Contents
FastTrack

The Music Industry's Most Powerful Database!

Thanks for trying FastTrack!  We hope you will find it to be a useful program, whether you are trying to get a band off the ground or give your business a little boost.  The valuable information contained in FastTrack should be just what you need to give you an edge in the competitive music business.

If you like FastTrack, please register it!  The registered version contains the full database of over 3500 music industry names, addresses, and phone numbers.  See Registration on the Help menu for details on how to register this software.

While we have made every effort to compile the most complete, up-to-date information possible, things in the music industry change fast.  Some of the businesses listed in the database may have gone out of business or changed ownership by the time you receive your copy of FastTrack.  Therefore, we can make no claims or guarantees regarding the accuracy of the information in the FastTrack database.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

Introduction to FastTrack

Menus


Introduction to FastTrack

FastTrack is a powerful database designed specifically for the music industry.  With one simple-to-use tool, you can gain access to thousands of valuable names, addresses, and phone numbers.  FastTrack contains the most complete database of music industry addresses ever released.  It contains bands, booking agents, concert promoters, radio stations, record companies and much more.

Using FastTrack does not require any knowledge of complex database concepts.  Words like Query and Criteria are not used here.  Instead, the user is guided step-by-step through a search process to find the information he or she needs.  When the desired information has been specified, FastTrack will copy the information to the Windows clipboard for use in any Windows application.  For example, you could copy the addresses into a Word for Windows document and use them for a mailing list.  Alternatively, you could copy them into a spreadsheet like Excel and create a phone list.  The combination of a vast database and a simple user interface makes FastTrack the most valuable tool for established and up-and-coming businesses.

For more information, see the following topic:

Conducting a Search


Menus

By using FastTracks pull-down menus, you can perform searches through the database, add information to the database, and modify information in the database.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

File Menu

Edit Menu


File Menu

The File menu contains a number of options which allow you to create new searches through the FastTrack database and saving these searches for future use.  Choose one of the following topics for more information.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

New Search

Open Saved Search

Save Search


Edit Menu

The Edit Menu contains two options which allow you to alter the contents of the FastTrack database.  Choose one of the following topics for more information.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

Add/Change Database Items

Setting FastTrack Options


File Menu:  New Search

Select New Search when you want to begin a new search for information from the FastTrack database.  This will cause the Business Types panel to pop up.

For more information, see the following topic:

Conducting a Search


File Menu:  Open Saved Search

When you wish to reuse a search you have previously constructed and saved, choose File | Open Saved Search to load the search file.  When you choose this menu item, a file browser will be opened.  This allows you to specify the name of the search file.

FastTrack search files typically have the file extension .fts.  Therefore, the file browser usually looks for files of this type.  However, you can change the type of file for which it will search by changing the contents of the File Name text box.  For example, to search for all files ending in .txt, click in the text box, delete the characters there, and type:

*.txt

When you have selected the search file which you want to load, press the OK button on the file browser or Cancel to abort without loading a search file.  If you press the OK button, FastTrack will load the search file, execute the search, and present you with a panel telling you how many recordswere copied to the clipboard.


File Menu:  Save Search

When you have successfully completed a search, you may have spent quite a bit of time constructing the search.  You may find sometime that you will want to use the same search again.  FastTrack allows you to save your search for future use.

Choosing File | Save Search will open up a file browser.  Use this browser to specify the name of your search file.  If you do not specify a filename extension for your search file, FastTrack will give it the extension .fts.  When you have specified the file name, press the OK button on the file browser to save your search or Cancel to abort without saving your search.

To use a search later, use Open Saved Search.


Edit Menu:  Add/Change Database Items

This menu option pulls up the Edit/Add panel.  With this panel, you can add new businesses to the FastTrack database, change information about existing businesses, or delete businesses from the database.

To add a new business, press the NEW button.  Then simply fill in the information about the new business, and when you are done, press SAVE (you can also press NEW to enter another new business).  Before saving the data, FastTrack will do a quick check to make sure that your new business is a valid one by checking the following things.

Business Type - you must specify a valid business type for every new business.

Music Types - you must have specified at least one music type for your new business.

State Abbreviations - if you have entered a state abbreviation, FastTrack will verify it.

These checks help you to enter more accurate data.  At the same time, they are flexible enough to allow you to enter businesses for which you have incomplete data.  For example, you dont have to have a business address, but if you do enter a state for the business, FastTrack will make sure that you entered a valid state.

