Method and system for populating a content repository for an internet radio service based on a recommendation network

Abstract

A computer-implemented method, system and computer readable medium storing software are provided for operating a media service based on a media recommendation network comprising a plurality of devices. Aspects of the method and system include receiving a recommendation of a media item from one of the plurality of devices for a media item that is intended for a recipient; determining if the media item is present in the content repository; requesting, in response to determining that the media item is not present in the content repository, upload of the media item; and storing, in response to the media item being uploaded, the media item in the content repository.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Internet radio is a broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Many internet radio stations are completely independent from traditional (“terrestrial”) radio stations, and broadcast only on the Internet, which is usually referred to as streaming.

Examples of conventional Internet radio services include Pandora and YAHOO Launchcast Radio. Pandora is an Internet radio service that takes a seed song entered by a user and creates a customized radio station. The user can influence, but not control, the station by rating the songs that are suggested. The service operates under the compulsory license for Internet radio.

Yahoo! LAUNCHcast Radio is a streaming music service that allows users to create their own customized radio station tailored to their tastes. Users can rate artists and albums highly to hear them often and ban the ones they dislike. Users can also listen to a collection of more than 130 pre-programmed radio stations created by YAHOO! editorial staff. YAHOO! also offers a Music LAUNCHcast plugin for Yahoo! Instant Messenger (text messaging service). This plugin lets a user's buddies see what the user is currently listening to via LAUNCHcast Radio. The plugin also allows the user's friends to tune into the radio station so that they can listen to the music as well.

Thus, conventional Internet radio services may provide approaches for creating customized radio stations for a particular user that is based on input from that user (e.g., Pandora), or that influenced by a friend of the user (e.g., Yahoo!), but conventional Internet radio services fail to consider peer group influences. For example, the music that a particular teenager listens to may be highly influenced by the music listened to by a group of the teenager's peers, such as his or her friends.

In addition, the costs of starting and operating an Internet radio service can be significant. One significant cost is the cost to build and maintain the content repository of songs the Internet radio service intends to play. Typically, the content repository is populated by buying or otherwise licensing the rights to all the songs the station intends to offer, which could number in the millions. One problem with this is that many of the songs in the content repository may never be played, with much of the costs directed to incorporating new songs and/or one-of-a-kind songs that may turn out to have very limited audiences.

Another component of the costs to maintain the Internet radio service includes the royalties payable to performers of recorded works broadcast on the internet, which continue to increase. The rates currently include a minimum fee of $500 (U.S.) per year, per channel, with escalating fees for each song played. Since the inception of rates in 1998, webcasters have been charged on a per performance basis. For 2006 the applicable fee would be $0.0008 per performance. A performance is defined as streaming one song to one listener. A webcaster with 10,000 listeners would therefore pay 10,000 times the going rate for every streamed song. The fee increases in increments each year, which amounts to $0.0019 per song by 2010. If enforced, this decision could undermine the business models of many Internet radio stations, which had previously relied on the rate of $0.000768 per song that had been unchanged from 1998-2005.

Accordingly, a need exists for an improved method and system for populating the content repository of a media service, such as an Internet radio service, and for playback of the content.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The exemplary embodiment provides a computer-implemented method and system for populating the content repository of a media service based on real-time media recommendation network comprising a plurality of peer devices. Aspects of the exemplary embodiment include receiving by a server a recommendation from one of the plurality of peer devices for a media item that is intended for a recipient; determining if the media item is present in the content repository; in response to determining that the media item is not present in the content repository, requesting that the peer device upload the media item; and in response to the media item being uploaded, storing the media item in the content repository.

According to the method and systems disclosed herein, the Internet radio service obtains media items and populates the content repository from the users of peer devices, thereby only requiring the media service to pay for costs associated with purchasing rights to the media items the members of the media service wish to hear. In addition, when a media item is requested to be played, the Internet radio service determines if the media item is stored on the peer device and if so, has the media item played locally on the peer device, eliminating the need to stream the media item and to pay the associated royalties for the media item that the recipient has already legally obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for populating a content repository of a media service based on a real-time media recommendation network according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the peer devices of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is flow diagram illustrating a process for populating the content repository of the Internet radio service based on the real-time media recommendation network according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the system for populating the content repository with media items based on recommendations received in the P2P network in further detail.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a process for determining media item playback within a peer device with respect to compulsory license restrictions for Internet radio in accordance with a further aspect of the exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example recommendation queue having an order of playback based on recommendations, user preferences and a license enforcement algorithm.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and systems for populating the content repository of a media service based on a real-time media recommendation network. The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of a patent application and its requirements. Various modifications to the embodiments and the generic principles and features described herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.

