is a track scheduling strategy that combines the unpredictability of random selection with a prioritisation system to ensure a fair and balanced playlist.

In this system, each track is assigned a weight based on how long it has been since it was last played. The longer a track has been waiting, the higher its weight, and the more likely it is to be selected. The system evaluates each track in the track group, prioritising those with the highest weights, while still maintaining an element of randomness.

Smart Selection ensures your audience never feels like they’re hearing the same tracks on repeat. It keeps playlists fresh by prioritising underplayed tracks without sacrificing the unpredictability of random selection.

Why Random Selection Alone Falls Short

On the surface, random selection sounds like the perfect way to schedule tracks. By treating all tracks equally, it seems like a fair and unbiased way to keep playlists fresh and unpredictable.

The randomness of this method might seem fair, but it creates several issues. Some tracks get repeated too frequently, while others are ignored entirely. Over time, this can make playlists feel monotonous and frustrate listeners who crave variety.

One major flaw with random selection is a phenomenon known as random clustering. Even though tracks are chosen randomly, randomness doesn’t guarantee an even distribution. Think of random selection like rolling a die (I grew up calling it ‘a dice’ which is, apparently, ‘wrong’). You might roll the same number three times in a row, even though other numbers are just as likely to appear. Similarly, in a playlist, some tracks can end up dominating purely by chance.

To fix this, many systems turn to stack-based scheduling. While this method adds structure, it introduces a new set of challenges.

The Drawbacks of Stack-Based Scheduling

Stack-based scheduling organises tracks into a queue or stack for a specific category or track group. Tracks are selected in order, starting from the top of the stack. Once a track is selected, it is moved to the bottom of the stack. When all tracks in the stack have been used – or if no more tracks are eligible to be played – the stack is reshuffled to start the process again.

Although it sounds logical, stack-based scheduling comes with several inefficiencies:

• Delays Due to Rule Violations: Tracks at the bottom of the stack that can’t be played due to rules (e.g., artist separation or daypart restrictions) are reshuffled back into the original stack, delaying their rotation even if they would have become eligible soon after.
• Disruption of Future Scheduling: Scheduling a single hour in advance (e.g., for a voice-tracked show) disrupts the stack for the current hour, making it impossible to schedule the present and future while maintaining the existing stack. To schedule one future hour, many systems enforce that every preceding hour must also be scheduled.
• Rigid Edits: Making adjustments to a scheduled hour is cumbersome because the stack for that hour no longer exists. Changes require manual edits or rescheduling the entire log.

Stack-based scheduling attempts to bring order to playlist rotation but falls short due to its rigidity. PlayIt Live’s Smart Selection offers an intelligent, more flexible alternative.

The Benefits of Smart Selection

Imagine two tracks: Track A hasn’t been played for 3 days, while Track B was played just yesterday. In a traditional random system, both tracks would have the same chance of being selected, regardless of how recently they were played. Smart Selection changes this by assigning weights to tracks based on how long they’ve been out of rotation. The longer a track has been waiting, the higher its weight – and the greater its chance of being selected.

For example, the system uses squared weights, meaning a track that hasn’t been played for 3 days is 9 times (3×3) more likely to be selected than a track played 1 day ago (1×1). Because squared weights amplify the difference between overdue and recently played tracks, this ensures tracks that have waited longer are prioritised, while still keeping the playlist dynamic and unpredictable.

Flexibility for Scheduling

Weights are dynamically calculated based on the track’s actual or scheduled play time. This means individual hours can be scheduled in the future without disrupting the current hour, making it ideal for scenarios like scheduling voice-tracked shows ahead of time. Additionally, if a track can’t be scheduled at a specific time due to separation policies, it remains in contention and will be reconsidered as soon as it becomes eligible.

Fallback Options

While Smart Selection is designed to strike the perfect balance between fairness and unpredictability, there may be times when you want more direct control over certain parts of your schedule. That’s why PlayIt Live gives you the flexibility to fall back to a random selection or a “most rested” strategy for individual Track Group clock items, allowing you to tailor your scheduling approach to your station’s needs.

Random Selection

If you prefer to keep things completely unpredictable for a particular segment, you can switch to pure random selection. With this strategy, all eligible tracks in the track group are treated equally, regardless of how long it’s been since they were last played.

“Most Rested” Selection

The Most Rested strategy ensures that the eligible track that’s been out of rotation the longest is always selected. This is especially useful for track groups with a smaller pool of tracks, such as jingles or promos.

Why These Options Matter

As a broadcaster, you know that every hour of your programming is unique. Some segments thrive on unpredictability, while others need a more structured approach. By letting you fall back to random or “most rested” selection for specific clock items, PlayIt Live gives you the control to adapt your playlist strategy for every situation.

A Cleverer Approach to Scheduling

Smart Selection transforms track scheduling by balancing fairness, variety, and unpredictability – all while solving the inefficiencies of traditional systems. With its ability to prioritise underplayed tracks and adapt to real-world scheduling scenarios, Smart Selection ensures listeners stay tuned.

Ready to try it for yourself? Download PlayIt Live today and experience intelligent scheduling!