Playlist Resolver

• US 20090100062A1
• Filed: 10/10/2007
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fisher, Roberto Warren, Kalaboukis, Chris, Martinez, Ronald, Rogers, Ian C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,959,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/63 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A real-time locater for digital media objects, related to one or more musical compositions and accessible over a network, is described. A service-provider maintains a master index of the digital media objects and a playlist-resolver server. The master index is organized by considering each media object to be an example of a primary attribute associated with the media object by a multitude of users. The reference is constructed as a data structure of primary attributes and means of locating the media objects as instances of primary attributes. The playlist-resolver works with the master index to translate a list of references to creative works into a series of successful accesses to the corresponding media object files.

Claims

1. A method to facilitate access to a list referring to one or more media objects related to creative compositions and accessible on a network comprising:

responding to a request from a remote host for resolution of a list referring to one or more media objects, by, for each referenced media object in the list,

determining a primary concept attribute of the referenced media object;

accessing a searchable datastore index of primary concept attributes to determine a primary node in the datastore associated with the primary concept attribute for the referenced media object;

determining, from the primary node, one or more version nodes;

determining, from the one or more version nodes, an accessible version node for the requester;

determining, from the accessible version node, a network location for the referenced media object; and

adding the network location of the referenced media object to a location list; and

transmitting the location list to the remote host.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the primary attribute of a musical composition has two components related to the composition performer and a title of the composition.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the primary attribute of a musical composition has three components related to the composition performer, a title of the composition, and a composer of the composition.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the accessible version is determined by comparing one or more version access requirements to one or more requester attributes.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the version access requirements include one or more of a requester age range, a bounded geographic region for the requester, a music service subscription for the requester, a music service credit for the requester, and a music service password for the requester.

6. An apparatus to facilitate access to a list referring to one or more media objects related to creative compositions and accessible on a network comprising:

a playlist-resolver server;

a master-index server; and

a searchable datastore of media object attributes;

said apparatus operative to;

associate a set of primary concept attributes with a set of primary nodes in the datastore;

categorize one or more media objects, wherein each of said media objects is regarded as a version of one member in the set of primary nodes;

maintain a searchable index of the primary nodes and the versions; and

respond to a request from a remote host for resolution of a list referring to one or more media objects by, for each referenced media object in the list,

accessing the searchable index to determine a primary node in the datastore associated with the primary concept attribute for the referenced media object;

determining, from the primary node, one or more version nodes in the datastore;

determining, from the one or more versions, an accessible version for the requester;

determining, from the accessible version node, a network location for the referenced media object; and

adding the network location of the referenced media object to a location list; and

transmit the location list to the remote host.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the accessible version is determined by comparing one or more version access requirements to one or more requester attributes.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the version access requirements include one or more of a requester age range, a bounded geographic region for the requester, a music service subscription for the requester, a music service credit for the requester, and a music service password for the requester.

9. A method to facilitate access to a list referring to one or more media objects related to creative compositions and accessible on a network comprising:

responding to a request from a remote host to resolve a list referring to one or more media objects, by, for each referenced media object in the list,

accessing a searchable datastore index to determine a primary node in the datastore associated with the primary concept attribute for the referenced media object;

determining, from the primary node, one or more version nodes in the datastore;

determining, from the version node attributes and optionally one or more requester attributes, an accessible version for the requester;

dynamically generating and transmitting a request to a remote media object server for the accessible version;

buffering the media object received in response to the transmitted request to the remote media object server; and

transmitting the media object to the remote host.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the primary attribute of a musical composition has two components related to the composition performer and a title of the composition.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the primary attribute of a musical composition has three components related to the composition performer, a tide of the composition, and a composer of the composition.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the accessible version is determined by comparing one or more version access requirements to one or more requester attributes.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the version access requirements include one or more of a requester age range, a bounded geographic region for the requester, a music service subscription for the requester, a music service credit for the requester, and a music service password for the requester.

14. An apparatus to facilitate access to a list referring to one or more media objects related to creative compositions and accessible on a network comprising:

a playlist-resolver server;

a master-index server; and

a datastore of media object attributes; and

said apparatus operative to;

associate a set of primary concept attributes with a set of primary nodes in the datastore;

categorize one or more media objects, wherein each of said media objects is regarded as a version of one member in the set of primary nodes;

maintain a searchable datastore index of the primary nodes and the versions; and

respond to a request from a remote host for resolution of a list referring to one or more media objects by, for each referenced media object in the list,

accessing the searchable index to determine a primary node associated with the primary concept attribute for the referenced media object;

determining, from the primary node, one or more version nodes;

determining, from the version attributes and optionally one or more requester attributes, an accessible version for the requester;

dynamically generating and transmitting a request to a remote media object server for the accessible version;

buffering the media object received in response to the transmitted request to the remote media object server; and

transmitting the media object to the remote host.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14 wherein the accessible version is determined by comparing one or more version access requirements to one or more requester attributes.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14 wherein the version access requirements include one or more of a requester age range, a bounded geographic region for the requester, a music service subscription for the requester, a music service credit for the requester, and a music service password for the requester.

17. A method to facilitate access to a list referring to one or more media objects related to creative compositions and accessible on a network comprising:

responding to a request from a remote host to resolve a list referring to one or more media objects, by, for each referenced media object in the list,

accessing the searchable index to determine a primary node associated with the primary concept attribute for the referenced media object;

determining, from the primary node, one or more version nodes,

sequentially facilitating an attempted access by the remote host to an untried version in the one or more version nodes by

determining a network location of the version from the untried node;

transmitting one or more attributes of the version including the network location of the version to the remote host;

receiving a status of attempted access by the remote host to the version; and

continuing with another untried version if the attempted access failed.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the primary attribute of a musical composition has two components related to the composition performer and a title of the composition.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the primary attribute of a musical composition has three components related to the composition performer, a title of the composition, and a composer of the composition.

20. (canceled)