Classifying Media Items: Categories, Attributes & Collision Tags

Classifying your media items using categories, attributes, and tags helps ensure smooth scheduling, clean programming, and better automation. These tools apply to all types of content — including songs, links, and adverts — and can be customized per item.

This article walks through how to apply these classifications using the Categorization Tab in the Media Item Edit Window.

? Categorizing a Song

To begin editing a song:

1. Select the song on the Media Wall

2. Click Edit

3. Switch to the Categorization tab
   
   

Depending on your system configuration, the screen may vary slightly, but all setups include:

✅ Primary and Secondary Categories

• Select from dropdown menus

• Used to organize content by genre, mood, or era (e.g., Pop, Classic Rock, Love Songs)

? Tags

• Provide extra levels of classification

• Example: A song might be tagged as “Love” and categorized under both Pop and Rock

• Useful in scheduling rules, such as requiring at least one “Love” tag per hour

? Types, Genders, and Eras (Optional)

• Available if you're using Myriad Schedule Plus

• Tick boxes to mark songs as:

  • Type (e.g., Ballad, Upbeat)

  • Gender (e.g., Male Vocal, Female Vocal)

  • Era (e.g., 80s, 90s, 2000s)

Characteristics (Optional)

• Defaults are Energy & Tempo but you can configure up to five characteristics

• Use the sliders to set the level for the Characteristic. 

Multi-Station Support

• If you're running a multi-station setup, you'll see a selector to assign categorization per station

• If not, this section is hidden, and you’ll assign categorization globally

Categorizing a Link

The same approach applies when editing a link item:

• Set Primary/Secondary Categories

• Optionally assign types, genders, and eras

• Apply tags for further classification (e.g., Promo, Weather, Joke)

This helps schedule links contextually, such as placing weather links after news or promotional links before a specific song genre.

Categorizing an Advert

Adverts include some unique classification options tailored for commercial scheduling:

✅ Primary and Secondary Categories

• Often used to determine placement within ad breaks

• E.g., Group financial ads or local business ads into different segments

⚠️ Collision Tags

• Replaces standard tags for adverts

• Used to prevent similar adverts from playing back-to-back

Examples:

• A McDonald’s ad and a Burger King ad could both use a "Restaurant" collision tag

• This signals the scheduler to space them apart

Collision Strength Settings:

• Soft Collision: System will try to separate ads but may allow back-to-back placement if necessary

• Hard Collision: System will strictly prevent back-to-back placement, even if it limits ad fill options

✅ Summary

Using Myriad’s categorization features, you can:

• Organize songs, links, and ads for smarter scheduling

• Use tags and attributes to drive creative clock rules

• Ensure brand safety and separation using collision tags for adverts

These classification tools are key to optimizing both your automation and your listener experience.

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