Separation rules control how often AutoDJ can repeat the same track, artist, or album while it shuffles your library. They keep your rotation from feeling repetitive without you having to hand-build playlists.
Quick answer
CloudRadio offers three separation rules:
- Track repeat protection: stops the same track from playing again too soon. On by default.
- Artist separation: stops the same artist from playing again within a time window. Off by default.
- Album separation: stops the same album from playing again within a time window. Off by default.
You’ll find them under Settings > Separation Rules in your station. Changes apply immediately, with no runtime restart.
Where the rules apply
Separation rules shape how AutoDJ picks the next song. They apply to:
- Scheduled playlists: the next track from a scheduled playlist respects your rules.
- Weighted rotation: the same checks run on your weighted fallback pool.
- Random library shuffle: when nothing is scheduled and no weighted rotation can supply a track, AutoDJ shuffles your whole library as a last resort. It applies the same separation rules here too, so your settings are honored on every layer. If your library is too small to satisfy a rule, AutoDJ relaxes the rules step by step (and, as a final safeguard, plays your least recently aired track) so your station never goes silent.
Two things to keep in mind:
- Each playlist already shuffles through all of its tracks before any repeat, on top of these rules.
- Live broadcasts (Studio or Guest DJ) bypass AutoDJ entirely, so separation rules don’t apply while someone is live.
Track repeat protection
This rule keeps a song out of rotation for a set time after it plays.
- It’s measured in minutes (10 to 1440), just like artist and album separation.
- A value of 120 means the same song won’t return for two hours.
- Most stations use 120 to 180 minutes, the common broadcast standard.
On a small library the rule is automatically relaxed when it can’t be satisfied, so playback never stops. Track repeat protection matches on the exact track, not the title text, so two different recordings of the same song are treated separately. Most stations should leave this rule on.
Artist separation
This rule prevents AutoDJ from playing the same artist again within a number of minutes you choose (10 to 1440).
For example, at the default 60 minutes, once an artist plays, AutoDJ avoids that artist for the next hour.
Artist separation is off by default because it depends on accurate artist tags and a reasonably large library. On a small library, it can promote scarce artists more than you expect, because a rare artist becomes eligible again as soon as the window passes.
Album separation
This rule prevents AutoDJ from playing tracks from the same album within a number of minutes you choose (10 to 1440).
It works the same way as artist separation, but matches on the album. Use it if you upload full albums and want to space them out across the day.
Exempt tags
Some tracks should ignore separation entirely. Jingles, station IDs, and ads often need to repeat far more often than music.
You mark a tag as exempt from your Media Library Tags page: open Media Library → Tags, edit (or create) a tag, and turn on Exempt from separation rules. Any track that carries an exempt tag is always eligible to play, no matter how recently it aired, bypassing the track, artist, and album separation rules.
The Separation Rules settings page shows your current exempt tags for reference, but you manage them on the Tags page.
Your station will not fall silent
CloudRadio chooses each track before handing it to the streamer, so separation rules never cause dead air. If your library is too small to satisfy a rule, AutoDJ relaxes the rules step by step rather than going quiet:
- It first ignores album separation.
- Then it ignores artist separation.
- Then it allows an earlier repeat.
This means you can turn rules on safely. The worst case on a small library is a repeat sooner than you wanted, never silence.
Tips for good rotation
- Keep artist and album separation off until your library is large and well-tagged.
- Make sure your tracks have accurate artist and album metadata before relying on those rules. Tracks with missing artist or album info are treated as non-blocking.
- Tag your jingles and ads, then add those tags to Exempt tags so they can repeat freely.