Method and system for music distribution

• US 20020062261A1
• Filed: 09/27/2001
• Published: 05/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mukai, Syunichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,130,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

According to the first aspect, the present invention provides a music distribution method for downloading, in response to a request from a user, music data for one or more musical pieces included in the latest hit charts from a server storing a lot of music data, comprising the steps of determining whether music data to be downloaded from said server are already stored in a terminal of said user, and downloading, from said server to said terminal, only music data that are not stored in said terminal. According to the second aspect, the present invention provides a music distribution system comprising a server for storing a lot of music data, and means responsive to a request from a user for downloading, from said server, music data for one or more musical pieces included in the latest hit charts, wherein said downloading means including means for determining whether music data to be downloaded from said server are already stored in a terminal of said user, and means for selectively downloading, from said server to said terminal, only music data that are not stored in said terminal.

Claims

1. A music distribution method for downloading, in response to a request from a user, music data for one or more musical pieces included in the latest hit charts from a server storing a lot of music data, comprising the steps of:

determining whether music data to be downloaded from said server are already stored in a terminal of said user; and

downloading, from said server to said terminal, only music data that are not stored in said terminal.

2. The music distribution method according to claim 1, wherein the music data to be downloaded are those which are ranked at the first to predetermined places on said latest hit charts and not stored in said terminal.

3. The music distribution method according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising the steps of:

downloading a latest hit charts list including places, titles and singer names to said terminal from said server; and

updating a hit charts list of the user stored in said terminal based on said latest hit charts list.

4. The music distribution method according to one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising the step of deleting music data that are stored in said terminal and are not included in said latest hit charts.

5. The music distribution method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said step of determining whether music data to be downloaded from said server are already stored in a terminal of said user includes the step of comparing the titles of musical pieces on said latest hit charts list with those on said hit charts list held in said user terminal.

6. The music distribution method according to claim 5, wherein said step of determining whether music data to be downloaded from said server are already stored in a terminal of said user includes the step of transmitting said hit charts list of said user to said server, which then performs said step of comparing the titles of musical pieces on said latest hit charts list with those on said hit charts list held in said user terminal.

7. The music distribution method according to one of claims 1 to 6, wherein said terminal is a personal computer.

8. The music distribution method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said terminal is a portable terminal having a music playback function, one or more downloading terminals are connected to said server via a network, and said determining step and said downloading step are performed by connecting to said downloading terminal said portable terminal or a storage medium to be loaded in said portable terminal.

9. The music distribution method according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

downloading a latest hit charts list including places, titles and singer names to said downloading terminals from said server; and

updating a hit charts list of the user stored in said portable terminal or said storage medium based on said latest hit charts list.

10. A music distribution system comprising:

a server for storing a lot of music data; and

means responsive to a request from a user for downloading, from said server, music data for one or more musical pieces included in the latest hit charts, wherein said downloading means including;

means for determining whether music data to be downloaded from said server are already stored in a terminal of said user, and

means for selectively downloading, from said server to said terminal, only music data that are not stored in said terminal.

11. The music distribution system according to claim 10, wherein said downloading means downloads music data that are ranked at the first to predetermined places on said latest hit charts and not stored in said terminal.

12. The music distribution system according to claim 10 or 11, wherein said downloading means downloads, from said server to said terminal, a latest hit charts list including places, titles and singer names, in addition to said music data.

13. The music distribution system according to claim 12, further comprising means for updating a hit charts list of the user stored in said terminal based on said latest hit charts list.

14. The music distribution system according to one of claims 10 to 13, wherein said downloading means deletes music data that are stored in said terminal and are not included in said latest hit charts.

15. The music distribution system according to claim 13 or 14, wherein said determining means includes means for comparing the titles of musical pieces on said latest hit charts list with those on said hit charts list of said user.

16. The music distribution system according to claim 15, wherein said determining means includes means for transmitting said hit charts list of said user to said server, and said comparing means is provided in said server.

17. The music distribution system according to one of claims 10 to 16, wherein said terminal is a personal computer.

18. The music distribution system according to claim 10 or 11, wherein said terminal is a portable terminal having a music playback function, one or more downloading terminals are connected to said server via a network, and said determining means and said selectively downloading means are provided in said downloading terminal to perform said determination and said selective downloading by connecting to said downloading terminal said portable terminal or a storage medium to be loaded in said portable terminal.

19. The music distribution system according to claim 18, further comprising:

means for downloading, from said server to said downloading terminals, a latest hit charts list including places, titles and singer names; and

means for updating a hit charts list of the user stored in said portable terminal or said storage medium based on said latest hit charts list.