Online Music Networking System

• US 20150229672A1
• Filed: 02/11/2014
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hans Dolce, Tremaine Witter
• Original Assignee: Hans Dolce, Tremaine Witter
• Inventors: Witter, Tremaine, Dolce, Hans
• Granted Patent: US 9,697,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/184 with heterogeneous receivers, e.g. layered multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1845 broadcast or multicast in a specific location, e.g. geocast protocols for adapting network applications to user terminal location H04L67/52; services specially adapted for wireless communication networks making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/30 for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information circuit switched telephony call monitoring H04M3/2281
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355

Abstract

An online music networking system that utilizes the internet for coordinating the sharing and listening of music includes a computer having a processor connected to network such as the internet. The system includes a player database that includes player records associated with a plurality of “players” who wish to share music with others through the network. A music database includes music records associated with respective players in the player database. A listener database is includes listener records associated with a plurality of “listeners” who wish to listen to music that is associated with respective players. The player may select to listen to a selected one of his music files as a live stream through the internet. A listener may also listen to the same live stream by becoming a “follower” of the player or selected music file, but may not exercise any control over it.

Claims

1. An online music networking system that utilizes a wide area network for coordinating the sharing and listening of music, comprising:

a computer having a processor connected to the wide area network and that provides a user interface to the network;

programming and data structures stored in a computer readable memory in data communication with said processor,

a player database stored in said memory that includes player records associated with a plurality of “

players”

who wish to share music with others through the wide area network;

a music database stored in said memory that includes music records associated with respective players in said player database;

a listener database stored in said memory that includes listener records associated with a plurality of “

listeners”

who wish to listen to music that is associated with respective players;

wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to;

limit access to respective player, listener, and music database to an authorized player or listener;

receive a music file through the wide area network from a respective player and store said received music file to said music database;

selectively actuate a live stream of said stored music file back to said respective player through said wide area network;

receive a listen request from a respective listener to access said live stream currently being streamed to said respective player; and

selectively allow access by said respective listener to said live stream through the wide area network if said respective listener is authorized to receive said live stream.

2. The online music networking system as in claim 1, wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to:

receive a plurality of music files through the wide area network from said respective player;

store said received music files in said memory as a music library associated with said respective player;

receive a current play request from said respective player to immediately actuate a live stream of a selected music file from said music library associated with said respective player; and

selectively actuate a live stream of said selected music file back to said respective player through said wide area network.

3. The online music networking system as in claim 1, wherein each player record associated with said respective player includes a list of respective “

listeners”

from said listener database that have indicated a desire to listen to music files associated with said respective player.

4. The online music networking system as in claim 3, wherein a respective listener is authorized to receive said live stream currently being streamed to said respective player if said respective listener is associated with a respective list of listeners associated with said respective player.

5. The online music networking system as in claim 4, wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to:

receive a player explore request from a respective listener who is seeking to choose respective players from whom to listen to respective music files;

display a portion of said music records associated with respective player records;

receive a music selection from said respective listener and send a “

follow”

request to a respective player record associated with said music selection.

6. The online music networking system as in claim 5, wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to update a respective list of authorized listeners of a player record to include said listener.

7. The online music networking system as in claim 3, wherein each player record includes a geographic location identifier.

8. The online music networking system as in claim 4, wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to:

display a list of currently playing live streams, said list including respective song titles, elapsed times, and remaining times;

receive a listen request from a listener to access to a selected live stream;

selectively direct said selected live stream to said respective listener through said network if said respective listener is authorized to receive said selected live stream.

9. The online music networking system as in claim 1, wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to:

display a list of currently playing live streams, said list including respective song titles, elapsed times, and remaining times;

receive a listen request from a listener to access to a selected live stream;

selectively direct said selected live stream to said respective listener through said network if said respective listener is authorized to receive said selected live stream.

10. The online music networking system as in claim 9, wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to:

publish to a respective listener who is accessing a respective live stream a solicitation to “

like”

or “

comment”

on a current live stream;

receive evaluation input from said respective listener indicative of a “

like”

or “

comment”

; and

publish said received evaluation input.

11. The online music networking system as in claim 8, wherein said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to:

publish to a respective listener who is accessing a respective live stream a solicitation to “

like”

or “

comment”

on a current live stream;

receive evaluation input from said respective listener indicative of a “

like”

or “

comment”

; and

publish said received evaluation input.

12. The online music networking system as in claim 1, wherein:

said music file includes purchase data; and

said programming, when executed by said processor, causes said processor to publish said purchase data to said respective listener who is accessing said respective live stream.

13. The online music networking system as in claim 1, wherein said received music file includes access data indicative that an associated live stream is accessible only by authorized listeners or by all listeners.

14. The online music networking system as in claim 3, wherein said received music file includes access data indicative that an associated live stream is accessible only by listeners indicated on said respective list of approved listeners of said respective player.