Music 1 SE was developed for internet radio and background music providers. SE is based on the source code as the professional edition, so the two have much the same look-and-feel. Pro has more extensive functions that are not included in the SE version. It is easy to start with SE and then upgrade to the Professional version, if you should so choose.
SE is a buy-out software. Pro is subscription.
The primary differences between the two are these:
- Clocks
SE allows a maximum of 10 format clocks Pro has no limit on the number of clocks that can be created. - DayFormats
The Hour Clock Lineup (aka: Day Format) is a grid with 24 slots, one for each hour of the day. The clock to be used is clicked into each hour slot. One clock may be used in all hours of the day and/or different clocks may be used in specific hours. Most commercial broadcast stations use at least three Hour Clock Lineups, one for Weekdays, one for Saturday and another for Sunday. With Pro, you can have a separate Dayformat for each day of the week, if desired, and others for special days and holidays. SE has one Hour Clock lineup. When needed, format clocks used in any hour slot can be changed easily. - Categories
SE allows up to 40 Categories. Pro allows any number of categories. With either version, there is no significant limit to the number of songs or units that can be added to the categories. - Playlist/Log File Output
Music 1 SE makes the common and simple .m3u-type playlist that is used by the most popular web radio playout systems such as SAM Broadcaster, OtsA/V, ProppFrexx, StationPlaylist Studio, TuneTracker, etc. Music 1 Pro can create system-specific playlist/log files for any and all professional broadcast automation/playout systems including all the ones developed for webcasting and background music applications. Both Pro and SE are tightly integrated with the PlayoutONE automation system. - Hybrid Scheduling
This advanced function is in the professional edition. For a brief description of it, see this video. - Advertising Schedule Importing
Pro can import commercial advertising schedules from radio traffic/billing software, merging the advertising scheduling into one playlist/log file that can then be exported to the automation/playout system. SE does not have this function. - TrafficONE- Traffic & Billing Module
Pro also has its own, built-in traffic/billing (advertising) scheduler, TrafficONE. It is the first does-it-all scheduler for commercial radio. This option is available only in the Professional edition. - More Sound Codes
SE has eight user defined “sound codes” which can be applied to Song Cards. Pro provides up to thirty. Sound codes are used for special scheduling controls. For example, you might create a sound code you name “Novelty”, then you can tell M1 to schedule no more than two Novelty songs in an hour and to never schedule Novelty songs back-to-back.In addition to the Tempo setting in SE, Pro allows settings for Tempo-In and Tempo-out, which can be useful when scheduling segues. For example, you can tell either version to prevent scheduling two “Fast Tempo” songs back to back, but you might code one Fast song as having a Medium Tempo Intro. Then, Pro could be told it is OK to schedule this Fast song after another Fast song because this one has a “Medium Tempo” intro, something not so easy to manage with only the one tempo setting. Pro song cards have additional song characteristics: Texture, Mood and Key. Pro song cards have additional data fields for Composer, Arranger, Composer, Catalog and Record number, Record Label/Company and Beats per Minute. Pro cards have four user-defined fields that can be used for anything. For example, someone might want to create a field for “Artist Birthday” - Built-In Auditioning Player Extension
Both versions have a click-and-hear player so you can audition songs as you work with M1. Pro has a ‘play-the-hook’ enhancement. With this, you can specify a short piece of each song (the hook), then when you click the hook-button, the player will play only that piece of the song for you. - Dayparting/Hour Restrictions
Pro has the function allowing any song or non-music item to be restricted, prevented from scheduling in specified hours of the day/week. SE does not have song hour restrictions. - Daily voice tracks
Pro has standard voice-tracking functions with which announcers can pre-record all their talk segments, song intros and back-sells, etc. and then have them scheduled and aired in proper order. This kind of ‘daily’ voice tracking is for one-time use, of course. Voice tracks are updated each day allowing the station to be totally automated but to have a very ‘live’ feel. - Linked Tracks
With Pro, voice tracks and and other non-music units can be linked to individual songs. Then whenever a song is scheduled in a slot that were a ‘linked’ track item is formatted, M1 will search, find and schedule one of the song-specific voice/audio tracks next to it. For example, with this function, if the station has “artist drops” or voice tracks about specific artists, M1 Pro can automatically schedule one of the units next to songs by the artists. - Auto-Numbered Voice Tracks
