UPDATING PLAYLISTS USING PUSH AND PULL

• US 20170093999A1
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: SHENOY, Arvind S., MUSTAFI, Priyo, Irvine, Paul C., CHALASANI, Venkat Kranthi, JORGENSEN, Cody D., Alsina, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 10,264,084 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

Some implementations allow users to create and share data including playlists. Such playlists may be subscribed to by other users. Changes to such playlists, such as updates by the curator of the playlist, must be propagated to subscribers in a timely manner while efficiently utilizing resources. Some implementations allow updates to be propagated using a push notification to cause client devices to request the update (push). Alternatively, updates may be made when the client devices of the subscribers next accesses the system (pull). An aggregator system may be used to make decisions on which users to send push notifications, and which users to wait to pull updates on their own. Additionally, the aggregator may determine that certain playlist updates should be distributed using push notifications. The aggregator may determine that only certain playlist subscribers should receive push notifications regarding playlist updates.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes,

receiving playlist data that describes a collection of media items associated with a playlist;

receiving playlist subscriber data that associates the playlist with user accounts that have subscribed to the playlist;

receiving playlist change data that describes a change made to the playlist;

in response to receiving the playlist change, generating a push notification score; and

sending a playlist update push notification to a client device associated with a particular subscribed user account if the push notification score is greater than a push notification threshold value.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause,

determining a subscriber number representing how many user accounts subscribed to the playlist before the particular subscribed user account subscribed to the playlist;

comparing the subscriber number to a push threshold number;

sending the playlist update push notification to the client device associated with the particular user account if the subscriber number is less than the push threshold number; and

sending the playlist update push notification to the client device associated with the particular user account, based on the push notification score, if the subscriber number is greater than the push threshold number.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the push notification score is a playlist score for the playlist;

and wherein the instructions cause,

sending the playlist update push notification to subscribers of the playlist based on the playlist score.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the playlist score is based on the playlist subscriber data.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the playlist score based on the playlist change data.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the instructions cause:

generating a subscriber score for the particular subscribed user account;

sending the playlist update push notification to the client device associated with the particular subscribed user account if the playlist score is greater than a playlist push threshold value and the subscriber score is greater than a subscriber push threshold value.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the subscriber score is based on an order the particular subscribed user account subscribed to the playlist.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the subscriber score is based on a location of the client device associated with the particular subscribed user account.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the push notification score is a subscriber score for the particular subscribed user account;

and wherein the instructions cause,

sending the playlist update push notification to the client device associated with the particular subscribed user account based on the subscriber score.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the push notification threshold value changes due to the amount of traffic received by the system.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein the subscriber score is based on a number of push notifications received within a given time by the client device associated with the particular subscribed user account.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the subscriber score is based on a number of push notifications received within a given time by the client device associated with the particular subscribed user account.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the curator location data and the subscriber location data is relative straight-line distance between the curator and subscriber.

13. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes,

receiving playlist data that describes a collection of media items associated with a playlist, the playlist data identifying a curator for the playlist;

receiving curator location data identifying a current location of a client device associated with a particular user account of a curator of the playlist;

receiving playlist subscriber data that associates the playlist with user accounts that have subscribed to the playlist;

receiving subscriber location data identifying a current location of a client device associated with a particular subscribed user account;

receiving playlist change data that describes a change made to the playlist; and

sending a playlist update push notification to the client device associated with the subscribed user account, based on the curator location data and the subscriber location data.

15. A method comprising:

by one or more processors,

receiving playlist data that describes a collection of media items associated with a playlist;

receiving playlist subscriber data that associates the playlist with user accounts that have subscribed to the playlist;

generating a playlist score of the playlist based on the received playlist data;

receiving playlist change data that describes a change made to the playlist;

generating a subscriber score based on information regarding a particular subscribed user account; and

sending a playlist update push notification to the client device associated with the subscribed user account, based on the playlist score and the subscriber score.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the subscriber score is based on the order the subscriber subscribed to the playlist.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the playlist score includes information regarding the number of subscribers to the playlist.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the subscriber score includes a number of push notifications the client device associated with the particular subscribed user account has received within a certain time period.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising,

receiving curator information associated with the curator of the playlist;

generating a curator score based on the received curator information; and

sending a push notification to a client device associated with a subscribed user account based on the playlist score, the subscriber score and the curator score.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the subscriber information and the curator information is location information.

21. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes,

receiving playlist data that describes a collection of media items associated with a playlist;

receiving playlist subscriber data that associates the playlist with user accounts that have subscribed to the playlist;

receiving playlist change data that describes a change made to the playlist; and

sending a playlist update push notification to a client device associated with a subscribed user account, based on an order the subscribed user account subscribed to the playlist.

22. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium including one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes,

receiving playlist data that describes a collection of media items associated with a playlist, the playlist data identifying a curator for the playlist;

receiving curator location data identifying a current location of a client device associated with a particular user account of a curator of the playlist;

receiving playlist subscriber data that associates the playlist with user accounts that have subscribed to the playlist;

receiving subscriber location data identifying a current location of a client device associated with a particular subscribed user account;

receiving playlist change data that describes a change made to the playlist; and

sending a playlist update push notification to the client device associated with the subscribed user account, based on the curator location data and the subscriber location data.