Testimonials

Allan Gidyk

I’ll be first to admit I was kicking and screaming to avoid moving to Windows-based music systems in the early millennium. A speed demon MD in DOS with six logs for two stations to do in advance of a long weekend had no time for click, close, click again. MusicMaster for Windows was my first Windows based system and I love the combination of mouse activity and keyboard shortcuts. All the repetitive functions of editing are available with keystrokes as well as mouse clicks. Using both makes it easy to get into a rhythm checking your logs.

Favorite features include the Artist Separation wizard. Having the wizard to help set a customized artist sep on all artists is great at keeping the artists with fewer tracks separated. I was happy to see MusicMaster 5 offer the ability to run a projected turnover and schedule density on an attribute like a Sound Code. Very useful in a variety based format. Adding 'Category Plays' to the Auto-Platoon function instead of only 'Move Date' is another useful MusicMaster 5 addition for me.

I'm very happy with MusicMaster and the support team. The transition was smooth, complete with custom written files for song imports with what I wanted. An excellent program backed by a great team.

Miguel Cruz

After many years of using different pieces of music programming software, we recently changed to MusicMaster and we are very pleased with the outcome. Just two examples:

• The diversity of available rules and the ability to copy and paste them individually (or whole directories) to different categories is very useful to us, as is the infinitely scalable rules that we can define, with as many different settings and weights as we need.
• The Schedule Editor layout is completely customizable and gives us full access to everything that we really need to program or review the station log.

Janet Trecarten

Having worked with MusicMaster software for almost three decades, and having had the chance to work with other systems as well, I can honestly say it’s the best music scheduling software available. Not only is this because of the program itself, but also because of the great team behind the scenes I’ve worked with. Joe, Jill, Drew and Malcolm are the best. We’ve all experienced the ‘less than interested’ response to software questions and problems and it’s refreshing that the MusicMaster team are so quick to offer support and solutions to issues you might be having. They’ve also been more than responsive to ideas for upgrades and improvements (very rare :-)).

We use a couple of features that I’m not sure everyone knows about, but are real time savers. One is the ability to copy and paste a portion of your schedule to another day and time. For example, if you do a local countdown or classic show that repeats during the week, you simply have to enter the show once, then you can copy and paste it to the repeated daypart. The other feature we’ve been using is the “Export to Affiliates” feature that allows you to share your music schedule with affiliate stations. The beauty is the affiliates get a well-groomed schedule, but still have the luxury of localizing as needed. They simply import the schedule, then are free to adjust for timing, local shows, or regional artists they would like to feature.

I’m sure the other ‘music scheduling geeks’ out there feel the same way as I do about the program itself and the support team. Truly the best!

Michael Breit

I've been working with MusicMaster for nearly 10 years now and I've been scheduling 24 hours per day for SR3 and the night program "ARD Hit Night" for the ARD network.

MusicMaster is the ideal tool to schedule extensive programs using very deep categories. Very demanding special shows are also scheduled by MusicMaster perfectly. I look forward to new demands from our PD, since with MusicMaster our slogan is "everything is possible".

Jesse Portillo

As a Radio Consultant with over 25 years of experience in Broadcasting working in the early days with the card system and many music schedulers, my experience with MusicMaster is that it is the best Music Scheduler! And the support team is amazing! MusicMaster offers a great platform with many features a PD can ask for! A clean structured rules tree, and special key operations that makes it easy to offer the best music log for my audience.

Jeff Wolf

It’s hard to narrow down what my favorite feature of MusicMaster is. Overall, it has to be how user friendly and intuitive the entire program is. Most of us are pretty familiar with Windows, and MusicMaster is a program designed for 2012 and the future. I LOVE the mass changer feature that allows you to easily change the attributes of as many titles as you’d like in just a couple of clicks. You can even change the font from all caps, to a mix of caps and lower case. That was a huge time saver for me as I was importing many songs into my library that did not look how I wanted them to look. You can do this with everything from Artist Keywords to Sound Codes.

I’m also a big fan of how completely customizable everything is, especially in the schedule editor. It’s a HUGE time saver to have the things that are most important to YOU where YOU want them when you are scheduling your music and other elements.

