Greetings, Can a non-music item show up in the NowPlaying feature when activated in playlist and/or added to a future playlist?
Iām excited to get the NowPlaying feature working on our website, but Iāve noticed non-music items do not show in Now Playing. The non-music item will appear in Current Playlist, but have not discovered success with non-music item showing information in NowPlaying.
thanks for any input. More questions comingā¦
G
Can anyone answer this question?
As it stands I donāt think the widgets put non-music into now playing displays.
The markup for spins is different from that of non-music so it might be a bit complicated to deal with, including on your end with CSS. Like putting library books in a stack of LPs. It can be done but might not be lovely.
What do you plan to use non-music items for so that they feature widgets as now playing?
Thanks for the message. Our News Programs are non-music items. We broadcast, Sojourner Truth, Rising Up with Sonali, Democracy Now, Thom Hartmann and KBCS produced, The Grit. Previously we could enter details for segment and it would come up in the Now Playing as text. Similar to how it looks now, but without the music image and listing, which is from previous show.
Also, these details would show up on an RDS or HD Display, when it was working. Still getting that connected up.
Is this maybe a setting change for playlist so it doesnāt track music? What of info in our ENCO DAD and sent through Padapult?? stuff Iām chatting with them about now. An RSS feed coming from shows like Democracy Now, etc?
We have another channel we are starting this year. It will be primarily news programming, non-music items.
Thank you for response. Going to check out some of the info through the forum here. Will check back soon. thanks
When you say āpreviouslyā, what technology did you?
āPreviouslyā refers to Playlist Center software we are still navigating away from, but in current use until we are set with Spinitron on kbcs.fm site. This software can take anything we type in a line item and display it on the Live Playlist. I did not create this software. I do not know how to change the code for this software. Iām not software developer skilled. But moving to Spinitron was exciting for simplifying access for users and auto generating for playlists.
the features in Spinitron are important for todayās needs at our station, and tend to āoutweighā the differences,ā¦not able to show non-music items in now-playing.
now, I donāt now if Padapult with ENCO can offer a solution? or Music Master? We have these 2 software options too, but how to use, I donā t know.
Iād like to simplify the amount of software we use here, but I keep getting stuck. thanks for your response and attention to the messages.
chat soon G
OK, so given your existing IT infrastructure, there are some decisions to be made on what functions Spinitron should take over and what should remain with your existing systems. I think itās easier to talk about on the phone or video call.
@GregDSea Given the change to Spinitronās rebroadcast feature, I .
Both 3. and 4. are difficult and Iād prefer to avoid the need for them. Avoiding that depends on your existing operations and IT infrastructure so letās talk about it on the phone or a skype/zoom call.
But 1. and 2. should be doable. In both of these cases we need to figure out how to format the non-music and blend it with the music spins.
We can format a non-music itemās timing fields (timestamp, duration etc.) the same as we do for spins, so thatās not a problem.
That leaves the three text fields in non-music items: category, title, and description. If we only include the title in the widget and metadata push then I think itās fairly easy. If either category and/or description are also required then it will take more work.
At the end, do you mean the following? āIf either category and/or description are also required then it will take more work.ā
Speaking for my own purposes, title will work and I can make the default titles reflect the category.
Yes. Corrected, thank you.
Tom, thanks for getting this set. The title works for the NowPlaying info. Full details come up in the LIVE playlist so I think we are good for Now Playingā¦except, now Iāll need to figure out the Now Playing so music listing from Previous show doesnāt stay hanging out there. You can check this at our website kbcs.fm thanks again for the fix. Chat more soon
Sorry was a bit confused between our LIVE website and the website we are currently testing spinitron here: https://staging-kbcsfm.kinsta.cloud/live-playlist/ the now playing for this staging site navigates to the playlist, but is not showing the KBCS voice breaks non-items I created. Only showing the Thom Hartmann created non-music items. Iām trying to active the playlist live right now. If you can check the widget, the music from last show is still there, show was early this morning. None of the non-music items are showing. hmmmā¦again, weāll probably need to chat a bit later. Thank you for the communication and support.
Greetings, Iām not sure if this is acceptable. I wrote in the Music Fields the basic information for our News Segments. See 2 examples. The NOW Playing LOOKS GOOD! to me. But I am not sure if this breaks any legal acceptance of use for software OR how SPINS are tracked. Many of our music DJs manually enter information for unreleased tracks. I donāt foresee this to be an issue. We have been sending Spinitron reports which include the non-music items when listed in playlist. hmmm. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks
Itās acceptability is up to you.
Until I implement non-music in the widgets etc. that workaround does work.
Tom, were you able to create a fix to this widget?
Havenāt checked this thread in a year, but curious. I know the current non-music items are not visible on our Web Player or in our App player, but can be seen on the LIVE playlist or archived playlists. This has proven unsatisfactory for our listeners at the time of broadcast who support the News programming and want to visually see segment information on the App or other players or devices.
I know I left this thread deciding to enter information into the music fields, but then this required a closer time expending editorial review of the reporting for Sound Exchange.
In lieu of this additional work, it has become evident the Non-Music Item does not provide the visual element our listeners are desiring (or expecting) when using our App or a radio device. The Music Items are displayed so we are going back to that method of entryā¦unless you have a solution to the widget. Thanks for any update. appreciate what Spinitron is able to provide for community radio.
take care G
Hi Greg,
We havenāt got this done yet. I pushed it up the todo list.
Donāt worry about SX. They automatically filter out stuff that doesnāt match their database.
Tom, thank you for response.
I did not know about SX filter. That is reassuring, but I still have an unhealthy existential panic about the Sound Exchange Reports and providing them properly.
Iām going to move forward instructing playlist entry for our News and Public Affairs to add brief details into the Music Item Fields and not use the non-music items created. This way our listeners and community can view and identify the information for news and public affairs segments.
The importance of our listeners and community to see the clear information and identify it during the news programming outweighs the task of cleaning up a Sound Exchange report.
thank you for response and information. Weāll chat again soon Sincerely,
Greg
@GregDSea check this out
I havenāt written the documentation yet but itās really simple:
In an iframe add &non-music=1 to the URL in the src attribute.
In a JS widget, add an attribute data-non-music="1" to the widget tag, e.g. to the <div>.
UPDATE: I fixed the docs. Here for iframe and there for JS widget.
Tom, thanks for this update. Iām actually not sure what to do next. I feel Iāll have more focus next week. thank you for your attention to this detail. G