It is crucial that every business have a valid business type and at least one music type specified.  Otherwise, you would never be able to access that business information through a search, so it would be of no use to you.

For convenience in entering a large number of businesses, once you have selected a business type and a music type, these values remain constant across entries.  They will not change unless you modify them.  So if you want to enter 100 radio stations, for example, you can select Radio Stations when you enter the first station, and you wont have to touch this control for the other 99 entries.  If their music styles are the same, you will only have to set the music styles once.

To change a business information, you must retrieve the desired business record by typing in the business name in the Name text box.  As you type in the letters of the name, FastTrack will find the first record which matches those letters.  The rest of that business information will be filled in on the Edit/Add panel.  If you are not sure about the spelling of the business, you can use the PREV and NEXT buttons to look at records before or after the current business.

Once the record has been retrieved, you may change any of the information.  To make the changes permanent, press SAVE when you are done, otherwise no changes will be made to the FastTrack data file.  Before the record is saved, the checks described above will be performed.  (Note that pressing NEW, PREV or NEXT will also save the record).

To delete a record, retrieve it as described above, and press the DELETE button.  You will be asked if you are sure you want to delete the record.  Once you answer yes, there is no turning back.  The record is gone.  Be careful when deleting records.

To close the panel, press CLOSE.  It is important to note that the actual disk file containing your database is not actually updated until you close the Edit/Add panel.  If you plan on adding a large number of entries, it might be prudent to close this panel occasionally to update the disk file.

Note:  you can stop editing a new business without saving it in the database, by pressing DELETE.  (This will not work when editing an existing business, as it will actually try to delete the business).


Options Panel

On the options panel, you can tell FastTrack how it should divide the states into regions.  By default, FastTrack uses a simple scheme which divides the country into the following regions:

Northeast

Mid-Atlantic

Southeast

Midwest

Great Plains

Southwest

Pacific Northwest

West Coast

South Pacific

NACA uses another way to divide the country.  It divides the US into the following regions:

New England

East Coast

Southeast

Great Lakes

Illiana

Wisconsin

South Central

Heart of America

Upper Midwest

Far West

Pacific Northwest

You can have FastTrack use either one of these schemes.  Simply select Edit | Options... and the Options panel will pop up.  Click on either FastTrack or NAA, and press OK.  All of the regions will be redefined according to the selected scheme.


Conducting A Search

Conducting searches for information in FastTrack is simple.  All you have to do is have a basic understanding of what is going on when you perform a search.  FastTrack contains a database of thousands of music industry names, addresses, phone numbers.  Obviously, you would rarely need all of them at once.  For example, if you want to do a mailing to all the record companies on the West Coast which specialize in R&B, you would want to only pull out the addresses which fit your needs.

A search allows you to narrow down the list of records which will be copied to the clipboard.  You do this by specifying what types of businesses you are interested in:

Business Types - do you want record companies, bands, concert promoters, or something else?

Music Types - do you want companies specializing in all types of music or only those specializing in certain genres?

Region - do you want companies from all over the country or only those in certain regions of the country?

State - within your selected regions, do you want all of the states or only some of them?

City - out of your selected Region(s)/State(s), which cities are you interested in?

Name - if you only want specific companies in these regions, you can specify exactly which ones you want by speicifying their names

When you start a search, you must specify two things:  the business type(s) you are interested in and the music type(s) you are interested in.  Then if you wish, you can get information on all of the businesses in the entire country, or you can narrow things down by specifying Regions, States, Cities, or Names.  The last step in any search is to specify exactly what information should be copied to the clipboard and what character to use as a delimiter between fields.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

Specifying Business Type(s)

Specifying Music Type(s)

Specifying How To Search

Specifying Region(s)

Specifying State(s)

Specifying City(ies)

Specifying Business Name(s)

Specifying What Information To Include


Specifying How to Search

In conducting a new search, you must specify business type(s) and music type(s), but you may elect not to specify regions, states, cities, or names.  If you do not specify these things, you will get a list of all businesses which match your selected business type(s) and music type(s).

After you have specified music type(s), you will be presented with the Search By panel, in which you indicate how you want to conduct your search.  If you want to search by regions, click on the Region check box.  If you want to select certain cities in certain states, click on the State check box and the City check box.  (In this case, you would not need to click on the State check box, but it will make selecting your cities easier, since you will only have to look at the cities from the states which you select.)

