Systems, methods, and computer readable medium for generating playlists

• US 9,626,436 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spotify AB (Spotify Technology SA)
• Original Assignee: Spotify AB (Spotify Technology SA)
• Inventors: Rodger, David, Stowell, Daniel, Linton, Paul E., Sweeney, Kevin, Lamere, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Jami, Hares
• Application Number:
  US14/213,906
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280181A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,131 Days
• Field of Search: 707737, 707740, 707803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for generating a playlist. An application programming interface (API) receives a request to generate a playlist, where the request includes a set of rule-primitives. A playlist engine evaluator evaluates a rule corresponding to each rule-primitive in the set of rule-primitives across a catalog of media content, calculates a cost associated with each item in the catalog of media content, and generates a playlist based on the items of the catalog having the lowest costs.

Claims

1. An apparatus for generating a playlist, comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory and a catalog database, and configured to function as;

an application programming interface (API) configured to communicate with a requestor interface and receive a request from the requestor interface to generate a playlist, the request including a set of rule-primitives; and

a playlist engine evaluator configured to;

evaluate a rule corresponding to each rule-primitive in the set of rule-primitives across a catalog of media content stored in the catalog database, and evaluate a set of corresponding weights respectively associated with one or more rule-primitives;

calculate a rule cost associated with each item in the catalog of media content and the weight associated with the corresponding rule-primitive; and

generate a playlist based on the items of the catalog having the lowest rule costs, wherein the API communicates a response including the playlist to the requestor interface.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the playlist engine evaluator is further configured to compute, for each item of the catalog, a plurality of rule costs associated with a corresponding plurality of rules, and accumulate the plurality of costs for each item.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the playlist engine evaluator is further configured to calculate the rule cost of each item in the catalog based on a playlist history.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the playlist engine evaluator processes the rules across each item in the catalog iteratively using a heuristic search algorithm.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the heuristic search algorithm is a beam search algorithm.

6. A method for generating a playlist, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a requestor interface to generate a playlist, the request including a set of rule-primitives;

evaluating a rule corresponding to each rule-primitive in the set of rule-primitives across a catalog of media content stored in a content database, and evaluating a set of corresponding weights respectively associated with one or more rule-primitives;

calculating a rule cost associated with each item in the catalog of media content and the weight associated with the corresponding rule-primitive;

generating a playlist based on the items of the catalog having the lowest rule costs; and

communicating a response including the playlist to the requester interface.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

computing for each item of the catalog a plurality of rule costs associated with a corresponding plurality of rules; and

accumulating the plurality of rule costs for each item.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein a playlist history is an input to the calculating and the rule cost associated with each item is adjusted based on previously played items.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein, the rules are performed across each item in the catalog iteratively using a heuristic search algorithm.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the heuristic search algorithm is a beam search algorithm.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions for causing one or more processors to perform:

receiving from a requestor interface a request to generate a playlist, the request including a set of rule-primitives;

evaluating a rule corresponding to each rule-primitive in the set of rule-primitives across a catalog of media content stored in a content database, and evaluating a set of corresponding weights respectively associated with one or more rule-primitives;

calculating a rule cost associated with each item in the catalog of media content and the weight associated with the corresponding rule-primitive;

generating a playlist based on the items of the catalog having the lowest rule costs; and

communicating a response including the playlist to the requestor interface.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, further having stored thereon a sequence of instructions for causing the one or more processors to perform:

computing for each item of the catalog a plurality of rule costs associated with a corresponding plurality of rules; and

accumulating the plurality of rule costs for each item.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein a playlist history is an input to the calculating and the rule cost associated with each item is adjusted based on previously played items.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein, the rules are performed across each item in the catalog iteratively using a heuristic search algorithm.

15. The computer-readable medium according to claim 14, wherein the heuristic search algorithm is a beam search algorithm.