Method and System for Upgrading a Previously Purchased Media Asset

• US 20080134032A1
• Filed: 02/08/2008
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lew, Darren, Ameerally, Debra, Gautier, Patrice, Ward, Alan, Campbell, George, Mitsuji, Hiro, Gharabally, Sam, Pirnack, Tracy
• Granted Patent: US 8,984,442 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions

Abstract

Systems, graphical user interfaces and methods for upgrading from one or more digital media assets to a set of digital media assets over a network are described. A potential purchaser can be notified of available upgrade opportunities that are available for purchase. The potential purchaser can elect to pursue an upgrade opportunity so as to purchase a set of digital media assets. Upon upgrading to the set of digital media assets, the digital media assets within the set of digital media assets are made available to the purchaser. According to one aspect, a graphical user interface facilitates presenting and requesting upgrade opportunities. According to another aspect, equivalency rules and/or eligibility rules can be used to control which sets of digital media assets are available for upgrade by respective potential purchasers.

Claims

1. A graphical user interface for display on a display device associated with a computing device, said graphical user interface comprising:

a media upgrade window includes at least (i) a media descriptive portion providing information concerning a media bundle available from an on-line media store, and (ii) a media item listing area providing a listing of a plurality of media items within the media bundle,

wherein a portion of the media items in the listing are visually distinguished from other of the media items in the media item listing, where the portion of the media items being visually distinguished are those of the media items within the media bundle that have been previously acquired.

2. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the media bundle is an album, and wherein the media items within the media item listing are tracks, and wherein the media item listing displays at least name, duration, artist and album for such tracks.

3. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein a remaining portion of the media items in the media item listing are available to be acquired by upgrading to the media bundle.

4. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 3, wherein said media descriptive portion comprises:

a number of the media items in the remaining portion; and

an upgrade cost, the upgrade cost being the cost to the user to upgrade to complete the media bundle,

5. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 4, wherein said media descriptive portion further comprises:

a total number of the media items in the media bundle.

6. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein a remaining portion of the media items in the media item listing are available to be acquired by purchasing an upgrade to complete the media bundle.

7. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 6, wherein any one or more of the media items in the remaining portion of the media items in the media item listing are available to be acquired by individually purchasing the one or more media items.

8. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein said graphical user interface further comprises at least one upgrade request control to enable a user to request to upgrade to complete the media bundle.

9. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 8, wherein the at least one upgrade request control is provided within said media descriptive portion.

10. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 8, wherein said media descriptive portion further presents an upgrade cost, the upgrade cost being the cost to the user to upgrade to complete the media bundle.

11. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein said graphical user interface is produced by a media management application.

12. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the computing device is a computer.

13. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the portion of the media items being visually distinguished are those of the media items within the media bundle that have been previously acquired from the on-line media store.

14. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein said graphical user interface further comprises:

information on at least one alternative media bundle that is also available to be acquired by upgrading to the alternative media bundle.

15. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 14, wherein a portion of the media items within the alternative media bundle have been previously acquired from an on-line media store.

16. A graphical user interface for display on a display device associated with a computing device, said graphical user interface being presented on the display device for a user of the computing device, said graphical user interface comprising:

an upgrade availability window for presenting information for a plurality of media asset bundles that are available for purchase by the user, the media asset bundles that are available to the user are those media asset bundles for which the user previously acquired at least one media asset within each of the media asset bundles.

17. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 16, wherein the media asset bundles are available from an on-line media store.

18. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 17, wherein the at least one media asset within each of the media asset bundles was previously acquired by the user via the on-line media store.

19. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 16, wherein the media asset bundles that are available to the user are those media asset bundles for which the user previously acquired (i) at least one media asset within each of the media asset bundles, or (ii) at least one media asset that is substantially similar to a media asset within each of the media asset bundles.

20. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 16, wherein, each of the media asset bundles being presented in said upgrade availability window, is a media asset bundle for which its media assets beyond those previously acquired can be purchased at a completion cost that is less than a cost for the media asset bundle when none of its media assets were previously acquired.

21. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 16, wherein the information for each of the plurality of media asset bundles being presented in said upgrade availability window comprises:

descriptive text information that describes attributes of the associated media asset bundle;

a graphic that corresponds to the associated media asset bundle; and

a completion cost for the associated media asset bundle.

22. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 21, wherein the attributes of the associated media asset bundle include at least title and artist for the associated media asset bundle.

23. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 21, wherein the information for each of the plurality of media asset bundles being presented in said upgrade availability window further comprises:

an expiration date for the availability of the associated media asset bundle.

24. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 21, wherein the completion cost is separately determined for each of the media asset bundles being presented in said upgrade availability window and is dependent on a purchase history associated with the user.

25. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 16, wherein the plurality of media asset bundles being presented in said upgrade availability window are displayed in a grid-like layout.

26. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 16, wherein said upgrade availability window comprises:

a sort control that permits the user to order the manner of presenting of the media asset bundles within said upgrade availability window.

27. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 26, wherein said sort control enables the user to select one of a plurality of sort criteria and to initiate a sort.

28. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 27, wherein the plurality of sort criteria are presentable to the user as a list of selectable items.

29. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 27, wherein the sort criteria includes one or more of expiration data, artist, price, purchase date and best-sellers.

30. A computer-implemented method for facilitating upgrade to a media bundle, said computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a previously purchased media item;

identifying an initial media bundle that is associated with the previously purchased media item;

determining one or more media bundles that are equivalent to or related to the initial media bundle based on one or more equivalency rules; and

causing an upgrade opportunity regarding at least one of the one or more media bundles that are equivalent to or related to the initial media bundle to be presented.

31. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 30, wherein said computer-implemented method comprises:

limiting the upgrade opportunity to those of the one or more media bundles that satisfy one or more eligibility rules.

32. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 30, wherein the previously purchased media item being previously purchased by a user via an on-line media store.

33. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 30, wherein said causing of the upgrade opportunity to be presented is performed on a display device of a client machine utilized by the user.

34. A computer-implemented method for facilitating upgrade to a media bundle, said computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a previously purchased media item; and

determining a media bundle associated with the previously purchased media item.

35. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 34, wherein said determining operates to determine the media bundle in which the previously purchased media item is one of the media items within the media bundle.

36. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 35, wherein said determining operates to determine a media bundle in which the previously purchased media item is deemed equivalent to one of the media items within the media bundle.

37. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 34, wherein said determining operates to determine a media bundle that is equivalent to the media bundle associated with the previously purchased media item.

38. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 37, wherein said determining uses equivalency rules.

39. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 38, wherein said method further comprises:

causing an upgrade opportunity regarding the media bundle to be presented.

40. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 34, wherein said method further comprises:

causing an upgrade opportunity regarding the media bundle to be presented.

41. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 40, wherein said determining operates to determine a media bundle that is related to the media bundle associated with the previously purchased media item.

42. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 40, wherein said determining operates to determine a media bundle that is a replacement for the media bundle associated with the previously purchased media item.

43. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 40, wherein said determining operates to determine a media bundle that is an enhanced version of the media bundle associated with the previously purchased media item.

44. A computer readable medium including at least executable computer program code tangibly stored thereon for facilitating upgrade to a media bundle, said computer readable medium comprising:

computer program code for identifying a previously acquired media item;

computer program code for identifying an initial media bundle that was associated with the previously acquired media item at the time at which the previously purchased media item was acquired from an on-line media store;

computer program code for determining one or more media bundles that are equivalent to or related to the initial media bundle based on one or more equivalency rules; and

computer program code for causing an upgrade opportunity regarding at least one of the one or more media bundles that are equivalent to or related to the initial media bundle to be presented.