The present invention is mainly described in terms of particular systems provided in particular implementations. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that this method and system will operate effectively in other implementations. For example, the systems, devices, and networks usable with the present invention can take a number of different forms. The present invention will also be described in the context of particular methods having certain blocks. However, the method and system operate effectively for other methods having different and/or additional blocks not inconsistent with the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 10 for populating a content repository of a media service based on a real-time media recommendation network according to one embodiment. In general, the system 10 includes a number of peer devices 12a, 12b, and 12n (collectively referred to as peer devices 12) that are capable of presenting or playing media items 44 and communicating with a media service, such as, but not limited to, Internet radio service 30, via a network 22, such as, but not limited to, the Internet. Note that while the exemplary embodiments may discuss media items 44 in terms of being songs, e.g., mp3s, for clarity and ease of discussion, the term media items 44 is equally applicable to other types of media, such as digital images, slideshows, and video presentations, for example. Exemplary video presentations are movies, television programs, music videos, and the like.

In this embodiment, the peer devices 12 form a peer-to-peer (P2P) network via the network 22. In one embodiment, the peer devices 12 may form a P2P network through direct communication with one another, while in another embodiment, the peer devices 12 may form a P2P network via the Internet radio service 30. The peer devices 12 may be any device having a connection to the network 22 and audio playback capabilities. For example, the peer devices 12 may be personal computers, laptop computers, mobile telephones, portable audio players, PDAs, or the like having either a wired or wireless connection to the network 22.

Each of the peer devices 12 may include a media player 14, a recommendation engine 16, a media collection 18 and a license enforcement algorithm 20. In general, the media player 14 operates to play media items, e.g., songs, from the media collection 18. The media collection 18 includes any number of media items stored in one or more digital storage units such as, for example, one or more hard-drives, FLASH memories, memory cards, internal Random-Access Memory (RAM), external digital storage devices, or the like. The recommendation engine 16 provides recommendations identifying media items to the other peer devices 12. The media player 14 and the recommendation engine 16 may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of hardware and software. The recommendation engine 16 may alternatively be incorporated into the media player 14.

In operation, each time a song is played by the media player 14, the recommendation engine 16 operates to provide a recommendation identifying the media item to the other peer devices 12b, 12n via the P2P network. The recommendation does not include the media item. In one embodiment, the recommendation may be a recommendation file including information identifying the media item. In addition, as discussed below in detail, the recommendation engine 16 operates to programmatically, or automatically, select a next media item to be played by the media player 14 based on the recommendations received from the other peer devices 12b, 12n identifying media items recently played by the other peer devices 12b, 12n and user preferences associated with the user of the peer device 12a.

In accordance with a further embodiment of the exemplary embodiment, the license enforcement algorithm 20 allows the media player 14 to play the highest recommended media items, while maintaining compliance with compulsory licenses for Internet radio, as explained further below.

The Internet radio service 30 may include one or more central servers 32 (collectively referred to as central server 32) connected to the network 22. The central server 32 may host a user accounts module 34, a content repository 36, a content services module 38, and a content accounting module 40. The user accounts module 34 may maintain information regarding members of the Internet radio service 30 in the form of user data 42. The members of the Internet radio service 30 preferably correspond to the users of the peer devices 12.

According to the exemplary embodiment, the content repository 36 is populated one media item 44 at a time (e.g., one song or track) as each user recommends media items 44 that are new to the Internet radio service 30. The content repository 36 may maintain information identifying each newly added media item 44. Rather than populating the content repository 36 with a large amount of media items for which rights have been purchased but that may never be requested or played, which can be expensive for a large library of media items 44, the exemplary embodiment populates the content repository 36 only with media items 44 uploaded from users of the peer devices 12 as the users make recommendations to one another through the Internet radio service 30. Since the Internet radio service 30 need only obtain rights for the recommended media items 44 that have been uploaded, the Internet radio service 30 may realize a significant cost savings in populating the content repository 36.

The content services module 38 is responsible for identifying new media items 44, and in the case of songs, streaming songs to end points, and generating previews from full length songs. The content accounting module 40 may be used to control licensing elements (e.g., royalty payments for broadcast music), including information about licensed media items 46 and labels with which the Internet radio service 30 has licensing arrangements and the licensing rules containing the parameters for controlling adherence to various licensing schemes. The licensed media items 46 represent a list of media items for which rights have been obtained and are therefore a subset of the uploaded media items 44. Also, the licensed media items 46 may be implemented as a table of GUIDs, rather than actual files.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the peer devices of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment. In this example, the media item 44 is described as being a song. First, the peer devices 12 cooperate to establish a P2P network (block 200). The P2P network may be initiated using, for example, an electronic or verbal invitation. Invitations may be desirable when the user wishes to establish the P2P network with a particular group of other users, such as his or her friends. Note that this may be beneficial when the user desires that the music he or she listens to be influenced only by the songs listened to by, for example, the user's friends. Invitations may also be desirable when the number of peer devices 12 within a local wireless coverage area of the peer device 12 is large. As another example, the peer device 12 may maintain a “buddy list” identifying friends of the user of the peer device 12, where the peer device 12 may automatically establish a P2P network with the peer devices 12 of the users identified by the “buddy list” when the peer devices are within a local wireless coverage area of the peer device 12.

