METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR POPULATING A CONTENT REPOSITORY FOR AN INTERNET RADIO SERVICE BASED ON A RECOMMENDATION NETWORK

• US 20090164514A1
• Filed: 12/20/2007
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Inventors: Svendsen, Hugh, Farrelly, Eugene M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,396,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/82 using signals not modulated onto a carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system are provided for populating the content repository of the media service based on real-time media recommendation network comprising a plurality of peer devices. Aspects of the method and system include receiving by a server a recommendation from one of the plurality of peer devices for a media item that is intended for a recipient; determining if the media item is present in the content repository; in response to determining that the media item is not present in the content repository, requesting that the peer device upload the media item; and in response to the media item being uploaded, storing the media item in the content repository.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for populating a content repository of a media service based on a real-time media recommendation network comprising a plurality of peer devices, comprising:

receiving by a server a recommendation from one of the plurality of peer devices for a media item that is intended for a recipient;

determining if the media item is present in the content repository;

in response to determining that the media item is not present in the content repository, requesting that the one peer device upload the media item; and

in response to the media item being uploaded, storing the media item in the content repository.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising in response to the media item being stored locally on a peer device of the recipient, playing the media item locally on the recipient'"'"'s peer device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein playing the media item locally on the peer device does not factor into Compulsory License for Internet Radio royalty calculations for the Internet radio service.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising in response to the media item not being stored locally on the recipient'"'"'s peer device, streaming the media item to the recipient'"'"'s peer device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising recording performance of the streaming for royalty payment purposes.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices send recommendations to the server for forwarding to other ones of the plurality of peer devices.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising forwarding the recommendation from the server to the recipient'"'"'s peer device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices send recommendations directly to one another, bypassing the server, and after a receiving peer device receives one of the recommendations from a sending peer device, the receiving peer device forwards the received recommendation to the server.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further wherein the recommendation sent by the one peer device includes a GUID of the media item and if the GUID is unknown, the recommendation includes an acoustic fingerprint of the media item.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 further comprising sending the acoustic fingerprint from the server to a metadata service to retrieve metadata identifying the media item.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 further comprising if the media item fails the identification, then moving the media item into a separate holding area for manual intervention, and notifying a user of the one peer device that sent the recommendation of a recommendation failure.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 wherein the streaming further comprises if the media item fails the identification, then streaming a preview of the media item to the recipient'"'"'s peer device and letting the recipient confirm whether the media item should be streamed.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising using metadata identifying the media item to perform license verification on the media item.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprising if the media item fails the license verification, then moving the media item into a separate holding area for manual intervention, and notifying a user of the one peer device that sent the recommendation of a recommendation failure.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein each one of at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices automatically selects a next media item to play from among a plurality of media items based on a plurality of recommendations received from the other ones of the plurality of peer devices and user preferences, and wherein the each one of the at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices automatically checks for compliance with compulsory license restrictions for internet radio.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of media items comprise songs, and wherein the each one of the at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices include a license enforcement algorithm that tracks track specific information about each of the songs that are streamed to the corresponding peer device, wherein the license enforcement algorithm tracks:

a first time one of the songs from an album is streamed to the corresponding peer device;

a time when a most recent song from the album has been streamed;

a time when a last consecutive song from the album has been streamed;

a count of songs from the same album that have been streamed; and

a count of the songs from the same album that have been streamed consecutively.

17. A system comprising

a real-time media recommendation network comprising a plurality of peer devices;

and

a media service, the media service in communication with the plurality of devices comprising a server and a content repository;

wherein the server is functional for;

receiving a recommendation from one of the plurality of peer devices for a media item that is intended for a recipient;

determining if the media item is present in the content repository;

in response to determining that the media item is not present in the content repository, requesting that the one peer device upload the media item; and

in response to the media item being uploaded, storing the media item in the content repository, thereby populating the content repository.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein in response to the media item being stored locally on a peer device of the recipient, the media item is played locally on the recipient'"'"'s peer device.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein playing the media item locally on the peer device does not factor into Compulsory License for Internet Radio royalty calculations for the Internet radio service.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein in response to the media item not being stored locally on the recipient'"'"'s peer device, the media item is streamed to the recipient'"'"'s peer device.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein performance of the streaming is recorded for royalty payment purposes.

22. The system of claim 17 wherein at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices send recommendations to the server for forwarding to other ones of the plurality of peer devices.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the server forwards the recommendation to the recipient'"'"'s peer device.

24. The system of claim 17 wherein at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices send recommendations directly to one another, bypassing the server, and after a receiving peer device receives one of the recommendations from a sending peer device, the receiving peer device forwards the received recommendation to the server.

25. The system of claim 17 wherein the recommendation sent by the one peer device includes a GUID of the media item and if the GUID is unknown, the recommendation includes an acoustic fingerprint of the media item.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the server sends the acoustic fingerprint to a metadata service to retrieve metadata identifying the media item.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein if the media item fails the identification, then the server moves the media item into a separate holding area for manual intervention, and notifies a user of the one peer device that sent the recommendation of a recommendation failure.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein if the media item fails the identification, then the server streams a preview of the media item to the recipient'"'"'s peer device and such that the recipient can confirm whether the media item should be streamed.

29. The system of claim 17 wherein metadata is used to identify the media item to perform license verification on the media item.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein if the media item fails the license verification, then the server moves the media item into a separate holding area for manual intervention, and notifies a user of the one peer device that sent the recommendation of a recommendation failure.

31. The system of claim 18 wherein each one of at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices automatically selects a next media item to play from among a plurality of media items based on a plurality of recommendations received from the other ones of the plurality of peer devices and user preferences, and wherein the each one of the at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices automatically checks for compliance with compulsory license restrictions for internet radio.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the plurality of media items comprise songs, and wherein the each one of the at least a portion of the plurality of peer devices include a license enforcement algorithm that tracks track specific information about each of the songs that are streamed to the corresponding peer device, wherein the license enforcement algorithm tracks:

a first time one of the songs from an album is streamed to the corresponding peer device;

a time when a most recent song from the album has been streamed;

a time when a last consecutive song from the album has been streamed;

a count of songs from the same album that have been streamed; and

a count of the songs from the same album that have been streamed consecutively.