Brief summary of activity
The activity will look at:
- A history of music on radio
- The function of music in contemporary radio
- An introduction on the importance of a daily playlist
- The principles for creating a playlist
- The criteria for selection of music
- Creating a playlist
Aim of the activity
- A better understanding of the music industry and music as a business and how it affects music programming in radio
- To become familiar with the station music guidelines and how to prepare radio playlists according to those principles.
Expected Outcomes
- To be informed of the importance of music to radioTo be informed of the influence of commercial interests and how they shape the selection of music on a contemporary radio station’s airwaves
- To become familiar with the principles of preparing radio playlists and learning how to prepare a basic radio playlist
Experience and skills required
Good Knowledge of station music guidelines
Infrastructure, setting, resources
Different players
A studio
Length
1 hour
Material
CDs and other musical releases
Different players
How the activity should take place
This workshop should last one hour.
The participants will be divided into groups. Each participant will choose 5-10 CDs from those that he/she has brought from home or from those in the CD library of the radio station.
The CDs are piled up according to their music genre.
Then, each group will produce their own playlist using suggestions from all the participants as to what should be put in, why, what should follow etc.
The sequence of songs will be briefly listened to.
The trainer will then introduce station music guidelines.
At the end of the workshop the participants will be given homework: Everyone will have to prepare his/her own playlist at home.
The participants will bring their homework (the playlists they have made according to the standards they have learned during the workshop). The playlists will be presented in brief and then listened to. The selection, sequence and other elements (mixes, flow, dynamics etc.) in them will discussed.
A selection of the playlists will also be listened to again and checked in detail and their elements discussed.
Recommended max. number of participants and trainees to trainers ratio
4 participants to 1 trainer for vision impaired/blind participants and people with learning difficulties.
Tips for Trainers
Have different versions of music guidelines for participants (word files to be sent to vision impaired/blind participants).
The Handout Tips for Music Presenters could be distributed to participants as a add-on .
Analysis and evaluation
The playlists will be evaluated considering:
- mix of music
- relevance to the programme theme
- station music guidelines
Scheduling
This is a good introductory session for the studio.