A poll asks your listeners one question with two to four answers. Listeners vote from your web players and your station page while you read the running results on air. Every poll you run is kept with its results, so you can find it again and run it again.
Polls are part of CloudRadio One and Custom plans, on stations with an HLS output. Shoutcast and Icecast hosting radios don't have them.
Find polls
Polls are on the Polls tab of the Live DJ page, under Programming in the left sidebar of your station. DJs, who don't have the Live DJ page, find the same Polls section on their My shows page.
The station Owner, Station managers, Music controllers and DJs can run polls. Guest DJs can't. See Users and Roles.
Start a poll
- Under New poll, write your Question (up to 140 characters).
- Fill in the Answers. Two are required and you can have up to four: click Add answer for a third or fourth, or the x next to an answer to remove it. For a quick vote, click Yes / No or A / B to fill the answers in one tap.
- Under How long, pick 2 min, 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 30 min or Until I close it. 5 min is selected by default.
- To keep the results hidden from listeners until the poll ends, turn on Hide results from listeners until the poll closes.
- Click Start poll.
The poll goes live right away and the page switches to the on-air view.
Only one poll runs at a time on a station. While one runs, a Poll running banner with the question and the time left shows at the top of the other pages of your station, with a Results and close link. Live DJ, My shows and the on-air view show the poll itself instead, so they have no banner.
Read the results on air
The on-air view is made to be read from across the studio. For each answer it shows the percentage in large type, then the number of votes. Under the answers you see the total votes, and at the top the time left. Results update as votes come in, without reloading.
Open it from the On-air view button on the Polls tab (or in the Polls section of My shows for DJs) or from the banner. Live DJ (or My shows) at the top of the on-air view takes you back.
Close a poll
A timed poll closes on its own when its time runs out. To end it early, click Close now on the Polls tab (or in the Polls section of My shows) or in the on-air view. Once the poll has votes, you are asked to confirm first.
To give a timed poll more time, click Keep open next to Close now before the time runs out. The timer stops and the poll stays open, with the votes it already has, until you click Close now. The time left then reads Open until you close it, and listeners no longer see a countdown. A poll that has already closed can't be reopened: click Reuse under Past polls to start a copy with no votes.
A running poll can't be edited, so its votes always answer the question listeners saw. To fix a typo or an answer, click Close and fix: the poll closes and a copy loads into New poll, where you correct it and click Start poll again. The copy starts with no votes.
What listeners see
The same poll card shows everywhere your listeners vote:
- Station page: the card sits at the top of the page, next to the player on a computer. On a phone, a Vote in the poll button under the player jumps to it. See Station page.
- Web players: most layouts show a small Poll button in a corner of the player. Tapping it opens the card over the player, and the x in its corner (or the Escape key) returns to the player. Playback doesn't stop. The card stays inside the player, so it works at whatever size your website gives the player; in a small one, the card scrolls.
- Slim web players: the Mini, Bar, Ticker, Dot matrix, Island and Cassette layouts have no room for the card. They show a small Vote button that opens your station page in a new tab, straight to the poll.
- Your website: the poll widget shows the card on your own site while a poll runs and hides itself otherwise. Get its code from the Add the poll to your website link on the Polls tab, or see Widgets & Links.
Polls show only on players connected to your CloudRadio station. They don't show in the preview of the player editor.
Listeners pick an answer and click Vote. Right after voting they see the results as percentages with the total number of votes, and their own answer marked Your vote. Below 5 votes, the total reads Fewer than 5 votes. With Hide results from listeners until the poll closes on, listeners see a thank-you message instead until the poll closes.
In the last minute of a timed poll, the card shows a countdown. When the poll closes, the card says Poll closed and keeps the final results for 10 minutes, then disappears. Listeners who arrive in those 10 minutes see the results but can't vote.
One vote per listener
Listeners vote without an account. Each browser gets one vote per poll: the browser keeps an anonymous code that the poll checks before counting a vote. Your web players, your station page and the poll widget share that code wherever the browser allows it, so a listener can't vote once in each.
Some browsers block that code inside a web player or poll widget embedded on another site. As a backstop, a poll counts at most 3 votes from the same internet connection. A family or an office sharing one connection can still cast up to 3 votes.
A vote doesn't store the listener's name, email or IP address. To check for repeat votes, the poll keeps scrambled tokens of the browser's code and of the connection's IP address, which can't be turned back into the code or the address.
Find past polls
Every closed poll is listed under Past polls on the Polls tab (or in the Polls section of My shows), newest first, with its date, number of votes and answers. The five most recent show first, and the button under the list (for example Show 3 older polls) shows the rest.
- Reuse loads a past poll into New poll so you can run it again with no votes.
- Report opens the poll with its final results and its report.
The top of Past polls sums up all your closed polls: Polls run, Votes, Median participation and Where votes came from.
Poll report
The report shows, for one poll:
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Votes | How many listeners voted. Each listener counts once. |
| Peak listeners | The highest number of listeners tuned in at the same time while the poll was open. |
| Participation | Votes divided by peak listeners. Shows n/a when no listener count was recorded. |
| First vote after | How long after the start the first vote came in. |
| Closed by | Host when someone clicked Close now, Timer when the time ran out. |
| Opened | When the poll started, in your station's time zone. |
Peak listeners, Participation and Median participation show only to roles that can see Statistics, so DJs don't see them.
Below that, Where votes came from splits the votes between embeds (web players on other websites), the web player opened as its own page, the station page and, once it has votes, the poll widget on your website (Website widget). Votes over time charts the votes from the start of the poll to its close.
If one internet connection cast more than a fifth of the votes (and at least 3), the report says so. Read a close result with that in mind.
Export to CSV
- Export CSV under Past polls downloads one row per poll with its answers, votes and the other report fields. Peak listeners and participation are included for roles that can see Statistics.
- Export votes in a poll's report downloads one row per vote: the time, the answer, where it came from, and a short anonymous voter code.
Related articles
- Station page for the page where listeners vote
- Web Player for the player layouts
- Users and Roles for who can run polls