Official Slacker Forums

[FrankS]

http://forums.slacker.com/custom-station-creation-tutorial-t714.html#p2297

This post, that deals with sliders, had both the Popularity and Favorites slider descriptions updated.

[mcrawford]

He updated some of the slider information in this post:
custom-station-creation-tutorial-t714.html#p2297

[MikeV]

Just wanted to post that I've added the changes that were made to a couple of the sliders, and how they will affect your station. If you have any questions about the changes or how the affect your stations, reply here or send me a PM.

This note is not clear. You added what changes where?

Descriptions of a couple of the sliders - which are marked in the original post as Updated - were updated.

[Cardiff Giant]

Question, does setting the Popularity (Fringe, Unfamilar, Hits, etc) effect what artists are played? Reason I ask is because on one of my custom stations I have roughly 360 artists, many of whom are also played on the 80's alternative channel. Despite this, there are a great deal of artists who haven't been played on my custom channel but have been played in the limited time I've listened to the 80's alt channel. I believe my custom station is set to unfamiliar at the moment.

[FrankS]

Question, does setting the Popularity (Fringe, Unfamilar, Hits, etc) effect what artists are played?

Possibly. For example, if your artist has only hits, and you have your sliders set to Fringe, you probably won't hear them, even through they're listed on your station.

Also remember that while custom stations are weighted based on song popularity, artists are not weighted. This means that, song popularity being equal, all artists have the same chance to play. Of course, as we all know, some station will tend to favor certain artists (or at least seem like that). Usually, in these cases, I'll rearrange my favorites/ban lists and then refresh the station, to allow the songs I'm more in the mood to hear this month.

On a genre station, the DJ can override that popularity of the song to have it play however often they want. This isn't currently possible on a custom station.

[MikeV]

On a genre station, the DJ can override that popularity of the song to have it play however often they want. This isn't currently possible on a custom station.

It may not be possible in the exact same way that the DJ's do it, but utilizing Favorites for this purpose on a custom station works very well, as long as you're not marking other songs as favorites too...

I did this to add some seasonal sounds to my At the Coffeehouse station... added a bunch of holiday songs by artists that play on the channel to my favorites (via the Request Songs feature)... then adjust my favorites setting based on how often I want to hear those songs.

[RVH1951]

I was thrilled to find this tutorial, until I tried to use it. Is it still applicable?

For example, I don't find an EDIT button (I see Customize, is this the same?), I don't find a way to delete an artist.

I don't find a way to build a station as in this tutorial. When I put a name in Create Station field it creates the station and populates it with artists, many of whom I don't want. I'd love to be able to build a station with just the top 20 artists that I like and limit it to that through Favorites and Popularity - then create another version of that with a broader reach.

Thanks,

bob

[CharlesB]

You can add and/or remove artists by :

1. Going to the station you are going to edit and select Customize.
2. Then to add an artist type the name in the Request Music Tab and hit Go to pull the artist up and choose the songs you wish to hear from the artist.
3. To remove an artist you would go to the Edit Request Tab and then choose the ban symbol (circle with line through it) from the artists shown on the right side.

[MikeV]

I was thrilled to find this tutorial, until I tried to use it. Is it still applicable?

The short answer is yes, it is still applicable.

The long answer is yes, however recent changes to the web player have changed the screens and buttons that are used to customize your own station. The general idea is still the same, but things may be in a different place, or have a different name to them.

I thought that Frank was going to be updating the tutorial so that everything is applicable to the current version of the web player, but I guess he just hasn't had the time yet.

[FrankS]

I thought that Frank was going to be updating the tutorial so that everything is applicable to the current version of the web player, but I guess he just hasn't had the time yet.

Sadly, that's the case right now. Things have been fairly busy with Customer Support since the holidays and, while I'm happy to see all the new people coming to Slacker, it does make writing a new guide that that's all the new changes into account a little much at the moment.

Custom Stations are still my favorite part of Slacker, so I do promise the moment I get a bit of a breather, I'll get a new guide written and posted.