We looked at all of the options available to us, and in truth, there really aren’t many serious contenders out there when it comes to music scheduling software. When we learned how competitive the terms are and add in how passionate and professional the support staff is…the decision was easy for us to choose MusicMaster. I’ve been using MusicMaster for about seven months and I have completely fallen in love with this software. If you’re thinking about upgrading, you will not be disappointed with MusicMaster 5.0.

Charlie Cook

When I joined West Virginia Radio, earlier this year, they were already MusicMaster users. I was excited to relearn the program and have found it to be a great fit for our stations and for my position as the director of programming. I can get into the program and quickly understand what the stations are doing with their music. We find it great to control our programming and MusicMaster lets you do what you want to do with your music. You’re not locked into one way of doing things.

I must add that coming back into the program I was afraid that I was going to struggle but the customer service that I got made it easy to understand why I was doing things with the rules. When you just set up the rules without knowing why and how they impact your scheduling your station is at a real disadvantage. Not so with MusicMaster.

Mike O'Reilly

I like MusicMaster because being able to copy and paste in and out of Excel is huge! I've been working with Drew Bennett on developing customized import / Library Sync definition files for Jack FM and it's saved me a ton of time pulling in outside data from BDS. Also being able to set up rule groups separately for the editor and scheduler allow me to consistently deliver Jack's signature sound in San Diego. Auto-Platooning is my next feature to lock down.

Mimi Griswold

Using MusicMaster makes it possible for me to schedule market specific elements for my morning show which is simulcast on two of our stations. Some days they broadcast from here, some days they broadcast from there…two locations, two different stations that don’t share the same music. Our own mini network made possible with the Export to Affiliates feature! I can’t imagine trying to do this without MusicMaster.

Terry Voth

I've been a big fan the Musicmaster for Windows system ever since our company, Rogers Broadcasting, decided to go with it for all our radio stations. We were moving from a competitors DOS based system and had a chance to look at multiple windows systems. MusicMaster has a great history on its ease of support for clients and aggressively improves the product frequently based on our feedback.

What I like most about this system is the rule tree. It is so intuitive and flexible in its application. It simply seems limitless in its capabilities and very quick to apply. I love how I can come up with an idea on how to modify a rule and apply it on the fly and see the results within seconds.

Barb Richards

The feature I like best is the playdate history window. I look at every song and can quickly see where it played the day before so I can maximize rotations. Usually the program has already picked the perfect song for the time slot but every once in a while, I have to go digging a bit further then the rules allow. To me the music log is a big puzzle and our job as programmers is to find the perfect fitting pieces to make a great picture!

Steve Green

My favorite feature of MusicMaster has to be the Rule Tree Wizard ... helps you find those things you may have “hurried” over when setting things up. I am a big fan of double checking and MusicMaster seems to do that for you ... awesome feature.

We chose MusicMaster because it plays with everyone ... we can continue to use it no matter what software we run our “On Air” side with. It’s just a versatile and easy to use program, well done.

Paul Kriegler

I like the following features of MusicMaster: Full flexibility to show anything on the screen at anytime. I like looking at history automatically on every song before I press enter and schedule it...and making massive library changes has never been easier or more convenient.

We chose MusicMaster because flat-out we felt it was the best Windows-based music scheduler on the market. Plus, your support is far superior to what we were used to getting. Enough said.

Tom Oakes

Over two years ago we faced a situation that saw us using a music scheduling program which some markets were on a Windows version and others using a DOS based program. As the time approached for deciding what our future would look like we shopped the marketplace. When it was all said and done, MusicMaster became the absolute clear choice for our stations. With 21 stations programming music, it was important to find one programming tool which achieved our scheduling goals, was easy to learn and use and as the head of programming allowed me to streamline my review of each market without trying to remember how two different programs ran and where to find the information and data I needed. With the assistance of our outstanding MusicMaster service rep Aaron Taylor and the entire MusicMaster team, New Northwest Broadcasters made the transition and we haven't looked back.

Steve Jones

MusicMaster rocks! It is our system of choice at Newcap stations across Canada. I love the Optimum Goal Scheduling. It gives our stations the ability to really push the system hard to give us the best possible log, not just one that meets basic rules, but the Keyword Separation Wizard is my favorite feature. With a few clicks I can instantly make a radio station sound better. Until I started using MusicMaster, my music scheduling software was just a utility. Now, I see it as a weapon that helps our radio stations win.

