Remote content presentation queues

• US 9,411,809 B1
• Filed: 03/07/2014
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sabbavarapu, Mahesh Babu, Fu, Ruijie, Kroeker, Brian Alexander, Gangadaran, Vijay
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kim
• Application Number:
  US14/201,280
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705, 707/799
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for generating, storing, and managing play queues remotely from a user device on which content associated with the play queues may be played. A client application executing on a user device may transmit a request to generate a remote play queue to a remote server. The request may include an indication one or more sources for the content and may optionally include an indication of the content to associate with the play queue. The remote server may access metadata associated with a subset of the content of the play queue and transmit the metadata to the client application, thereby allowing retrieval and playback of the content on the user device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a first application executing on a first user device, by a remote play queue management system comprising one or more servers remote from the first user device, a request to add a plurality of tracks to a remote play queue, wherein the plurality of tracks comprises a first track that corresponds to a first content source provider and a second track that corresponds to a second content source provider;

adding the plurality of tracks to a remote content presentation queue;

receiving, by the remote play queue management system, from the first content source provider, first metadata corresponding to the first track;

receiving, by the remote play queue management system, from the second content source provider, second metadata corresponding to the second track;

receiving, by the remote play queue management system, initial partial content of the first track from the first content source provider or a content delivery network;

receiving, by the remote play queue management system, initial partial content of the second track from the second content source provider or the content delivery network;

storing the first and second metadata in association with the remote play queue;

storing, by the remote play queue management system, the initial partial content of the first and second tracks;

transmitting, by the remote play queue management system, to a second application executing on a second user device, a message comprising the first and second metadata; and

transmitting, by the remote play queue management system, the initial partial content of the first and second tracks to the second application executing on the second user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first metadata comprises a first plurality of resource identifiers associated with the first track and the second metadata comprises a second plurality of resource identifiers associated with the second track, wherein each resource identifier identifies a respective network resource storing content of the first track, content of the second track, other metadata associated with the first track, or other metadata associated with the second track.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first plurality of resource identifiers comprises a first resource identifier associated with a first streaming quality of the content of the first track and a second resource identifier associated with a second streaming quality of the content of the first track.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to add the plurality of tracks to the remote play queue further comprises information specifying a respective position of each of the plurality of tracks in the remote play queue.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the remote play queue management system, an initial portion of track content for the first track from a network resource storing the track content using, at least in part, a resource identifier included in the first metadata that identifies the network resource.

6. A system, comprising:

at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to;

receive, from an application executing on a user device, a request to add a plurality of tracks to a remote content presentation queue, wherein the plurality of tracks comprises a first track that corresponds to a first content source provider and a second track that corresponds to a second content source provider;

add the plurality of tracks to the remote content presentation queue;

receive first metadata corresponding to the first track from the first content source provider;

receive second metadata corresponding to the second track from the second content source provider;

receive, initial partial content of the first track from the first content source provider or a content delivery network;

receive, initial partial content of the second track from the second content source provider or the content delivery network;

store the first and second metadata in association with the remote content presentation queue;

store the initial partial content of the first track and the initial partial content of the second track;

transmit a message to the application comprising the first and second metadata; and

transmit the initial partial content of the first track and the initial partial content of the second track to the user device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to identify a respective position of each of the plurality of tracks in the remote content presentation queue based at least in part on information included in the request to add the plurality of tracks to the remote content presentation queue.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

identify the first track and the second track based at least in part on the respective positions of each of the first track and the second track in the remote content presentation queue and a position of a track currently being presented by the application.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein a total number of tracks associated with the remote content presentation queue is greater than a number of tracks for which metadata has been received.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

identify the first and second content source providers based at least in part on first and second content source provider identifiers, respectively, wherein the first and second content source provider identifiers are specified in the request to add the plurality of tracks to the remote content presentation queue.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

determine that a threshold condition is satisfied in connection with presentation of a first subset of the plurality of tracks by the content presentation application, wherein the first subset comprises the first track and the second track;

identify a second subset of the plurality of tracks;

receive, from one or more content source providers, respective metadata associated with each track in the second subset;

store the respective metadata; and

transmit a message to the application comprising the respective metadata.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the threshold condition comprises one of:

i) a number of one or more tracks of the first subset that have not been presented by the application is at or below a first threshold value, or

ii) an amount of content associated with the first subset that remains to be presented by the application is at or below a second threshold value.

13. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive the first metadata by executing the computer-executable instructions to transmit a metadata request to the first content source provider that comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the user device.

14. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive state information from the application;

determine that the state information comprises an indication that an instruction to shuffle the remote content presentation queue has been received;

identify a random selection of tracks associated with the remote content presentation queue;

obtain, from one or more content source providers, respective metadata associated with one or more tracks in the random selection of tracks;

store the respective metadata; and

transmit a message to the application comprising the respective metadata.

15. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive state information from the application;

determine that the state information comprises an indication that a user of the user device is browsing a particular range of queue positions of the remote content presentation queue;

identify a set of tracks corresponding to the range of queue positions;

receive, from one or more content source providers, respective metadata associated with one or more tracks of the set of tracks corresponding to the range of queue positions;

store the respective metadata; and

transmit a message to the application comprising the respective metadata.

16. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive state information from the application;

determine that the state information indicates one or more state transitions associated with the remote content presentation queue; and

responsive to the determination that the state information indicates the one or more state transitions, determine whether a threshold condition is satisfied for requesting respective metadata associated with one or more additional tracks associated with the remote content presentation queue.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more state transitions comprise one of selection of a loop mode, selection of a repeat mode, selection of a next track in the remote content presentation queue, or selection of a previous track in the remote content presentation queue.

18. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, from the application executing on a user device, a request to add an additional track to a remote content presentation queue, wherein the plurality of tracks is associated with a first user and the additional track is associated with a second user.

19. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, from a second application executing on a second user device, a request to add a second plurality of tracks to the remote content presentation queue; and

add the second plurality of tracks to the remote content presentation queue.

20. The system of claim 6, wherein the message comprising the first and second metadata is transmitted to a second user device.

21. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, responsive to execution by one or more computer processors, causes operations to be performed comprising:

transmitting, to a remote system, a request to add a plurality of tracks to a remote play queue, wherein the plurality of tracks comprises a first track and a second track;

receiving, from the remote system, first metadata associated with the first track, wherein the first metadata comprises a first track identifier;

receiving, from the remote system, second metadata associated with the second track, wherein the second metadata comprises a second track identifier;

receiving, from the remote system, initial partial content of the first track;

receiving, after the receipt of the initial partial content of the first track, a request to present the first track by a user interface component;

transmitting, to the remote system, a request for a remainder of the first track;

sending, to the user interface component, the initial partial content of the first track for presentation;

receiving the remainder of the first track from a first content resource; and

playing at least a portion of the remainder of the first track after playing the initial partial content of the first track.

22. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein at least one of the first metadata or the second metadata is received based at least in part on a current play state of the remote play queue.

23. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, the operations further comprising:

receiving user input indicative of an instruction to shuffle the remote play queue;

transmitting, to the remote system, state information indicative of the instruction to shuffle the remote play queue;

receiving, from the remote system, metadata associated with a set of randomly selected tracks associated with the remote play queue and an indication of an order in which to play the set of randomly selected tracks; and

playing the set of randomly selected tracks in accordance with the order.

24. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the request to add the plurality of tracks is received from a first user device and the first and second content are played on a second user device.

25. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, from the remote system, initial partial content of the second track;

receiving, after the receipt of the initial partial content of the second track, a request to present the second track by a user interface component;

transmitting, to the remote system, a request for a remainder of the second track;

sending, to the user interface component, the initial partial content of the second track for presentation;

receiving the remainder of the second track; and

playing at least a portion of the remainder of the second track after playing the initial partial content of the second track.