What are your music rotation/separation rules and your reasoning?

[Lotus]

What are your music separation rules and your reasoning?

Don't play same track 420 min
Don't play same artist 180 min
Don't play same title for 420 min
Don't play same album for 180 min
and I have reset subcategories checked so that when no track can be played anymore it resets (not sure if that means all or just that sub category).

Reasoning is I don't want to hear the same song very often and I have plenty of songs in each category. Rethinking this though because when I drive into work I hear a song. 9 hours later driving home I have heard the same song...might bump it up to 9 hours on same track.

3 hour separation on same artist I am fine with. I worked at a station that had artist separation at an hour and it drove me nuts.

[shawncochran]

Same track = 550 minutes
Same artist = 160 minutes
Same title = 300 minutes
Same Album = 30 minutes

All my tracks rotation are set to "random" for selection type.

[Lotus]

All my tracks rotation are set to "random" for selection type.

I had not really paid attention to that setting. I went back and made changes and it made a world of difference in me noticing patterns.
For example if there is an 80s folder and in the track rotation there are 3 80s songs in an hour. I have one set for random, one set for least played and one set for least recently played.
Before they were all set to least recently played and I would notice a pattern eventually. Now with those settings and the separation rules...it is a lot better.

[qcindie]

Don't play same track 1260 minutes
Don't play same artist 300 minutes
Don't play same title for 480 minutes
Don't play same album for 0 minutes

For the Currents category the artist repeat is 150 minutes and the track repeat is 480 minutes, but realistically, these songs never repeat more than once every 24 hours.

[Derek]

We have 120 minute minimum for a track to repeat for certain times of more chart based music but we certainly wouldn't want a repeat sooner than that, On the other hand, we don't go too far the other way in that we don't mind a track playing more than once within a day or two.

We don't necessarily have things set in stone forever and review the sound of the station regularly and adjust accordingly.

We never use the album repeat rule because a lot of tracks could get blocked just by being on the same (compilation for example) album even though there's no connection between artists and if it was an album by the same artist, the artist rule would catch that.

Update: We definitely find that a mix of Random, Least Times Played and Least Recently Played in any rotation is the way to go for a good mix.

Of course everyone has different requirements but it's interesting to see the variety of uses and reasoning

[ghm72]

Same Track = 1440 (24 Hours)
Same Artist = 300
Same Title = 240

I don't work with album names so that's set at zero. I get quite a reasonable mix of music using these rotation rules.

[Brodephat]

I have rotations that repeat Monday - Friday at the same time, so:

For Tracks - 1620 ( this makes sure I don't get the same song from yesterday at that time for that rotation)
For Artist - 1620 ( I have tons of artist so this helps make sure I go thru all of them)
For Titles - 810 ( this helps prevent a song sub-category being used in another rotation not to pick a song from earlier that day)
For Album - 30 ( there may be compilation albums with multiple artist)

I use Least Times Played a lot

[Kiwi]

Interesting topic. The rotation/separation rules, for me, will be  based upon the music service I am providing. My rule for the "Hits" station will be different to "Easy Listening" which in turn will different to "Classical Music". I also give consideration to the demographics of the station. Some listeners tolerate more artist and song repeats than others. So it would be interesting that when you respond to let us know what format your station has. Thanks.

[Music Box]

I have 2000 files divided into 3 categories, I run 3 daily rotations from Monday to Sunday.
Don't play the same song for: 480 minutes
Do not play the same artist for: 480 minutes
Do not play the same title for: 480 minutes
Do not play the same album for: 30 minutes
Keep the playlist: 0 items
Only use Least Times Played
No repetition of artists and songs, sounds great. Only with this option have I found stability with rotations.
Radiodj version 2.0.3.1

[DJ Krazy Kevin]

Does anyone air Christmas music and what are your separation rules so it won't play multiple titles Christmas songs back to back?

[DJGaryBaldy]

I dont play Xmas music but i set my title seperation rules at 360 minutes (6 hours) and provided you have enough music imported RadioDJ should respect that