Daniel Finke

The definitive best thing in working with MusicMaster is that MusicMaster makes our daily work much easier. The results that I get from the automatic scheduler are accurate and closest to the requirements of our network. We love to work with the Enterprise-setup and have a master-database where every song is only entered once. And the support leaves nothing to be desired. And – best for last: The people behind the product are so likeable, it’s fun to call them without having any problem.

Zvonimir "Cicak" Škrobo

I'm scheduling several stations with MusicMaster and the biggest advantage is that the software is so user friendly. I love the library search functions to find what I'm looking for quickly. I always get a perfect overview of the histories of songs and artists, and I can listen to the songs I'm scheduling directly in MusicMaster. The possibility to insert trivia for songs and artists helped a lot to improve the music selling on air. And I love the Enterprise functions, so that I only have to feed my master database with all the songs I need and I can use them in every child database I have. MusicMaster is a big help for my daily work.

Chayan Ortuno

MusicMaster, for me, is the most complete and defined software in the radio industry for any type of program director. MusicMaster has helped me create my own database because it contains the information that is most important to me. With MusicMaster each programmer has the ability to build a database designed specifically for him or her. This software is ideal for me because it automatically sets up a separation for each artist based on my category rotation. MusicMaster is incredible, it has helped me better my programming, create a better rotation and therefore increased my ratings.

Jack Hicks

I've done two things with MusicMaster. One is to experiment with the rules settings based on how much time I have to edit the logs. As we all know, the days of spending two hours editing one day's music are, for the most part gone. If I'm spending too much time editing, I adjust the rules slightly. If I don't see any unscheduled songs, I tighten a bit. It's sad that "time" has become the dictator of quality, but MusicMaster works really well for me to strike a balance.

My other secret tip is to rely on the support people at MusicMaster. Drew is excellent as someone who really knows what he is doing and being a great person as well. He never makes you feel stupid; even though I've bombarded him with what many people would consider dumb questions! The support at MusicMaster is truly the best in the business.

Jim Kressler

Scheduling multiple formats for DMI's growing client base, we make great use of the MusicMaster's Enterprise. It's the best way to keep track of all of the music going into the scheduler and out to our customers. We use it as a one-stop for all coding and metadata. MusicMaster's flexibility then allows us to customize each individual database with only the coding we need while maintaining the ability to add additional coding as needed. It's another example of the program's flexibility.

Kevin "Crash" Davis

As PD of a Gold only format (Classic Rock), it is very important to make the most out my active library and buck the image of too much repetition. If certain songs tend to "clump" at the bottom of the pile and not get played as often as other songs within the category, here’s an idea: outside of the shuffle feature, be sure to place Maximum Rest high in your rule tree. This will ‘force’ songs before looking at Optimum Goal Scheduling. Below that (with longer time period) place ABSOLUTE Maximum Rest-this will overide Optimum Goal Scheduling.

Jesse Coleman

MusicMaster has proven to be a multi-layered tool that has transformed my idea of efficiently managing my music television network into a reality. The Enterprise feature has been very valuable in my efforts to localize my network in each market, deploy new content and cross pollinate music while managing one master database.

Kristopher Jones

At Dial Global/Seattle we specialize in music strategy across the format spectrum managing over 50,000 songs from TM Studios, synchronized with over 150 MusicMaster datasets and producing literally thousands of hours of programming every week. Every market is different and MusicMaster gives us the edge we need to create high quality programming for our clients. Great programming requires great strategy… and the right tools in the hands of experts.

Brent Alberts

Here are two of my favorite features that make my job easier and my station sound great!

1) Reconciling my logs has never been easier. I pick the date range, MusicMaster goes to my Scott Studio Aired results log, pulls the data, and matches it to my scheduled music. That way I get a true history and I can see if anyone inserted any songs they shouldn't have!

2) One of my weekend Features is the Classic Rewind Weekend. With MusicMaster I have my clocks set up to follow my legal ID, which represents a year and also has that year as a theme. The songs and imaging that follow automatically follow the theme for the half hour the feature runs every hour. Before MusicMaster, I had to do this manually. Now it's a breeze and saves me a lot of time!

Fisher

I actually have two favorite features of MusicMaster. One is VERY helpful especially when programming several stations, auto reconciliation with the automation system. My second fave is "Optimum Goal Scheduling" it simplifies your rules and maximizes their potential. I love MusicMaster!