Pro has a voice-track auto-numbering function that can be used in conjunction with professional broadcast automation systems. If an announcer shift is pre-recorded each day, with the announcer recording a number of voice tracks each hour, M1 can use one “unit” on the clocks and will automatically number the units in the final schedule to coincide with the numbering system used for daily voice tracking by the station’s automation system. - Defined “Announcers”
In Pro, Voice tracks can be defined by ‘announcer’. You can then direct M1 to schedule tracks by each announcer only in your selected time slots. And, if your “morning” voice is moved to the mid-day shift on weekends, voice tracks from his ‘library’ can be slotted to be used in the appropriate hours. To do something similar with SE, each the voice tracks of each announcer would need to be placed into announcer-specific Categories, those categories then being placed onto clocks used in the hours where that announcer-voice is to be heard. - Theme Programming
Pro allows the creation of a special type of category that we call “selection” categories. This allows any song to be in two categories at the same time. Here’s an example of how it can be used. An Oldie station creates an Elvis “selection” category and copies a lot of Elvis tracks into it. The selection list is used for a daily 30 minute “Elvis At Noon” feature and M1 selects and schedules songs there from the Elvis selection category. During the rest of the day, the same songs are scheduled from within the regular 50s and 60s category. So, these Elvis songs are scheduled from within two categories and the rotation patterns are independent of each other. - Specific Track Scheduling
This function provides a way for automatic search-and-scheduling of specific kinds, types or styles of songs at a specific time. For example, on Valentines Day, you could direct Pro to automatically search-find-play a “love” song (from any category or group of categories) at the top of the hour. With SE, you would have to do manually search/select a song. - Gender/Tempo/Sound Code Separation
You can tell both versions to prevent songs with certain characteristics from scheduling back to back. With Pro, you can also tell M1 to prevent them from scheduling too close together. For example, you could direct it to have at least 10 minutes between Slow songs. With SE, you can just tell M1 to not schedule Slow songs back-to-back. - Non-music Transitions
In Pro, such items as Jingles may also have a Tempo code. You can then prevent “slow” jingle from scheduling next to “fast” songs. - Percentage Rotation of Non-music Tracks
Both versions of Music 1 allow you to schedule promotional announcements, jingles and promos. With both versions of M1 you might have a non-music item named “Contest Promo”. You might then have you have 3 pre-recorded ‘promos’ within the category. Both versions of Music 1 will schedule all three in rotation. Pro has the additional function with which you could direct Promo A twice to receive twice as much exposure as promos B and C; in other words you can specify the ‘percentage’ of exposure each item in a Non-music category will receive. - Product/Class Characteristic for Non-music Tracks
This Pro function allows user to ‘type’ the non-music tracks, then apply formatting rules. So, perhaps you have several public service announcements that are being scheduled. Two of the announcements are “fund raising” announcements. You might choose to have M1 ‘separate’ these so you would not have two ‘fund raising’ announcements in the same hour. - Start/End Dates for Non-music Items
Both versions schedule all jingles, liners, promos and programs. Pro allows your Non-music items to have start and end dates. For example: you may have a “Promo” category with four Promo “cards” in the group. Each of the promos could have start and end dates. So, the two promos that were to run on the 6th and the 7th of the month would be the only ones played. The promos for the 8th and 9th would play only on those days. With SE you must manually click-in the two units that are to be used on the 6th and 7th, then before running logs for the 8th and 9th, you’d delete those two items (promos) and add the two that are to play on the 8th and 9th. - Song Notes
Song notes are bits of information that can be added to a song card and then printed on a paper playlist beneath the song each time it is scheduled. SE allows only one song-note per song. Pro allows multiple song notes for each song. - Start/End dates for Song Notes
In Pro, when you have multiple Song Notes on a song card, they are scheduled in rotation with a different one being printed each time the song is scheduled. So, note #1 might be the album title, note #2 might be the artists’ birthday, note #3 might be where the song peaked on the airplay charts, note #4 might be the name of a movie that included the song in the sound track. Further, each of the notes can have start/end dates.
Now, all this said, Music 1 SE is still one of the most advanced scheduling tools in the world, and it’s low price makes it one of the best and most economical investments a webcaster can make. If you start with SE and later decide to move up to the more advanced Pro edition, upgrading is quick and easy.
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