Digital downloading jukebox system with user-tailored music management, communications, and other tools

• US 9,164,661 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2015
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TouchTunes Music Corporation (The Octave Music Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TouchTunes Music Corporation (The Octave Music Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nathan, Guy, Dion, Dominique
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kiet G
• Application Number:
  US14/684,968
• Publication Number:
  US 20150220222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 190 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/64 Browsing; Visualisation therefor generation of a list or set of audio data G06F16/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• 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: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/22 Payment schemes or models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/025 'Virtual' control panels, e.g. Graphical User Interface [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/439 Processing of audio elementary streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 receiving rewards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 : comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 : Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

A digital downloading jukebox system including a mechanism for delivering custom services to a recognized user, including services for creating playlists, communicating with others, accessing other features, etc. is provided. In some exemplary embodiments, after a user is recognized, the jukebox system allows users to access a special front-end via an Internet-enabled device or on an actual jukebox. Then, the user may, for example, create playlists, share songs with friends, send messages to friends, and access other value-added content. Such a system preferably learns about networks of friends, and enables managers to send similar messages to regular customers and/or others known to the system. In some exemplary embodiments, changes via a first user interface on a first device are reflected on second user interface on other properly-configured devices.

Claims

1. A method for playing music from a catalog of playable songs in an out-of-home pay-for-play establishment, the method comprising:

enabling a plurality of registered users to execute respective login operations via respective mobile devices to indicate that the respective users are present at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;

in response to a first logged-in registered user selecting a song, adding the selected song to a queue of songs to be played back at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment, at least a portion of the queue being displayable for the registered users; and

receiving, from a second logged-in registered user via the mobile device of the second logged-in registered user, a vote on one or more of the songs in the displayable portion of the queue; and

causing songs from the queue to be played at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment,

wherein the portion of the queue and corresponding tallied votes for songs in the portion of the queue are viewable via the mobile devices that the logged-in registered users used to execute their respective login operations, and

wherein the catalog of playable songs in the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment is restrictable through authorized selection of at least one predefined list of playable music selected from a plurality of such predefined lists, the predefined lists of playable music being separate from genre lists, the at least one predefined list of playable music being selectable by an authorized user via a user interface not accessible to the logged-in registered users.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising conditioning the addition of the selected song to the queue of songs to be played back at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment on collection of a predefined non-zero number of credits.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the votes can be either votes for or votes against a song.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

tallying the votes for and the votes against each song in the queue; and

causing display of the tallied votes for and the tallied against each song in at least the portion of the queue.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising influencing the queue based on the tallied votes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein an identifier of the user who selected the currently playing song is viewable via the mobile devices that the logged-in registered users used to execute their respective login operations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein an identifier of the user who voted for the currently playing song is viewable via the mobile devices that the logged-in registered users used to execute their respective login operations.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein an identifier of the user who voted for the currently playing song is viewable via the mobile devices that the logged-in registered users used to execute their respective login operations.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising limiting the number of votes a logged-in registered user can place on any given song in the portion of the queue.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a display screen for output to a display device, the display screen including the portion of the queue.

11. An electronic device operable to facilitate the playback of music from a catalog of playable songs in an out-of-home pay-for-play establishment, the electronic device comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to at least;

enable users to execute login operations to indicate that the users are present at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;

in response to a logged-in user selecting a song, add the selected song to a list of songs to be played back at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;

facilitate the playback of songs from the list in the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment; and

enable logged-in users to vote on at least some of the songs in the list;

wherein;

a user interface provided to portable electronic devices operated by respective logged-in users at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment is arranged to display (a) at least a portion of the catalog of playable songs, (b) at least a portion of the list, (c) tallied votes made with respect to at least those songs in the portion of the list, and (d) an indication of a song currently playing at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment; and

the catalog of songs is restrictable such that only a partial subset of songs is available for selection by the logged-in registered users at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment, the catalog of playable songs being restrictable through selection of at least one predefined list of playable music selected from a plurality of such predefined lists, the predefined lists of playable music being independent of genre lists, the at least one predefined list of playable music being selectable by an authorized user via a user interface not accessible to the logged-in registered users.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the user interface provided to the portable electronic devices operated by the users at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment is arranged to further display an identifier of a user who selected the currently playing song if any, for the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment.

13. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the user interface provided to the portable electronic devices operated by the users at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment is arranged to show at least two of (a)-(d) on a single screen.

14. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the tallied votes include tallied counts of votes for, and separate tallied counts of votes against, each song that has been voted on.

15. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the logged-in registered users are limited to one vote per song.

16. A digital audio reproduction system, comprising:

at least one processor coupled to a memory and being configured to facilitate playback of music at a plurality of out-of-home pay-for-play establishments; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly storing a catalog of playable songs,

wherein each out-of-home pay-for-play establishment is provided with an electronic device operable to facilitate the playback of music from a catalog of playable songs in the respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishment, each said electronic device comprising;

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to at least;

enable users to execute login operations to indicate that the users are present at the respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;

in response to a logged-in user selecting a song, add the selected song to a list of songs to be played back at the respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;

facilitate the playback of songs from the list in the respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishment; and

enable logged-in users to vote on at least some of the songs in the list;

wherein a user interface provided to portable electronic devices operated by respective logged-in users at the respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishment is arranged to display (a) at least a portion of the catalog of playable songs, (b) at least a portion of the list, (c) tallied votes made with respect to at least those songs in the portion of the list, and (d) an indication of a song currently playing at the respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishment; and

the catalog of songs is restrictable such that only a partial subset of songs is available for selection by the logged-in registered users at the respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishments, the catalog of playable songs being restrictable through selection of at least one predefined list of playable music selected from a plurality of such predefined lists, the predefined lists of playable music being independent of genre lists, the at least one predefined list of playable music being selectable by an authorized user via a user interface not accessible to the logged-in registered users.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein at least some of said out-of-home pay-for-play establishments include a standalone display controllable to output the portion of the list, the tallied votes, the indication of the currently playing song, and the identifier of the user who selected the currently playing song if any, for those respective out-of-home pay-for-play establishments.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the user interfaces are further arranged to display tallied counts of votes placed by the logged-in registered users in registration with corresponding entries in the displayed portion of the list.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the tallied votes indicate tallied votes for, and separate tallied votes against, each song.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein only a partial subset of songs in the list is displayable to the logged-in registered users.