Guy Fraenkel

The Name says it all. MusicMaster helps us master all music tasks at ROCK ANTENNE. It is a reliable, efficient and stable software and life without it would simply be more difficult. At ROCK ANTENNE we also greatly value MusicMaster's technical support, which is just as special as the software itself. Whenever we need immediate support we get it, and if we wish to contribute some new "user-friendly ideas" which can lead to the further development of the MusicMaster, they are always taken into consideration by the programmers. So why make a music editor's life complicated-- make it fun and easy: Use MusicMaster, the perfect music management tool for the smooth functioning of ROCK ANTENNE! Thanx, guys!

Julie Stevens

The best thing about MusicMaster is your customer support. Hands down, bar none, you guys have the absolute best customer support. When I started with the MusicMaster program I wasn't very well versed in computer functions and I relied HEAVILY on Aaron (read that, I lived on his phone) and he was always so patient and so helpful. No one and I mean NO ONE has better customer support than MusicMaster.

Dan Stone

Wow, what an honor to be selected as the Music Master of the month! I am far from an expert, but I have used MusicMaster for many years (since 1991) on several top rated stations in CHR & AC formats and now with Country on Y100 the #1 station in both the Green Bay and Appleton-Oshkosh markets. The biggest things I have learned about MusicMaster are: Check & double check the info you input. Schedule currents first then check the log and lay in the gold. Make sure the math makes sense when you design categories. Don't forget about the "song list editor" this works great for special weekends and countdowns.

Ralph Cipolla

I refrain from calling MusicMaster a "music scheduling" system; it's really a user-friendly, customizable, music strategy management and delivery system. If you're a user, be sure to maximize the customization aspect of the manual editor. If you're a new convert, consider the need for new song attributes that represent key aspects of your music strategy. Our clients with MusicMaster have seen this software become a solid tool that helps maintain focus throughout the entire strategic process; from market study to music study, to data analysis and sorting, and then music system implementation and log analysis. This final and regular review step helps ensure what comes out of the speakers is consistent with the strategic vision created at the first stage of the process. Here is where a focused collection of song attributes and smart use of the manual editor can present a visual representation of the "ideal" music sweep, instead of a dizzying collection of text and codes. This, in turn, helps you spot and resolve potential problems... before your consultant sees them.

Bernhard Hiller

We changed to MusicMaster three years ago. Especially if more than one person is working on a schedule, it was difficult to see detailed problems in the schedule. With the highlight filters this a great way to check the most important strategic scheduling details on one view. Unfortunate song or Artist conflicts can not be overseen anymore. The upgrade to eight Highlight filters was a great step for us in the latest version.

Mark Patric

I started using MusicMaster a few years ago and it didn't take me long to fall in love with it! I love it's clean and simple visual appearance, the fact it's much faster and less prone to crash than any other windows based music scheduling program. The rule tree wizard... creating perfect rotations are easy with this feature. It'll look at your database and suggest what rules you need, don't need and/or what rules could be modified.

Eddie Haskell

One of my favorite features in MusicMaster for Windows is the Artist Separation Wizard. eD-FM has a huge variety of artists, some with only a couple of songs, some with lots of titles. It would be very difficult to set an artist separation that would allow a Genesis song every 4 hours but keep both Whitesnake songs from playing in the same day. Enter the Separation Wizard! Just run it and it checks your library, clocks and rules and automatically sets the optimum separaration for each individual artist - 6:25 for Genesis, 15:05 for Whitesnake. You could also use this on a current-based station weekly - when Garth has a power it would recommend a 55 minute separation, as opposed to the 2:30 separation when all he has is 90s library material.

JJ Holiday

Before being exposed to MusicMaster, I scheduled music with blinders on. Now, don't get me wrong, I could tap out a day of music on the other system pretty quick. I thought it was right on. I was wrong. What we get with MusicMaster is phenomenal flexibility with our tempo/type selection and a history breakdown second to none. I am a firm believer that it's what you DO play that hurts you, not what you don't play. With MusicMaster, after setting up our parameters, we know that we're not going to over saturate a day part with something that's not in power. Another feature we are big on is the gold platoon. This feature has allowed us to efficiently schedule our golds for optimum exposure, then rest what needs it, with ease and accuracy.