Alternatively, the peer device 12a may establish an ad-hoc P2P network with the other peer devices 12b, 12n by detecting the other peer devices 12b, 12n within the local wireless coverage area of the peer device 12a and automatically establishing the P2P network with at least a subset of the detected peer devices 12b, 12n. In order to control the number of peer devices within the ad-hoc P2P network, the peer device 12a may compare user profiles of the users of the other peer devices 12b, 12n with a user profile of the user of the peer device 12a and determine whether to permit the other peer devices 12b, 12n to enter the P2P network based on the similarities of the user profiles.

At some point after the P2P network is established, the peer device 12 plays a song (block 202). Initially, before any recommendations have been received from the other peer devices 12b, 12n, the song may be a song from the media collection 18 selected by the user of the peer device 12a. Prior to, during, or after playback of the song, the recommendation engine 16 sends a recommendation identifying the song to the other peer devices 12b, 12n (block 204). In one embodiment, the recommendation is sent directly from the peer device 12a to one or more of the other peer devices 12b, 12n. In another embodiment, the recommendation is first sent from the peer device 12a to the central server 32, which then forwards the recommendation to the intended recipients of the other peer devices 12b, 12n. In one embodiment, the user of the peer device 12a may select which other members of the P2P network to send the recommendation to by selecting names or IDs from a friend or buddy list.

The recommendation may include, but is not limited to, an identifier of the recipient(s) and information identifying the song. Information identifying the song may include a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) for the song, a title of the song, or the like; a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) enabling other peer devices to obtain the song such as a URL enabling download or streaming of the song from the Internet radio service 30 or a URL enabling purchase and download of the song from an e-commerce service; a URL enabling download or streaming of a preview of the song from the Internet radio service 30 or a similar e-commerce service; metadata describing the song such as 103 tags including, for example, genre, the title of the song, the artist of the song, the album on which the song can be found, the date of release of the song or album, the lyrics, and the like.

The recommendation may also include a list of recommenders including information identifying each user having previously recommended the song and a timestamp for each recommendation. For example, if the song was originally played at the peer device 12b and then played at the peer device 12n in response to a recommendation from the peer device 12b, the list of recommenders may include information identifying the user of the peer device 12b or the peer device 12b and a timestamp identifying a time at which the song was played or recommended by the peer device 12b, and information identifying the user of the peer device 12n or the peer device 12n and a timestamp identifying a time at which the song was played or recommended by the peer device 12n. Likewise, if the peer device 12a then selects the song for playback, information identifying the user of the peer device 12a or the peer device 12a and a corresponding timestamp may be appended to the list of recommenders.

The peer device 12a, and more specifically the recommendation engine 16, also receives recommendations from the other peer devices 12b, 12n (block 206). The recommendations from the other peer devices 12b, 12n identify songs played by the other peer devices 12b, 12n. Optionally, the recommendation engine 16 may filter the recommendations from the other peer devices 12b, 12n based on, for example, user, genre, artist, title, album, lyrics, date of release, or the like (block 208).

The recommendation engine 16 then automatically selects a next song to play from the songs identified by the recommendations received from the other peer devices 12b, 12n, optionally songs identified by previously received recommendations, and one or more songs from the media collection 18 based on user preferences (block 210). In another embodiment, the recommendation engine 16 may consider all previously received recommendations, where the recommendations may expire after a predetermined or user defined period of time, or may consider only those songs identified by recommendations received since a previous song selection. This may be beneficial when the peer device 12 has limited processing and memory capabilities.

As discussed below, the user preferences used to select the next song to play may include a weight or priority assigned to each of a number of categories such as user, genre, decade of release, and location/availability. Generally, location identifies whether songs are stored locally in the media collection 18; available via the Internet radio service 30; available for download, and optionally purchase, from an e-commerce service or one of the other peer devices 12b, 12n; or are not currently available where the user may search for the songs if desired. The user preferences may be stored locally at the peer device 12 or obtained from a central server via the network 22. If the peer device 12 is a portable device, the user preferences may be configured on an associated user system, such as a personal computer, and transferred to the peer device 12 during a synchronization process. The user preferences may alternatively be automatically provided or suggested by the recommendation engine 16 based on a play history of the peer device 12. In the exemplary embodiment, the songs identified by the recommendations from the other peer devices 12b, 12n and the songs from the media collection 18 may be scored or ranked based on the user preferences. Then, based on the scores, the recommendation engine 16 selects the next song to play.