When you have indicated how you want to conduct your search, press the NEXT PANEL button to begin.  If you have not checked any boxes on the Search By panel, you will go straight to the Include panel.  To go back, press the PREV. PANEL button.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

Specifying Region(s)

Specifying State(s)

Specifying City(ies)

Specifying Business Name(s)

Specifying What Information To Include


Regions Panel

On the Regions panel, there are two list boxes.  The top one contains all of the geographical regions of the US in which there are businesses which are of your specified business type(s) and music type(s).  The bottom one lists all of the regions which you have selected.  Double click on the regions in the top list to add them to the selected list.  Double click on the regions in the bottom list to remove them from the selected list.  When you have added all of your desired regions to the selected list, press the NEXT PANEL button, or press the PREV. PANEL button to go back.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

Specifying State(s)

Specifying City(ies)

Specifying Business Name(s)

Specifying What Information To Include


States Panel

On the States panel, there are two list boxes.  The top one contains all of the states in which there are businesses which are of your specified business type(s) and music type(s) (and, if you have specified regions, are in your regions).  The bottom one lists all of the states which you have selected.  Double click on the states in the top list to add them to the selected list.  Double click on the states in the bottom list to remove them from the selected list.  When you have added all of your desired states to the selected list, press the NEXT PANEL button, or press the PREV. PANEL button to go back.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

Specifying City(ies)

Specifying Business Name(s)

Specifying What Information To Include


Cities Panel

On the Cities panel, there are two list boxes.  The top one contains all of the cities in which there are businesses which are of your specified business type(s) and music type(s) (and, if you have specified regions or states, are in your regions or states).  The bottom one lists all of the cities which you have selected.  Double click on the cities in the top list to add them to the selected list.  Double click on the cities in the bottom list to remove them from the selected list.  When you have added all of your desired cities to the selected list, press the NEXT PANEL button, or press the PREV. PANEL button to go back.

For more information, choose one of the following topics:

Specifying Business Name(s)

Specifying What Information To Include


Business Names Panel

On the Business Names panel, there are two list boxes.  The top one contains the names of all of the businesses which are of your specified business type(s) and music type(s) (and, if you have specified regions, states, or cities are in your regions, states, or cities).  The bottom one lists all of the businesses which you have selected.  Double click on the businesses in the top list to add them to the selected list.  Double click on the businesses in the bottom list to remove them from the selected list.  When you have added all of your desired businesses to the selected list, press the NEXT PANEL button, or press the PREV. PANEL button to go back.

For more information, see the following topic:

Specifying What Information To Include


Business Types Panel

In conducting a new search, you are required to specify business type(s).  On the Business Types panel, there are two list boxes.  The top one contains a list of all business types in the database.  The bottom one contains all of the business types which you have selected.  To add a business type to the selected list, double click on it in the top list box.  To remove a business type from the selected list, double click on it in the bottom list box.

When you have selected all of your desired business types, press the NEXT PANEL button to select music type(s), or press CANCEL SEARCH to abort the search.

For more information, see the following topic:

Specifying What Information To Include


Music Types Panel

In conducting a new search, you are required to specify music type(s).  On the Music Types panel, there are sixteen check boxes corresponding to sixteen major categories of popular music.  Select or deselect types of music by clicking on their check boxes.

To select all music types, press the Select All button.  To deselect all music types, press the Deselect All button.

When you have selected all of your desired music types, press the OK button to continue.

For more information, see the following topic:

Specifying How To Search


Include Panel

The Include panel allows you to specify exactly what information you want FastTrack to copy into the clipboard for each business which you have selected in your search.  You may choose any of the following:

Name - the name of the business

Address - street address, city, state, ZIP code

Phone Number - includes area code

FAX Number - includes area code

Contact Person - if one exists, the name of the contact person

Select or deselect the information by clicking on the five check boxes on the Include panel.  Use the combo boxes to the right of each of the first four items to specify the character which is to be used as a delimiter.

When you have checked the desired information, press the GO! button.  FastTrack will now copy the selected information to the clipboard and report to you how many recordswere copied to the clipboard.

Your search is now done, and you can paste the information into any Windows application to do just about anything!  Remember to save your search if you think you may want to reuse it!

For more information, see the following topic:

Save Search


search

A search is the process of selecting businesses from the database by specifying the business types, music types, and locations of the desired businesses.  At the end of a search, you specify the information you want for each business (name, address, phone, etc.).


extension

A filename extension is the three characters of the filename following the ..  By default, FastTrack search files have the extension .ftk.


record

A record is all of the information related to a particular business.  This includes the following information:

Name	Business Type	Address	City

State	Zip Code	Phone Number	Fax Number

Contact	Music Type