I could talk all day about what has made me a MusicMaster guy after pledging allegiance to Selector, but you wouldn't listen until you heard what your station COULD sound like. Trust me, old school music scheduling is inefficient and, well dumb.

E-man

MusicMaster is very dope!

MusicMaster is a very incredible program that's been very easy for me to use to program music for Power 106.

There are many features I love to use. On Power 106, we have three different versions of each song that play on the air. The history link feature helps a lot so I can see how the song rotates as one song. Also love how, when looking at the daily history graph, how the quarter hours show when looking at each hour a record rotates. Also, ask Mark about the "E-man" rule!

Thanks MusicMaster! Very cool program!!!

Michael Chase

Wow, MusicMaster has changed my life! I have finally found music scheduling software that works for me. I personally love the "Highlight" feature. Multiple artists is a huge issue for me, and having the ability to assign different colors for "problem" artists is a HUGE help in scanning the day. I also love how easy holiday/specialty programming is with the format scheduler. Having the ability to easily go in to each specific day, and alter individual hours is a tremendous help. The fact that virtually everything is customizable makes Music Master work for me, especially in Library Maintenance, Queries, and Schedule Editor. I can't forget to mention the support. That's the element that I wouldn't trade for the world. My personal support contact, Marianne, is always available to help when I'm in a bind.

Rex Levang

Dozens of orchestras, hundreds of composers, thousands of pieces in multiple playlists . . . this is part of the glory of classical music radio, but it does make for lots of detail!

I breathe easier knowing that MusicMaster lets us sort, search and manage all this data so flexibly. And if you need them, the customer service folks are cheerful, prompt, and know the program inside and out.

Kipper McGee

Believe it or not, MusicMaster has been a godsend for News-Talk Radio, too!

Arguably, a well produced News-Talk station has more moving parts than the average music station -- too often with far less control over those critical elements.

When I got to Chicago, WLS was rotating promos and liners simply by dubbing them into rotating cuts on the hard drive. That meant any "rotations" were reduced to glorified roulette with less than effective results. With MusicMaster, we were able to manage our messages and program elements -- ensuring proper dayparting, separation and distribution.

Our audience recycling was up dramatically thanks to MusicMaster!

Mark Pooley

We were having trouble getting the sound we wanted with our old scheduling software. We looked at several different products, and when we saw how well MusicMaster worked we were sold instantly. We made the switch about 3 months ago and it has performed flawlessly, editing is faster, we're getting better rotations and it's way more fun to use. I was impressed with the fact that the database is a standardized architecture, rather than a proprietary system making it much easier to deploy on our network. I love the fact that the history grid shows you not only what hour a song or element played, but which quarter hour it played in. The ability to cut and paste data back and forth between a spreadsheet and MusicMaster saves a huge amount of time as well There are a vast number of other features and tools that have really worked well for us including the Rule Tree, Optimum Goal Scheduling, and the ability to play the current element's audio with one keystroke. On top of all that is the brilliant customer support, my MusicMaster guys have been incredibly helpful, even with the smallest issue, it's a very refreshing change from what we had before. It's clear to me that MusicMaster is the nest generation of music scheduling software, I honestly don't know why we waited this long to switch.

Craig Powers

I love the new Auto Platooning feature! It lets me add songs and then rotate them in from rest and back evenly over the course of 1 year, three months, 6 days and 22:34 minutes! The other feature I love is the music history chart (2 versions) One large chart that I can instantly look at while editing logs or the new small version that pops up for every song highlighted! MusicMaster is the undisputed champion! I've used MusicMaster since 1991 and it just keeps getting better and better! Many Thanks!

Lochlin Cross

I've used more than one scheduling system, and without question MusicMaster is the only system anyone should be looking at. MusicMaster will make you sound great! I'd be remiss if I didn't give the MusicMaster service team a plug as well. A couple of highlights: it's easy to learn, the migrating clocks are brilliant, and you'd be sick to your stomach if you saw all the rules we have in the rule tree.

David Gleason

In DOS schedulers, we were forced to deal with 28 to 32 unscheduled positions each day, and we had a need to spend as much as an hour massaging the log… all this after 6 years of tweaking the rules and categories and coding. With MusicMaster, we got 2 unscheduled songs a day, in specialty shows, and have a near air-quality log with no editing!