A process for scoring the recommended songs based on the user preferences is described in co-pending application Ser. No. 11/484,130 entitled “P2P Network for Providing Real Time Media Recommendations”, filed on Jul. 11, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Once the next song to play is selected, the peer device 12 obtains the selected song (block 212). If the selected song is part of the media collection 18, the peer device 12a obtains the selected song from the media collection 18. If the selected song is not part of the media collection 18, the selected song may be obtained from the Internet radio service 30 via streaming, or obtained from an e-commerce service or from one of the other peer devices 12b, 12n. For example, the recommendation for the song may include a URL providing a link to a source from which the song may be obtained, and the peer device 12 may obtain the selected song from the source identified in the recommendation for the song. Once obtained, the selected song is played and the process repeats (blocks 202-212).

FIG. 3 is flow diagram illustrating a process for populating the content repository of the Internet radio service based on a real-time media recommendation network according to one embodiment of the present invention. The process begins by the central server 32 receiving a recommendation from a peer device 12 for a media item 44 that is intended for a recipient (block 300). The central server 32 determines if the media item 44 is present in the content repository 36 (block 302).

In response to determining that the media item 44 is not present in the content repository 36, the central server 32 requests that the peer device 12 upload the media item 44 (block 304). In response to the media item 44 being uploaded, the media item 44 is stored in the content repository 36 (block 306). According to the method and systems disclosed herein, the Internet radio service 30 obtains media items 44 and populates the content repository 36 from the users of peer devices 12 thereby significantly reducing the upfront costs associated with purchasing rights to the media items 44.

In a further aspect of the exemplary embodiment, the Internet radio service 30 may then play the media item 44 locally on the recipient's peer device if the media item 44 is stored locally on the recipient's peer device 12b, which should further reduce any royalty payments owed by the Internet radio service 30.

As described above, the process for sending the recommendations between the peer devices 12 and the central server 32 may be implemented in different embodiments. In one embodiment of the P2P network, the peer device 12a may send recommendations to the central server 32 for forwarding to the other peer devices 12b, 12n, and the central server 32 may perform block 302 in response to receiving recommendations from the peer device 12a. In another embodiment of the P2P network, however, the peer devices 12 can send recommendations directly to one another, bypassing the central server 32. In this case, after a receiving peer device 12b receives one of the recommendations from a sending peer device 12a, and either before or after the receiving peer device 12b plays the media item 44, the receiving peer device 12b can forward the received recommendation to the central server 32. The central server 32 may then perform block 302 in response to receiving the forwarded recommendation.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the system 10 for populating the content repository with media items based on recommendations received in the P2P network in further detail. In this embodiment, the process begins with the peer devices 12a and 12b registering with a central server 32 (blocks 400 and 402). Registration may include the users of the peer devices 12a and 12b establishing accounts and becoming members of the Internet radio service 30 and uploading information identifying their respective peer devices 12a and 12b.

The user of peer device 12a may then send a recommendation for a media item 44 to a user of peer device 12b, i.e., the recipient, via the central server 32 (block 404). If the sending peer device 12a is able to determine the GUID of the media item 44 to identify the media item 44, the peer device 12a would send the GUID of the media item 44 in the recommendation, and the central server 32 could use the GUID to query the content repository 36 to search for the media item 44.

If the peer device 12 is unable to determine the GUID of the media item 44, then the peer device 12a could generate an acoustic fingerprint for the media item 44, and send the acoustic fingerprint in the recommendation. In this case, in response to receiving the recommendation, the central server 32 may request the content services module 38 to identify the media item 44 referred to in the recommendation by sending the acoustic fingerprint to a metadata service to retrieve metadata identifying the media item 44 (block 406). Examples of the metadata identifying the media item 44 may include the GUID. An example of a commercially available metadata service is GRACENOTE.

The central server 32 then determines if the media item 44 referred to in the recommendation is present in the content repository 36 (block 408) by querying the content repository 36 with metadata identifying the media item 44.

Using the metadata identifying the media item 44, the central server 32 may request the content accounting module 40 to perform license verification on the media item 44 (block 410). This is accomplished by submitting the metadata identifying the media item 44 (e.g., the GUID) to a licensing clearinghouse, such as SOUNDEXCHANGE, which uses the metadata to query a licensing or copyright database to determine if an entity has rights to play a queried media item 44. The licensing clearinghouse may return a value indicating whether the Internet radio service 30 has the requisite license to stream the media item 44 based on a compulsory license for Internet radio (described below). If the value is negative, then the Internet radio service 30 may discard the recommendation and notify the user of peer device 12a that sent the recommendation that the recommendation was rejected. Alternatively, the Internet radio service 30 may complete the transaction but take note of the license verification failure, and once the rights holders are correctly identified, pay the appropriate license at that time.

If the media item 44 is not present in the content repository 36 and/or if the media item 44 could not be identified in block 406, then the central server 32 may send a request to the peer device 12a to upload the media item 44 (block 412). The media item 44 is then uploaded from the peer device 12a to the content repository 36 (block 414). In one embodiment, the media item 44 may be first received by the central server 32 and then stored in the content repository 36. In another embodiment, the request sent to the peer device 12a may include a URL of the content repository 36 for direct upload and storage.

