Composer Pro

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SoundExchange Dashboard Help/How To

The SoundExchange Dashboard is a component of both Composer Basic and Composer Pro that stations use to maintain station and stream information with us, as well as to upload quarterly reporting data and retrieve reports generated by us for submission to SoundExchange (SX).

General information on how SX reporting works for stations choosing to be covered by the CPB-SX agreement can be found on our SoundExchange reporting blog, which includes a one-page primer on the basics and how to get started.

Global Dashboard Navigation

The "What do you want to do?" dropdown list available at the top of each page allows users to navigate to the following screens for their station:

• Upload Playlists/Streaming Logs
• Edit Station Info
• View Reports
• View Notes
• Add Note
  

Edit Station Information

Basic station information can be reviewed and updated using the Edit Station Information screen, accessible from the global navigation.

Required data fields are:

• Station Name
• Call Letters
• Primary Contact Name
• Primary Email
• Primary Phone
• Secondary Contact Name
• Secondary Email
• Secondary Phone
• Address 1
• City
• State
• Zip
• Station Affiliations

A list of streams associated with the station is presented at the bottom of this screen. From here stations can choose to edit or update stream information by clicking on the Edit link tied to each stream, which will take you to the Edit Stream Information screen.

In addition, users can go to the Upload Playlists/Streaming Logs screen for each of their streams by clicking on the Upload Logs link for the stream in the Station Streams listing.

In order to add a new stream, or deleting an existing one, contact Public Interactive.

Edit Stream Information

The Edit Stream Information screen allows a station to manage basic information about a given stream. SX reports are generated for each distinct content stream that your station offers. Each content stream may be offered in more than one format (e.g. MP3, Real, Windows Media) or more than one bitrate or may be served from more than one server. However, for SX reporting purposes, they are all grouped together and reported on based on the content.

For a given content stream, the following fields are required:

• Stream Name - An identifier for the content being offered, e.g. Broadcast Simulcast, HD2, etc.
• Format Group - Required by SX
  

View Reports

Stations can access SX reports generated and submitted on their behalf by PI for previous quarters and view the status of upcoming reports via the View Reports screen.

Here reports for each of a station's distinct content streams are listed in reverse chronological order by calendar quarter. Each calendar quarter and year (listed in the first column) for which a final report was generated are linked to the final report file.

The status of past and future reports are indicated in the Report Status column. Reports will have one of the following statuses:

• Incomplete - This means some required data is/was missing; -p indicates that playlist information has not been uploaded , while -s indicates that streaming log files have not been uploaded.
• Pending - This means the required data has been uploaded, but final processing and report generation is not yet complete.
• Complete - This means the final report has been generated. In this case the final report can be accessed by clicking on the quarter and year in the Quarter column. Also, the calculated Music Aggregate Tuning Hours (Music ATH) based on the report is displayed in parentheses.

Finally, stations can access the Upload Logs and Set Reporting Dates screens for each stream in a quarter using the links in the Links column; these links will only be available for current and future quarters.

Set Reporting Dates

Stations must specify their chosen reporting period within each calendar quarter for each content stream. For most stations, this is a 14-day sample (two 7-day consecutive periods); a handful of stations (they know who they are) are required to do census (full-quarter) reporting. Stations are free to choose whatever 14-days they want to report on each quarter; all SX asks is that these two weeks are representative of the music you stream during the entire quarter.

In order to specify your station's reporting period, proceed to the Select Reporting Dates screen, via the Edit Report Dates link on the View Reports screen.

Here a station can choose to report on the entire quarter by checking the "Disregard dates and use full quarter instead" checkbox.

Otherwise, to specify a 14-day reporting period, enter the first date of each 7-day period using the date dropdowns and click Save.

NOTE: For stations that use our Composer Pro playlist management tool, by default, we will report on all playlist data for a given quarter that is in Composer Pro. However, these stations can specify a 14-day period to be reported on, if they so choose.

Transferring SoundExchange Reporting Data to Us

We needs three types of data from stations for generating SoundExchange reports: guides (schedules), playlists and streaming access logs.

Guide information is entered via the Composer Pro/Basic guide management interface.

Playlist data is obtained by PI in one of two ways:

1. Composer Pro clients of PI enter playlist data directly into Composer Pro, which PI can then query directly. There is no need for these stations to upload playlist logs to us.
2. All other stations must upload a playlist log file for each content stream each quarter to us via Composer Basic. This file must conform to our file formatting requirements in order for us to be able to process it.

NOTE: Spinitron clients have their data files automatically generated and sent to us via the Spinitron interface. Contact Spinitron for more details.

Likewise, streaming access logs are obtained by PI in one of two ways:

1. We have access to streaming logs for stations that are our streaming clients (that is, have their streams hosted through us). There is no need for these stations to upload streaming logs to us.
2. All other stations must upload all streaming access logs file for each content stream each quarter to us via Composer Basic.
   

Upload Logs

Stations that need to upload either playlist or streaming logs to us can use the Upload Logs screen. This screen can be accessed from the global navigation, the Edit Station screen, or the View Reports screen.

Playlist or streaming log files for each content stream are uploaded via their own screen, meaning there is an Upload Logs screen for each of your station's content streams. If your station offers more than one stream, there are links at the top of this screen to the Upload Logs screen for each content stream. NOTE: streaming logs that include requests for multiple content streams are fine; however, they should be uploaded to one content stream. In addition, PI will need to know how to parse these files; that is, how to clearly identify requests for each content stream.

Files are uploaded using the form at the bottom of the screen. Stations must specify the following:

• The type of log file being uploaded (Playlist or Streaming)
• The file to be uploaded, using the browse button
• Start and end dates for the period that the file covers (if different than the start and end dates of the calendar quarter). NOTE: end date must be specified as the day after the final date covered by the playlist. For example: to include air dates on June 30th, make the end date July 1st.
  

Uploaded files that are awaiting final processing are displayed at the top of the Upload Logs screen under Uploaded Files. Here stations can see which records in an uploaded file may have been rejected due to formatting or data errors. Uploaded files containing errors can be deleted by checking the Delete checkbox and clicking on Delete selected files.

Files that have been uploaded can be viewed by clicking on the File Name.

Playlist files get preprocessed shortly after uploading; files that have been preprocessed will have a View link in either (or both) of the Processed File or Error File columns.

The Processed File will include all entries from the uploaded playlist file that will be included in the final report generated for SoundExchange.

The Error File will contain any records that could not be included, usually due to a formatting error. It can also contain error messages describing problems with the file and how to fix them. For example, if the header row of a playlist file does not contain the proper field names, then none of the records in the file can be processed and the Error File will indicate this.

If, after a playlist file has been uploaded, there is only a Processed File that can be viewed, that means that all of the records in the file will be included in the final reports.

If, after a playlist file has been uploaded, there is only an Error File that can be viewed, that means that none of the records in the file could be processed and none will be included in the final reports.

In the case of errors in a playlist file the station can choose to delete the existing file, fix the errors and upload a revised version.

NOTE: Stations that have FTP accounts with us can continue to upload data via FTP; these files will show up on the Upload Logs screen as if they were uploaded via the screen. Likewise, vendors that have transferred files to us via FTP (e.g. StreamGuys, Spinitron) can continue to do so and the files will show up on this screen.

Add Note

Stations can add notes about their stations, streams or reports using the Add Note screen.

View Notes

All notes tied to a station (created by either station staff or PI) can be viewed using the View Notes screen.