Music player

• US 20060217829A1
• Filed: 03/24/2006
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Miyabe, Motoaki, Umezawa, Satoru
• Granted Patent: US 7,765,270 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/30 for musical instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00724 wherein a prepaid credit balance is registered on the recording medium
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00731 involving a digital rights management system for enforcing a usage restriction
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0084 wherein the usage restriction can be expressed as a specific time or date
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00978 wherein the record carrier stores a trial version of a content
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/00057 MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio layer III [MP3]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10546 specifically adapted for audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/60 Solid state media details of solid state memory devices G11C

Abstract

A portable music player downloads a musical composition data from a distribution server. When this musical composition data is played back, a sample musical composition data composing a part of the musical composition data is distributed to a surrounding player by wireless. At this time, a terminal identification number IDa of the supplier player is included in tag information of the sample musical composition data, and the user of the surrounding player can download the musical composition data related to the sample musical composition data for value from the distribution server. A part of its sold price is refunded to the user of the supplier player.

Claims

1. A music player comprising:

an identification number memory storing a unique identification number;

a musical composition data memory storing one or more musical composition data;

a player reading out and playing back the musical composition data;

a cache memory storing sound data composing a part of the musical composition data during playback by said player;

a sound data sender sending the identification number and the sound data to an other music player when receiving a musical composition supply request from the other music player;

a musical composition supply request sender sending the musical composition supply request to the other music player; and

a sound data memory storing the sound data supplied by the other music player in response to the musical composition supply request.

2. A music player according to claim 1, further comprising a sound data clearing device that clears the sound data stored in said cache memory when the playback of the sound data is stopped in said player.

3. A music player according to claim 1,

wherein said sound data sender is a device that sends a musical composition data identification information identifying the musical composition data, and

the music player further comprising:

a musical composition data identification information sender sending the musical composition data identification information to a distribution device supplying the musical composition data;

a musical composition data receiver receiving the musical composition data related to the musical composition data identification information from the distribution device; and

a sound data clearing device clearing the corresponding sound data in said sound data memory when receiving the musical composition data via the musical composition data receiver.

4. A music player according to claim 2,

wherein said sound data sender is a device that sends a musical composition data identification information identifying the musical composition data, and

the music player further comprising:

a musical composition data identification information sender sending the musical composition data identification information to a distribution device supplying the musical composition data;

a musical composition data receiver receiving the musical composition data related to the musical composition data identification information from the distribution device; and

a sound data clearing device clearing the corresponding sound data in said sound data memory when receiving the musical composition data via the musical composition data receiver.

5. A computer program containing program instructions executable by a computer which controls a music player with an identification number memory storing a unique identification number, a musical composition data memory storing one or more musical composition data and a player reading out and playing back the musical composition data, and causing said computer to execute:

a process of storing sound data composing a part of the musical composition data during playback by the player into a cache memory;

a sound data sending process of sending the identification number and the sound data to an other music player when receiving a musical composition supply-request from the other music player;

a musical composition supply request sending process of sending the musical composition supply request to the other music player; and

a sound data storing process of storing the sound data supplied from the other music player in response to the musical composition supply request.