MA Radio playlist suggestions

First of all – if these questions have already been answered somewhere, please excuse my lack of forum-searching skills.

I've noticed those Metal Academy Radio playlists and I'd like to participate; I dig this idea in particular: « [...] we'd encourage you to stick predominantly to your favourite tracks from releases you listen to across the course of each month [...] as this will make the tracklistings somewhat of a reflection of our member's current playlists which was always our long-term intention. » ~ Daniel.

If anyone could answer these, that would be greatly appreciated:

• Are there any prerequisites for me to participate or am I free to just jump in?
• For which month should I post my suggestions? Is it early enough for July or should I go for August?
  
• What are the current constraints regarding track count and overall duration? Are there any other guidelines?
• (How) do the rules differ between The Horde, The North, and The Guardians?

Oh, and my excitement led me to open a Spotify account. By all means, feel free to connect with me there, username's « mallard ».

Sorry Andi but I deleted your post as it didn't quite reflect what I'd like to say about the playlists. Please see below:

Are there any prerequisites for me to participate or am I free to just jump in?

All clan members are free to participate however you should reach out to the playlist administrator first to advise them of your intention prior to submitting any material so that they can review (& potentially adjust) their limits for each individual member & advise the rest of the clan on any changes that are decided upon.

For which month should I post my suggestions? Is it early enough for July or should I go for August?

Track nominations are open for submission from the first day of each month for inclusion in the playlist that is released on the first day of the following month. I've always stipulated the 15th of the month as the cut-off for submissions but would encourage everyone to simply get them in as early in the month as possible in order to give the playlist administrator the most time to program them. You are too late for the July playlists but have plenty of time to make the arrangements for you to start nominating tracks for the August ones.

What are the current constraints regarding track count and overall duration? Are there any other guidelines?

This varies pretty drastically between clans & is left for the playlist administrators to negotiate with the other clan members. It's based on time rather than the number of tracks. Adding another nominating member may see those limitations changing moving forwards so, if you're interested in participating, you should reach out to the playlist administrator(s) to advise them of your intention & they can guide you on how you should proceed. For your reference, I manage The Horde, Ben manages The North & Xephyr manages The Guardians. There are a few clans that allow a single-track nomination from outside their membership group however this is entirely the clan's decision & isn't a Metal Academy requirement so that could change at any time. Those clans currently include The Gateway, The Guardians, The Revolution & The Sphere. You must be a clan member to make nominations for the other five clans. If you'd like to participate in The Horde then the limit will remain at forty minutes per member as I've just had a member opt out & can do a straight swap. Speak to Ben & Xephyr about The North & The Guardians.

The only other guidelines you need to be aware of are that we don't encourage the repeated inclusion of tracks that have appeared in that particular clan's playlist previously. For that reason, there are Past Playlist threads in each clan forum to keep track of what's been included in the past & all contributing members should check those threads (preferably using CTRL-F to search the thread for strings of characters) before nominating a track to ensure that it hasn't been included previously. Different clans have different rules on whether you can include tracks that are taken from releases that fall outside of that clan as long as they are in line with the subgenres encompassed by the clan (i.e. nominating a track that is clearly death metal but is taken from a release that resides solely in The Gateway for example). I'm personally fine with that practice but would check with the associated playlist administrator before doing that or you risk your track being omitted. As a general rule we like to limit playlist administration rights to one per member so that they can receive that administrator's full attention (& hopefully promotion). At the moment there are three examples of people administering multiple playlists i.e. I program The Fallen & The Horde, Saxy programs The Gateway & The Infinite & Andi programs The Revolution & The Sphere. We're looking to move away from that model once we identify a suitable owner for some of those clans. It is up to the clans themselves to promote their playlists & I encourage as much of that as possible as time has shown us very clearly that if you don't do anything then your playlist following will stagnate. We've only recently changed the playlist names to allow them to come up more readily in Spotify searches so it's a great time to start promoting them.

(How) do the rules differ between The Horde, The North, and The Guardians?

Yes. I think I've already answered that already.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Daniel. Please count me in for The Horde; I will be getting in touch with other playlist administrators soon.