Re-Importing Library Data

Our station is switching automation systems. We’ve moved all the audio files onto the new one and I’ve selected the new system in the automation settings in M1, but it is not importing the playlist. What can be wrong?

Your Song Cards in M1 have the CART numbers of the old automation system. You’re moving from Simian, which has cart numbers like this:  012345  to WideOrbit which has cart numbers like this: 103-DA1234

What we need to do is have you export your library data from WideOrbit, then we can get M1 to read the data file and update the CART fields on all the M1 song cards and non-music cards.  I’ll help you with that.

Now for stations that have a playout system that uses the drive/path/filename for the Cart, if you transfer your library to a different computer, the drive/path will most likely be different on the new machine. So, you’ll need to update all of the Cart data on your M1 cards to get the new drive/path installed on them. This can be done by either exporting your library data to a comma-separated (.csv) file from your playout system’s tools, or by using a program like MediaMonkey to do it. Or, if you have M1 installed on the same computer with your playout system, you can have M1 scan the audio folders to import/update directly.

When you do a re-import, M1 will not make duplicates of your files. Rather it will make a match on the Title+Artist fields and then update the Cart and/or the File fields on all of your M1 Song and non-song Cards.

Further, if you use drive/path as your Cart number and you rip some NEW music or other new audio files into your library, you’ll want to have M1 scan the audio folder where the new songs are to import the tags of the new audio and create Cards for each file. Again, in this case M1 will see the files it already has in its library and only create Cards for the new stuff.

When you re-import, either from audio tags or from a .csv library data file, you may see a message show that X-number of files were scanned but Y-number of files were “imported”. The Y-number will be the number of “new” Cards were created. Also, M1 may give you a message that Z-number of files were “not imported”. The Z-number will be the total of audio files that were already in your M1 library file and new Cards were not created for those.

If you are changing automation/playout systems and your new playout system uses its own system-specific Cart numbering system, then it is very likely the Cart number of your audio files will be changing. In this case, talk with M1 tech support for assistance in getting your Cart numbers updated.