In one embodiment (not shown), if the media item 44 fails either the identification or the license verification, then the media item 44 may be moved into a separate holding area for manual intervention, and the user of peer device 12a that sent the recommendation can be notified of the recommendation failure. However, such an unfulfilled recommendation can be fulfilled at a later date if and when the identification and/or license verification issue is/are resolved.

In response to the media item 44 being uploaded, the central server 32 may forward the recommendation to the recipient's peer device 12b, including the metadata identifying the media item 44, such as the GUID (block 416). In one embodiment (not shown), the central server 32 may also send a query asking whether the media item 44 is stored locally on the peer device 12b.

If the media item 44 is stored locally on the peer device 12b, then the media item 44 is played locally on the peer device 12b (block 418). Playing the media item 44 locally on the peer device 12b has the advantage of saving the Internet radio service 30 money. Since the Internet radio service 30 is not streaming the media item 44, play of the media item 44 should not factor into any Compulsory License for Internet Radio royalty calculations, and the Internet radio service 30 should not owe any royalty payments to any licensing clearinghouse. Playing the media item 44 locally and not streaming the media item 44 has an additional advantage of saving bandwidth costs and potentially providing an improved user experience depending on the speed and type of Internet connection used.

If the media item 44 is not stored locally on the peer device 12b, then the Internet radio service 30 streams the media item 44 to the recipient's peer device 12b via the content services module 38 (block 420). Note, that if the media item 44 could not be identified in block 406, then block 420 could include streaming a preview (e.g., a short clip) of the media item 44 to the recipient's peer device 12b and letting the recipient confirm whether the entire media item 44 should be streamed.

Finally, the Internet radio service 30 records performance of the streaming for royalty payment purposes (block 422). That is, the compulsory Internet radio broadcast license is followed and royalty payments are made to corresponding copyright holders. Internet radio stations have to contend with two types of royalties when they broadcast music. They must pay a royalty to the composer of the music (“composer royalty”). They must also pay royalties to the performers of the music (“performer royalty”). An example of the difference would be the Internet streaming of the song “I'm a Believer” by Smash Mouth from the movie Shrek. Neil Diamond is the actual composer of the song, and so he is entitled to a composer royalty for the broadcast. But Smash Mouth is the performer, and so they are entitled to a performer royalty for the broadcast.

The performer royalty came about through two major laws, namely the Digital Performance in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The performer royalty (less administration fees) is split 50% for the record labels, 45% for the featured artists, and 5% for non-featured artists. The performer royalty is a result of the compulsory license for Internet radio, as discussed below.

Composer royalties are paid to the traditional performing rights organizations: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), and Society of European Stage Authors & Composers (SESAC).

The royalty schemes for each organization differ slightly, and they depend on whether or not the site is providing interactive services or non-interactive services (i.e. whether or not the user can control the music they are playing back). But they generally involve taking the largest fee of the following calculations: (1) a specified rate times the revenue generated by the website, either through user subscriptions or ad support, (2) a specified rate times the amount of internet radio streaming as measured by aggregate tuning hours (ATH), or (3) a minimum fee.

For example, an ATH of 2 represents either streaming for 2 hours to 1 user or streaming 1 hour for 2 users. As an example of the rate calculation, for ASCAP, the royalty for non-interactive services is based on the largest of either 0.0185 times the site revenue, 0.0006 times the ATH of the site, or a minimum fee of $288.

Performer royalties are paid to SOUNDEXCHANGE. Rates for this royalty are set by the Copyright Royalty Board. The current rates set for the years 2006-2010 are as follows. For commercial webcasters, there is a minimum annual fee of $500 per channel payable in advance against the royalties shown in Table 1 on a per play per listener rate:

	TABLE 1
	Year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
	Rate	0.08	0.11	0.14	0.18	0.19

For non-commercial webcasters, there is an annual fee of $500 per channel, up to a total of 159,140 aggregate tuning hours (“ATH”) per month. After this, the per-play rate for commercial webcasters applies.

In order to make it easier for Internet radio broadcasters to initiate their business without first obtaining explicit broadcasting rights from all artists and copyright holders, a Compulsory License for Internet Radio was established. If a webcaster adheres to strict regulations, then they are covered by the compulsory license and do not need to obtain explicit copyright permissions for their broadcasts.

The requirements for the compulsory license include the following: 1) The webcaster must register with the Copyright Office. 2) The webcaster must comply with performance restrictions. 3) The webcaster cannot provide an interactive service where the listener dictates the content of the stream. 3) The webcaster must identify the song title, album of origin, and featured artist at the time the song is played. 4) The webcaster cannot broadcast more than 3 selections from any one album in any 3 hour period and no more than 2 selections can be played consecutively. 4) The webcaster cannot broadcast more than 4 selections from the same featured artist from any album in any 3 hour period and no more than 3 selections can be played consecutively. 5) The webcaster cannot publish an advance program schedule which identifies when a specific song, album, or artist will be played. And 6) the webcaster must pay all applicable royalties to a clearinghouse, presently, SOUNDEXCHANGE.