[lebearun]

I see that under the fine tuning tab that there are 4 choices as far as year: Auto, Classic, Older, Recent, and Current. Am I right in assuming that this applies to the entire station, and that there isn't a way to apply it individually to each artist you add? For example, could you have David Bowies more recent hits (80's) and Madonnas older hits (80's) on the same station? Or would I have to ban every 70's Bowie and 90's-00's Madonna song that came on?

[BaldrO]

The fine tuning applies to the whole station not each artist so you would have to ban the songs you don't want if you are trying to create an 80's station as your example.

[Pop1967]

Frank;

Any chance that Slacker might provide a way to "batch" create a station using a list of artists? This would be a great way to quickly create a station for a particular type of music when one already has a set of artists in mind. Would also possibly be a way to "import" a playlist from popular music manager programs (whether or not the songs themselves are also imported).

It seems to me like this wouldn't violate licensing requirements, but then again, what do I know.

Thanks.

[ssetw03]

Hi Frank,
Me again....I am trying to customize a radio station to add a song & keep getting response.....
"You have exceeded your song
request limit " I only have 10 out 15 stations set up on my portable. My daughter said she also had the same problem & simply gave up. I know that neither of us are stupid but must be reading or doing something wrong. Please help. Thank you.
Eddie

[FrankS]

Free Basic users can only make 20 song requests through the station creator across all stations. You can continue to request artists to play on a station, and you can continue to rate songs as they play on the station. However, in order to request more songs from the station creator, you must be a Radio Plus or Premium Radio subscriber.

[ssetw03]

Frank,
Let me share my thoughts to see if I understand this. I am allowed 15 stations as a FREE basic user & only 20 "requested" songs across all of those stations...correct?!?!?! Now when my daughter purchased this unit for me, she set it up for me & added one (1) customized station called "Dad's Country". On this station she added fifteen (15) songs. SO that should give me the rights to add five (5) more "FREE" "Requested" songs....correct ???? Y/N ????

If the above is all correct then why am I getting the message saying I have reached my limit?

Thank you in advance for your response & assistance in helping me to understand this better.

Eddie

[MikeV]

is that possible to create your own radio station?

Um. Yeah? That's kinda the premise of the service to begin with.

[Starr]

Hi, I'm Starr, and a new user. I've mostly used Pandora, and I'm fascinated with Slacker, and having a great afternoon thus far! My only -real- concern is thus: I'm doing other things on the web, and as a sidetracked consistently boggled individual, I'm always late on the draw doing things like rating my music! On Pandora, I could just scroll back and look at any songs that had been played on my station, and give it a thumbs up, or down, and know that I'd trained it towards my preferences. That said, I feel like I'm getting a more powerful experience from the get-go here, as my musical tastes are so diverse, I have a hard time keeping up with everyone, so having a big offering of artists to choose from when making a station is awesome! And different! Still.. either I'm missing something (which is likely), or I'm missing that feature. Am I able to somehow go back and favorite songs after they've played? I can see the playlist, but it doesn't seem to be clickable to me. Is this a feature that opens up to a subscriber, versus a free listener?

Thanks in advance if anyone takes the time to read through and digest my rambling stream of consciousness and come to understand the nature of my questions! haha. Have a great afternoon!

[MikeV]

Am I able to somehow go back and favorite songs after they've played? I can see the playlist, but it doesn't seem to be clickable to me. Is this a feature that opens up to a subscriber, versus a free listener?

Paying or free, there's no way to mark a song that played on a station as a favorite after it has already played.

A possible alternative, If you're a subscriber and you're listening to a custom station (not a Slacker-programmed genre station)... you can go in to edit the station and request the song that you want to mark as a favorite. Since the song just played, it shouldn't play again for a while, but it will mark the song as a favorite so it plays more often in the future.

[Starr]

Hrm. I hope they implement that in the future. It's really nice to be able to give instant feedback on songs that have already played, without humping through hoops, in order to be able to program the station more accurately.

Thanks so much for the reply, though. The idea was very helpful. If I see one in the playlist, I'm sure I liked, I'll just request it!

Take care. =)