Digital content subscription conditioning system

• US 9,449,299 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2008
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Huffman, Lon Joseph, Ko, Dinghwa Connie, Tsai, Ta Chih Minh
• Primary Examiner(s): Masud, Rokib
• Application Number:
  US12/121,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20080215467A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,049 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/30, 705/32, 705/51, 705/26, 705/1, 705/14.14, 705/34, 705/40, 713/164, 713/168, 713/194, 726/1, 726/2, 726/3, 726/4, 726/12, 726/26, 726/27
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0104 Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing

Abstract

Allocating subscription revenue may involve receiving usage information relating to usage of digital content (e.g., music, movies, text, images, games) in a digital content aggregation, identifying a coefficient relating to a subset of digital works in the digital content aggregation (e.g., author-specific subjective or objective factors, popularity ranking, historical factors, performance factors, etc.), and generating a revenue allocation for the digital content based on the coefficient and the usage information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining a subscription revenue associated with an aggregation of content assets;

determining an earned revenue portion of the subscription revenue;

receiving coefficient driver values using a user interface, wherein one or more of the coefficient driver values correspond to a number of top ten songs for a creator of one or more of the content assets of the aggregation, a number of platinum records for the creator, a number of years the creator has been with a recording company, or a number of records produced by the creator;

dynamically generating, by one or more processors, a conditioning coefficient for the one or more content assets of the aggregation using the received coefficient driver values, wherein the conditioning coefficient is a value that is factored into a royalty payment made to the creator of the one or more content assets;

calculating a distributed revenue portion of the earned revenue portion using the dynamically generated conditioning coefficient; and

affecting a royalty payment made to the creator of the one or more of the content assets of the aggregation based on the distributed revenue portion.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the subscription revenue comprises a total subscription licensing fee for the aggregation less overhead and profits.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the earned revenue portion of the subscription revenue comprises:

calculating, when participation revenue is specified;

a participation portion of the subscription revenue, and

the earned revenue based on subtracting the participation portion from the subscription revenue, and

establishing, when participation revenue is not specified, the subscription revenue as the earned revenue.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein dynamically generating the conditioning coefficient further comprises:

calculating a combined conditioning coefficient for the one or more content assets of the aggregation from multiple conditioning coefficients assigned to the one or more content assets.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the combined conditioning coefficient is calculated based on averaging the multiple conditioning coefficients, or based on applying a weighted average to the multiple conditioning coefficients.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein calculating the distributed revenue portion further comprises determining whether usage allocations are enabled for allocation of the subscription revenue.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein, when usage allocations are enabled, calculating the distributed revenue portion further comprises:

obtaining usage data for each content asset of the aggregation.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the usage data further comprises a number of downloads or a number of streams in a time period.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein, when usage allocations are enabled, calculating the distributed revenue portion further comprises:

calculating a percentage of total usage for each content asset of the aggregation, based on the usage data.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein, when usage allocations are enabled, calculating the distributed revenue portion further comprises:

calculating percentage data based on applying the conditioning coefficient to the calculated percentage of total usage; and

normalizing the percentage data.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein, when usage allocations are enabled, the distributed revenue portion is calculated using the normalized percentage data.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising combining:

an earned revenue portion calculated for each content asset, and

a participation portion of the subscription revenue to be split evenly among all content assets in the content aggregation.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving the coefficient driver values further comprises receiving a user input enabling a subset of the coefficient drivers using user interface controls associated with each of the coefficient drivers; and

the conditioning coefficient is dynamically set based on the enabled subset of the coefficient drivers only.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically reevaluating the conditioning coefficient;

determining, responsive to periodically reevaluating the conditioning coefficient, that the conditioning coefficient has fluctuated; and

outputting a report when determining that the conditioning coefficient has fluctuated.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a coefficient driver value to a coefficient driver, wherein the coefficient driver is specific to a source of digital content.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the coefficient driver further provides information concerning a market value of digital content associated with the digital content source.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the coefficient driver value is assigned within a predefined range.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein:

the coefficient driver and the coefficient driver value are imported from contract provisions in electronically stored contracts; and

the coefficient driver value is updated by way of a computer network from remotely stored data sources.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the coefficient driver values further corresponds to a popularity ranking for the creator.

20. A system comprising:

one or more computers; and

a computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

determining a subscription revenue associated with an aggregation of content assets,

determining an earned revenue portion of the subscription revenue,

receiving coefficient driver values using a user interface, wherein one or more of the coefficient driver values correspond to a number of top ten songs for a creator of one or more of the content assets of the aggregation, a number of platinum records for the creator, a number of years the creator has been with a recording company, or a number of records produced by the creator,

dynamically generating a conditioning coefficient for the one or more content assets of the aggregation using the received coefficient driver values, wherein the conditioning coefficient is a value that is factored into a royalty payment made to the creator of the one or more content assets,

calculating a distributed revenue portion of the earned revenue portion using the dynamically generated conditioning coefficient, and

affecting a royalty payment made to the creator of the one or more of the content assets of the aggregation based on the distributed revenue portion.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the one or more of the coefficient driver values further corresponds to a popularity ranking for the creator.

22. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

determining a subscription revenue associated with an aggregation of content assets;

determining an earned revenue portion of the subscription revenue;

receiving coefficient driver values using a user interface, wherein one or more of the coefficient driver values correspond to a number of top ten songs for a creator of one or more of the content assets of the aggregation, a number of platinum records for the creator, a number of years the creator has been with a recording company, or a number of records produced by the creator;

dynamically generating a conditioning coefficient for the one or more content assets of the aggregation using the received coefficient driver values, wherein the conditioning coefficient is a value that is factored into a royalty payment made to the creator of the one or more content assets;

calculating a distributed revenue portion of the earned revenue portion using the dynamically generated conditioning coefficient; and

affecting a royalty payment made to the creator of the one or more of the content assets of the aggregation based on the distributed revenue portion.

23. The computer storage medium of claim 22, wherein the one or more of the coefficient driver values further corresponds to a popularity ranking for the creator.