In order for the Internet radio service 30 to be compliant with the Compulsory License for Internet Radio, then the user of the peer devices 12 will lose the ability to choose which song to play in their queue of recommended items, as this would be an interactive service. Thus, the users of the peer devices 12 will be restricted to only playing the highest scored media item 44 according to their preferences.

According to a further aspect of the exemplary embodiment, however, the license enforcement algorithm 20 (FIG. 1) will allow the users of the peer devices 12 to change their preferences and thus rearrange the queue, but before the highest scored media item 44 is played, the license enforcement algorithm 20 will check for compliance with compulsory license restrictions for Internet radio (within the peer device 12) in accordance with the process shown in FIG. 5, discussed below.

The restrictions set forth by the Compulsory License for Internet Radio currently apply to any given 3 hour window. As such, it is necessary for the peer device 12 to track specific information about songs from the same album that are streamed to the corresponding peer device 12. By tracking this information, the peer device 12 is able to enforce compliance with the compulsory license, but make sure that the user of the peer device 12 is eligible to stream the media items most desired as soon as it is eligible.

In one embodiment, the license enforcement algorithm 20 may utilize tables to track the song and album information streamed to the peer device 12. For example, the tables may include an Album Recently Played Table and an Artist Recently Played Table. The Album Recently Played Table, for example, may include the following fields:

1. Album Entered Time—the first time when a song from an album is streamed to the corresponding peer device.

2. Last Song Played Time—the time when the most recent song from the album has been streamed.

3. Consecutive Time—the time when the last consecutive song from the same album has been streamed.

4. Track Count—a count of songs from the same album that have been streamed.

5. Consecutive Count—a count of songs from the same album that have been streamed consecutively.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a process for determining media item playback within a peer device 12 with respect to compulsory license restrictions for Internet radio in accordance with a further aspect of the exemplary embodiment. In response to the process being initiated (block 502), the next most highly scored media item 44 is queued for playback (block 504). The license enforcement algorithm 20 determines if the media item 44 is in the media collection 18 (block 506). The license enforcement algorithm 20 then determines if the album that the media item 44 belongs to is in the recently played table (block 508). If yes, then the license enforcement algorithm 20 determines if the consecutive count for the artist less than or equal to two (block 510). If not, then the license enforcement algorithm 20 determines if the track count less than or equal to three (block 512).

If either the consecutive count for the artist is greater than two (blocks 510) or the track count is greater than three (block 512), then the compulsory license restriction is exceeded and the process proceeds to queuing the next most highly scored media item (block 504).

If the track count is less than or equal to three (block 512) or the album is not in the recently played table (block 508), then the license enforcement algorithm 20 determines if the artist is in the recently played table (block 514). If the artist is in the recently played table, then the license enforcement algorithm 20 determines if the consecutive count for the artist is less than or equal to three (block 516). If not, then the license enforcement algorithm 20 determines if the track count less than or equal to four (block 518).

If either the consecutive count for the artist is greater than two (blocks 516) or the track count is greater than four (block 518), then the compulsory license restriction is exceeded and the process proceeds to queuing the next most highly scored media item (block 504).

If the artist is not in the recently played table (block 514) or if the track count is greater than four (block 518), then the license enforcement algorithm 20 updates the Album Recently Played Table (block 520). The license enforcement algorithm 20 also updates the Artist Recently Played Table (block 522). After the Artist Recently Played Table has been updated (block 522) or if the media item 44 is determined to be already in the user's collection (block 506), then the media player 14 plays media item 44 on the peer device 12. Notice that in the case where the media item 44 is in the user's collection 44 and played locally, there is no need to track the album and artist information since nothing is being streamed from the Internet radio service 30.

As an example of the overall system 10, consider a user of the Internet radio service 30 who is just logged in for a new session and has the recommendation queue on his peer device 12 shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example recommendation queue having an order of playback based on recommendations, user preferences and the license enforcement algorithm 20.

The columns shown in white in the recommendation queue reflect what may be visible to the user in the graphical user interface (GUI) of the peer device 12. A shaded playback column is added to show how the order of the playback of the items in the queue would be affected by the compulsory license for Internet radio. As shown in the example, the most highly scored song in the user's queue is the song “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith from the “Toys in the Attic” album. Note that this is a “remote” selection for the user, meaning that the user does not contain a local copy of this song and will need to have it streamed from the content repository 36 under the compulsory license.

Since this is a new session for the user, the license enforcement algorithm 20 determines that there are no restrictions yet as to which songs can be played, so, the song is played. The album is added to a Album Recently Played Table on the peer device 12 that is used to ensure compliance with the regulations for the compulsory license for Internet radio, as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2
Album	Song	Consec-			Consec-
Entered	Played	utive		Track	utive
Time	Time	Time	Album	Count	Count
1:02:16 p.m.	1:02:16 p.m.	0:00:00	Toys in	1	1
			the Attic

The next most highly scored song in the user's queue is another song by Aerosmith (“Walk this Way”) from the same album. Again, no restrictions apply yet from the compulsory license and so the song is played. Note that the Album Recently Played Table is updated as shown in Table 3. Since the second song from the same album has been streamed consecutively, the Consecutive Time is entered and the Consecutive Count is incremented. The Last Song Played Time is updated as well, as the Track Count.

