Yahoo! LAUNCHcast gives you the ability to customise a radio station based on your tastes. This guide will help you get the best experience on your customised station.

In a nutshell, you tell Yahoo! LAUNCHcast the music you like and don't like, and the system will produce a radio experience that includes music you like as well as new music you might like based on your tastes. Note that while your radio experience will consider your tastes, there are some limitations in your ability to control the music played on your station. These limitations are discussed in the Limitations section below.

RATING

The primary way to influence your station is by rating music (artist, albums, songs, and genres). Generally, the more music you rate, the better your Yahoo! LAUNCHcast station becomes at choosing music for you.

A good way to start rating is by visiting the genre ratings page.

Rate your favourite genres and sub-genres highly. You might also search for your favourite artists, go to their artist pages and rate them highly.

As you listen, the Yahoo! Launchcast Player displays the reason why the song was selected. This information is designed to help you tune your profile to assist us in providing you with music you enjoy. If a song is chosen because it was recommended by fans of another artist, lower that artist's overall rating. Only artists that you rate 4 stars (90) or above are used for this recommendation feature.

LIMITATIONS

There are several limitations on Yahoo! LAUNCHcast that prevent you from having TOO much control over your radio station. We must prevent too much control to comply with our radio licences with the record labels.

1. Don't expect to hear only music you rated.

Yahoo! LAUNCHcast is not a personal jukebox, it's radio. You should always expect to hear music you haven't rated on your station, regardless of how many ratings you have.

2. Don't go overboard with ratings, especially "never play again" or artists and genres.

Because your station will always play some unrated music, it's important that you don't try to micromanage your station by rating too many things "never play again." Also, remember that there's always going to be unrated music, so if you rate ALL the music that you could potentially like, the only unrated music left will be music you don't like.

3. Generally, you should only rate music you really know.

It's generally not a good idea to rate an artist, album, or genre, unless you are very familiar with all the songs by that artist or within that album. Just because you don't like one song by an artist, you shouldn't rate that artist "never play again." It's a good idea to just rate that song. The more songs by an artist that you rate low, the less likely it is that other songs by that artist will play (and vice versa). Save your artist and album ratings for those artists and albums you are completely familiar with. Unless you're really sure, leave it unrated.

4. Don't go crazy rating everything highly.

Save your highest ratings for your true favourites that you would prefer to hear more often. Don't go crazy rating everything you remotely like 4 stars (100).

5. Don't try to game the system.

The rules behind Yahoo! LAUNCHcast change over time, so it's not a good idea to try to "game" the system to make it work a certain way. Just rate the music you know, and let the system select the music.

When our system is unable to select any more songs to play on your station due to a very restrictive ratings profile or limited available content, you will receive a "playlist concluded" message. At this point, your station will begin playing popular music that is not based on your ratings preferences. To prevent this from happening, you will need to make your ratings (especially genres, artists, and albums) less restrictive to allow the system to choose from a wider range of music for your station.