Techniques for acquiring a set of digital media assets

• US 20090144153A1
• Filed: 01/30/2009
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Kondrk, Roberth H., Shimizu, Dobbie, Verosub, Ellis, Gautier, Patrice, Gromek, Monika, Anderson, Alexandrea, Wormington, Catherine, Mirrashidi, Payam, d'Errico, Elizabeth
• Application Number:
  US12/322,339
• Publication Number:
  US 20090144153A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.730
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Techniques to facilitate acquiring a media set, or a related series, of digital media assets from an on-line media store are disclosed. A user can view various media sets that have been listed as available for purchase from the on-line media store. A user can choose to purchase a particular media set even though some or all digital media assets to be included in the particular media set are not yet available. Subsequent to the purchase of the particular media set, the digital media assets of the particular media set can be delivered to the user once the digital media assets become available. Since the monitoring is computerized and the delivery is electronic, once digital media assets becomes available, delivery can be automatically processed.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring a set of digital media assets from an on-line media store, said method comprising:

presenting a plurality of sets of related digital media assets that are available for purchase on the on-line media store, for each of the set of related digital media assets available for purchase, at least a portion of the digital media assets to be included therein are unavailable from the on-line media store;

receiving a selection of one of the sets of related digital media assets to be purchased;

initiating purchase of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets; and

permitting delivery of available ones of the digital media assets of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets includes a plurality of different types of digital media assets.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets pertains to a particular artist.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets includes at least one song and at least one video pertaining to the particular artist.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets pertains to a set of artists.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets pertains to a particular group, ranking, event or series.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at the time the purchase is initiated, at least a portion of the digital media assets of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets are unknown.

8. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein the digital media assets of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets are of a plurality of different media types, and

wherein, at the time the purchase is initiated, at least a portion of the digital media assets of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets are not only unknown in terms of media content but also media type.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at the time the purchase is initiated, only a portion of the digital media assets within the selected one of the set of related digital media assets are in existence.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein when the set of related digital media assets are available on the on-line media store, the number of digital media assets to be included in the set of related digital media assets is known or estimated.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets is to include a plurality of digital media assets that are subsequently made available to the on-line media store within a predetermined time period.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the predetermined time period is six (6) months.

13. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein the delivery is to a client device, and

wherein as one or more other of the digital media assets within the selected one of sets of related series of digital media assets become available, the one or more other of the digital media assets are made available to or provided to the client device.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the delivery involves downloading to the client device.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

subsequently receiving a request to cancel the purchase of a remaining portion of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets.

16. A method as recited in claim 15,

wherein the purchase of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets is at a total set cost, and

wherein at the time of cancellation, a partial refund is applied to a user account which is a pro-rata amount of the total set cost.

17. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein the purchase of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets is at a total set cost, and

wherein the total set cost is determined dependent on the total number of digital media assets expected in the set of related digital media assets.

18. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein the purchase of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets is at a total set cost, and

wherein the total set cost is less than the sum of the individual costs of all the digital media assets, including available and expected, within the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the digital media assets of the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets is a bonus item that that is not otherwise available for purchase on the on-line media store.

20. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

determining whether one or more other of the digital media assets within the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets have subsequently been made available; and

sending an electronic notification to the client device or its user that the one or more other of the digital media assets within the selected one of the sets of related digital media assets have subsequently been made available.

21. A method for acquiring digital media assets from an online repository, said method comprising:

facilitating browsing of sets of digital media assets available for browsing and purchasing from an online repository, wherein the sets are defined by set characteristics, and wherein the sets of digital media assets are available even though at least one of the digital media assets for each of the sets of digital media assets does not yet exist;

processing purchase of a selected set of digital media assets;

delivering those of the digital media assets of the selected set of digital media assets that are available;

subsequently determining whether one or more newly available digital media assets exist for the selected set of digital media assets;

delivering the one or more newly available digital media assets for the selected set of digital media assets that are determined to exist;

determining whether the set of digital media assets is completed; and

denoting the set of digital media assets as completed if said determining determines that the set of digital media assets is completed.

22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the purchase is requested by a purchaser via an electronic device associated with the purchaser, and wherein said delivering is to the electronic associated with the purchaser.

23. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein said method comprises:

notifying the purchaser that the one or more newly available digital media assets exist for the selected set of digital media assets.

24. A computer readable medium including at least executable computer program code stored therein for acquiring a set of digital media assets from an on-line media store, said computer readable medium comprising:

computer program code for presenting a plurality of media sets that are available for purchase on the on-line media store;

computer program code for receiving a selection of one of the media sets to be purchased;

computer program code for initiating purchase of the selected media set; and

computer program code for permitting delivery of available ones of the digital media assets of the selected media set.

25. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 24, wherein each of the media sets is to include a plurality of digital media assets, with a plurality of the media sets including digital media assets of a plurality of different media types.

26. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 25,

wherein at least one of the digital media assets to be included in the selected media set is still unavailable when the purchase of the selected media set is initiated, and

wherein said computer readable medium further comprises:

computer program code for subsequently permitting delivery of the at least one digital media asset that was unavailable when the purchase of the selected media set was initiated once the at least one digital media asset becomes available.

27. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 24, wherein each of the media sets is to include a plurality of digital media assets,

wherein said computer program code for presenting comprises:

computer program code for presenting, for at least one of the selected media sets, a media set description as well as a list of digital media assets that are available and included within the selected media set, wherein the list of digital media assets is incomplete since at least one of the digital media assets to be included in the selected media set is not yet available.

28. A media server, comprising:

at least one data storage device, said data storage device storing (i) media set information for a plurality of sets of digital media assets, with the media set information for each of the sets of digital media assets characterizing a plurality of digital media assets that are included within such set, and (ii) at least a subset of the plurality of digital media assets or pointers thereto; and

a data processing unit operatively connected to said at least one storage device, said data processing unit performing a purchase process to enable users to select one or more of the sets of digital media assets for purchase, said processing unit further performing a fulfillment process to deliver, to the user that has purchased such, a first portion of the plurality of digital media assets that are currently available for the purchased set of digital media assets and one or more remaining portions of the digital media assets as they become available.

29. A media system as recited in claim 28, wherein said media server further comprises:

an import engine for receiving media content and/or the characterizations for the sets of digital media assets from media content providers.