TABLE 3
Album	Song	Consec-			Consec-
Entered	Played	utive		Track	utive
Time	Time	Time	Album	Count	Count
1:02:16 p.m.	1:07:23 p.m.	1:07:23 p.m.	Toys in	2	2
			the Attic

As shown in FIG. 6, the next most highly scored song in the user's queue is another song by Aerosmith (“Round and Round”) from the same album. Since the compulsory license disallows more than 2 consecutive tracks from the same album in any given 3 hour window, the user is forced to play the next most highly scored song in their queue. Unfortunately, this too is an Aerosmith song from the same album (“No More No More”). Therefore, the license enforcement algorithm 20 skips the song “No More No More” and plays the next most highly scored song, which is “So What” by Miles Davis. Since this too is a remote track and must be streamed, this will break up the consecutive streaming of Aerosmith songs from the same album. After “So What” is streamed, the Album Recent Played Table is updated as shown in Table 4. Note that the table has been updated to show the addition of the “Kind of Blue” album.

TABLE 4
Album	Song	Consec-			Consec-
Entered	Played	utive		Track	utive
Time	Time	Time	Album	Count	Count
1:02:16 p.m.	1:07:23 p.m.	1:07:23 p.m.	Toys in	2	1
			the Attic
1:12:43 p.m.	1:12:43 p.m.	0:00:0	Kind of	1	1
			blue

Note also that since the user has streamed a track from a different album, the Consecutive Count for the “Toys in the Attic” album has been decremented. But the Consecutive Time for this album still contains a value. Together, these two pieces of information indicate that a pair of songs has been streamed consecutively from this album in the 3 hour window, but that they have not been streamed most recently, and so the user can continue to stream songs from this album until the track count restriction is encountered. Continuing with the example, the next most highly scored song in the user's queue is still the Aerosmith song (“Round and Round”). Since a song from a different album has been streamed, the user is able to stream this song. After playing this song, the Last Song Played Time is updated in the table (see Table 5) as well as the Track Count.

TABLE 5
Album	Song	Consec-			Consec-
Entered	Played	utive		Track	utive
Time	Time	Time	Album	Count	Count
1:02:16 p.m.	1:18:23 p.m.	1:07:23 p.m.	Toys in	3	1
			the Attic
1:12:43 p.m.	1:12:43 p.m.	0:00:0	Kind of	1	1
			blue

The next most highly scored song in the user's queue is the Aerosmith song (“No More No More”). However, since the user has now streamed 3 tracks from the same album in a given 3 hour period, the user will have to wait until the 3 hour window has expired before returning to this song in the queue. As the user approaches the end of the first 3 hours of their listening session, the times in the Album Recently Played Table are shuffled out so that the restrictions on songs from “Toys in the Attic” are gradually eliminated and the album is eventually removed from the Album Recently Played Table.

A method and system for populating a content repository of a media service based on a real-time media recommendation network has been disclosed. The present invention has been described in accordance with the embodiments shown, and one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there could be variations to the embodiments that would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, the present invention can be implemented using hardware, software, a computer readable medium containing program instructions, or a combination thereof. Software written according to the present invention is to be either stored in some form of computer-readable medium such as memory or CD-ROM, or is to be transmitted over a network, and is to be executed by a processor. Consequently, a computer-readable medium is intended to include a computer readable signal, which may be, for example, transmitted over a network. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for operating a media service based on a media recommendation network comprising a plurality of devices, the method comprising: receiving a recommendation of a media item from one of the plurality of devices for a media item that is intended for a recipient;using metadata identifying the media item to perform license verification on the media item to determine whether the media item can be at least one of played and streamed;determining if the media item is present in a content repository in response to receiving the recommendation of the media item;requesting, in response to determining that the media item is not present in the content repository, upload of the media item;storing, in response to the media item being uploaded, the media item in the content repository; andif the media item fails at least one of a media item identification and a license verification: moving the media item into a separate holding area for at least one of subsequent media item identification and license verification, andnotifying the device that sent the recommendation of the failure of the at least one of the media item identification and the license verification.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving a request to stream the media item to a second device if the second device determines that the media item is not stored locally on the second device; andstreaming the media item to the second device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 further comprising recording performance of the streaming for royalty payment purposes.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising forwarding the recommendation to a second device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further wherein the received recommendation includes a GUID of the media item and an acoustic fingerprint of the media item.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising sending the acoustic fingerprint to a metadata service to retrieve the metadata identifying the media item.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising if the metadata service fails to identify the media item, then moving the media item into a separate holding area for subsequent identification, and notifying the device that sent the recommendation of an identification failure.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising if the metadata service fails to identify the media item, then receiving a confirmation from a second device indicating that the media item should be streamed and streaming the media item to the second device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising if the media item fails the license verification, then moving the media item into a separate holding area for subsequent license verification, and notifying the device that sent the recommendation of a license verification failure.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to: receive a recommendation of a media item from one of the plurality of devices for a media item that is intended for a recipient;use metadata identifying the media item to perform license verification on the media item to determine if the media item can be at least one of played and streamed;determine if the media item is present in a content repository in response to receipt of the recommendation of the media item;request, in response to determining that the media item is not present in the content repository, upload of the media item;store, in response to the media item being uploaded, the media item in the content repository; andif the media item fails at least one of a media item identification and license verification: move the media item into a separate holding area for at least one of subsequent media item identification and license verification, and

