Mastering music played among a plurality of users

• US 8,943,210 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Clark, Bryan, Pennington, Havoc
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, BRYAN Y
• Application Number:
  US11/565,124
• Publication Number:
  US 20080133763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,980 Days
• Field of Search: 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention allow a user to master the music played among a social network. Users of the social network subscribe to the master'"'"'s session and synchronize their media player under control of the master. The master then distributes various selections of music and controls their playback. The master may also add other data, such as voice over or images, to accompany the playback.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving data indicative of content to be played in a session;

identifying, by a processor, a plurality of sources of the content, wherein at least one of the sources of the content to be played is in view of an account possessed by a user of the device participating in the session;

determining, by the processor, a subset of the plurality of sources of the content to be played for a device participating in the session, wherein the subset is determined in view of a right of the device to access the content;

determining a location from which the device participating in the session is authorized to obtain the content to be played;

transmitting, to the device participating in the session, identifiers corresponding to each source of the subset of the plurality of sources and control information for playing the content;

receiving a command from a master user; and

controlling, in view of the command, streaming of the content and accompanying audio from the master user to the device participating in the session.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the device participating in the session by identifying a user of the device who is a member of a social network of a master user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the device participating in the session by identifying a user of the device

who has participated in a previous session provided by a master user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting an invitation to a user of the device who is part of a social network service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the right of the device to access the content is based on a policy enforcement of the content.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a processor to;

receive data indicative of content to be played in a session;

identify a plurality of sources of the content, wherein at least one of the sources of the content to be played is in view of an account possessed by a user of the device participating in the session;

determine a subset of the plurality of sources of the content to be played for a device participating in the session, wherein the subset is determined in view of a right of the device to access the content;

determine a location from which the device participating in the session is authorized to obtain the content to be played;

transmit, to the device participating in the session, identifiers corresponding to each source of the subset of the plurality of sources and control information for playing the content;

receive a command from a master user; and

control, in view of the command, streaming of the content and accompanying audio from the master user to the device participating in the session.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processor is further to:

identify the device participating in the session by identifying a user of the device who is a member of a social network of a master user.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the right of the device to access the content is based on a policy enforcement of the content.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including data that, when accessed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the operations comprising:

receiving data indicative of content to be played in a session;

identifying, by the processor, a plurality of sources of the content, wherein at least one of the sources of the content to be played is in view of an account possessed by a user of the device participating in the session;

determining a subset of the plurality of sources of the content to be played for a device participating in the session, wherein the subset is determined in view of a right of the device to access the content;

determining a location from which the device participating in the session is authorized to obtain the content to be played;

transmitting, to the device participating in the session, identifiers corresponding to each source of the subset of the plurality of sources and control information for playing the content;

receiving a command from a master user; and

controlling, in view of the command, streaming of the content and accompanying audio from the master user to the device participating in the session.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 further including data that, when accessed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations comprising:

determining a location from which the device participating in the session is authorized to obtain the content to be played.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the right of the device to access the content is based on a policy enforcement of the content.