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 storing software for further instructing the controller of the computing device to: receive a request to stream the media item to the second device if the second device determines that the media item is not stored locally on the second device; andstream the media item to the second device.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 storing software for further instructing the controller of the computing device to record performance of the streaming for royalty payment purposes.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 storing software for further instructing the controller of the computing device to forward the recommendation to the second device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 wherein the received recommendation includes a GUID of the media item and an acoustic fingerprint of the media item.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 storing software for further instructing the controller of the computing device to send the acoustic fingerprint to a metadata service to retrieve metadata identifying the media item.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 storing software for further instructing the controller of the computing device to: if the metadata service fails to identify the media item, then move the media item into a separate holding area for subsequent identification, and notify the device that sent the recommendation of an identification failure.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 storing software for further instructing the controller of the computing device to: if the metadata service fails to identify the media item, then receive a confirmation from the second device indicating that the media item should be streamed; and

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 storing software for further instructing the controller of the computing device to: if the media item fails the license verification, then move the media item into a separate holding area for subsequent license verification; andnotify the device that sent the recommendation of a license verification failure.

19. A computer-implemented method for operating a media service based on a media recommendation network comprising a plurality of devices, the method comprising: receiving, on a first device, a recommendation of a media item based on the playing of the media item on at least one of a plurality of other devices;determining the media item is stored on the first device in response to receiving the recommendation of the media item;playing the media item on the first device;receiving, on the first device, a recommendation of a second media item based on the playing of the second media item on at least one of the plurality of other devices;determining the second media item is not stored on the first device in response to receiving the recommendation of the second media item; andusing metadata identifying the second media item to perform license verification on the second media item to determine whether the second media item can be at least one of played and streamed;sending, in response to determining that the second media item is not stored locally, a request to a media server to stream the media item to the first device from the media server in accordance with the license verification of whether the second media item can be at least one of played and streamed; andif the media item fails at least one of a media item identification and license verification: moving the media item into a separate holding area for at least one of subsequent media item identification and license verification, andnotifying the device that sent the recommendation of the failure of the at least one of the media item identification and the license verification.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19 further comprising recording performance of the streaming for royalty payment purposes.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to: receive, on a first device, a recommendation of a media item based on the playing of the media item on at least one of a plurality of other devices;determine the media item is stored on the first device in response to the receipt of the recommendation of the media item;play the media item on the first device;receive, on the first device, a recommendation of a second media item based on the playing of the second media item on at least one of the plurality of other devices;determine the second media item is not stored on the first device in response to receipt of the recommendation of the second media item; andusing metadata identifying the second media item to perform license verification on the second media item to determine whether the second media item can be at least one of played and streamed;send, in response to determining that the second media item is not stored locally, a request to a media server to stream the media item to the first device from the media server in accordance with the license verification of whether the second media item can be at least one of played and streamed; andif the media item fails at least one of a media item identification and license verification: move the media item into a separate holding area for at least one of subsequent media item identification and license verification, andnotify the device that sent the recommendation of the failure of the at least one of the media item identification and the license verification.

22. A device comprising: a communication interface communicatively coupling the device to a media server; anda control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to: receive a recommendation of a media item based on the playing of the media item on at least one of a plurality of other devices;determine the media item is stored on the first device in response to receipt of the recommendation of the media item;play the media item on the first device;receive, on the first device, a recommendation of a second media item based on the playing of the second media item on at least one of the plurality of other devices;determine the second media item is not stored on the first device in response to receipt of the recommendation of the second media item;using metadata identifying the second media item to perform license verification on the media item to determine whether the second media item can be at least one of played and streamed; andsend, in response to determining that the second media item is not stored locally, a request to a media server to stream the media item to the first device from the media server in accordance with the license verification of whether the second media item can be at least one of played and streamed; andif the media item fails at least one of a media item identification and license verification: move the media item into a separate holding area for at least one of subsequent media item identification and license verification, andnotify the device that sent the recommendation of the failure of the at least one of the media item identification and the license verification.