Patent Application
20240046308
The present invention relates generally to content distribution systems, and more specifically, to an interactive live radio streaming system for providing situationally appropriate personalized interest-based advertising content to multiple users simultaneously.
Currently, live radio applications generate revenue mainly through advertising and sponsorship. However, these live radio applications are fraught with unengaging commercials resulting in majority of listeners changing stations several times during a listening session. It is typical that these commercials do not flow naturally with the music programming that they follow or precede. Many of these live radio applications also provide a subscription option where listeners may stream commercial-free live radio for a fee. This commercial-free streaming provided by the live radio applications is generally limited to the applications' display commercials as there is typically no control over the commercials played by the broadcasters. Further, while this commercial-free subscription option is beneficial for the listener and provides revenue for the owner of the application, the revenue that an application can generate through selling commercial space is generally more than that which it can generate though a commercial-free subscription model.
What is needed is an interactive live radio streaming system allowing for the distribution of situationally appropriate personalized interest-based advertising content to multiple listeners simultaneously, allowing listeners to shop advertised content within a user application. Such a system would ultimately increase the return on investment for advertisers as their commercials reach more engaged and interested listeners and increase conversions from said commercials as listeners are able to immediately make purchases of the advertised content directly within the application.
The present invention is directed to a live radio streaming system for distribution of personalized commercial content packages to multiple users simultaneously. The live radio streaming system including a content distribution system pushing personalized commercial content to users through non-invasive detection of users' environmental conditions as well as user-supplied interest information. The live streaming system having a listener portal and an administrative portal. The listener portal configured to store user profiles comprising private brand interest profiles for storing personal interest information. The administrative portal configured for the distribution of live audio feeds, creation of commercial content packages, and pushing personalized commercial content packages to multiple listeners simultaneously.
These and other features of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the specification and drawings.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described by way of example only, and not limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
It is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
The present invention discloses a live radio streaming system for the simultaneous distribution of situationally appropriate personalized content to multiple users, the live radio streaming system accessible to users through a downloadable software application, a non-downloadable web-based application, a webpage accessible via a web browser, or through other means commonly known for accessing live-radio streaming systems. Listeners access the system for entertainment purposes to stream live content and shop advertised content. The live streaming system accessible to end users by way of a listener portal and an administrative portal.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a listener accesses the system and method by way of a downloadable application 120 on a listener's device 110. When a listener accesses the system and method for the first time by way of the listener's device 110, they may be prompted to create a voice biometric password. To create the voice biometric password the listener is prompted to speak multiple words or sentences into a microphone that is either integrated into or attached to the listener's device 110. The system identifies unique identifiers within the listener's voice which may include tone of voice, vocal range, rhythm, pitch, and other traits. This biometric data is stored in one or more databases. An attempt to access the live streaming application 120 will be validated by comparing the listener's current voice biometric data provided using a microphone integrated into or attached to the listener's device 110, with the biometric data patterns previously provided and stored upon initial access of the system and method. The voice biometric authentication system may reside within the live streaming application 120 or may be a third-party system in communication with the live streaming application 120. In some embodiments, only one listener's voice may permit access to the live streaming application 120 and its features.
When a listener accesses the system and method for the first time they are prompted via listener screens to provide information related to their personal interests. This personal interest information is used to create a private brand interest profile for the listener. This personal interest information preferably provided by the listener through selection of their interests from a preset menu of non-demographic interest categories and subcategories. An example of a category that the listener may select is restaurants. Within that category the listener may select the subcategory of Italian restaurants.
The listener may update the personal interest information in their brand interest profile at any time. Any updates to a brand interest profile will affect the types of commercial content packages pushed to the listener. Listeners' brand interest profiles are stored in one or more databases. Interest tags are also stored in one or more databases. The one or more databases may include on-site databases, cloud databases, or a combination thereof.
The administrative portal may be accessed by administrative users on a web-based version of the application 120 on the administrative users' devices 110. Within the administrative portal, up to two pre-set interest tags may be manually applied to each commercial. For example, a commercial for a Ford® automobile may be tagged with #cars, #trucks. This commercial may be relevant to a listener who selected “Cars” as an interest category. Situational tags may also be applied to each commercial. Examples of situational tags may include seasonal tags reflecting certain holidays or weather conditions and time of day tags. In the administrative portal, certain metrics may be tracked to determine the success of a commercial, allowing administrative users to re-tag or otherwise edit the commercials accordingly. Each commercial content package, as viewed from the listener's perspective, comprises of a single commercial along with price listings and links to purchase advertised goods or services.
Within the administrative portal, an administrative user may upload and manage live radio feeds, manage live user ratings, upload, edit, activate, and deactivate commercial content packages, and manually build commercial content packages with audio and/or video files, images, price listings, links to purchase, and commercial duration codes to be pushed to listeners.
A commercial content distribution system 102 operating within the live radio streaming application automatically distributes commercial content packages to each listener during a commercial break based on the interest tags assigned to the commercials and to the listeners. The commercial content distribution system 102 further having a content distribution algorithm stored on a server for dynamically inserting commercial content packages into live audio feeds allowing one or more commercial content packages to fit perfectly within the commercial breaks experienced by each individual listener. By way of example only, a listener may experience a commercial break period lasting two minutes. Commercial content packages are assigned to listeners by the content distribution algorithm by matching the pre-set interest tags stored in the listeners' profiles to pre-set interest tags assigned to the commercials within the commercial content packages. Commercial content packages may be assigned to listeners upon assignment of an interest tag to the listener's brand interest profile or upon creation of a commercial content package. The content distribution algorithm selects one or more commercial content packages to display to that listener based on that two-minute commercial break period and based on the commercial content packages assigned to a user. Multiple listeners of the same radio station within the application may hear and view different commercial content packages during that two-minute commercial break period depending on the information in their brand interest profile. Listeners are able to view advertised content within the application while a commercial airs.
The commercial content distribution system 102 having an artificial intelligence algorithm that processes the commercial content before the content is distributed to increase targetability based on print copy and spoken word audio in every commercial. The artificial intelligence algorithm may also monitor a listener's environmental and situational factors which may include audio volume, mood of content played immediately preceding a break, background audio, time of day and year, location, weather, and previous commercial types in order to increase targetability and to program the next commercial. This non-invasive environmental and situational factor monitoring can be executed, for example, through a request to a listener within the live streaming application to share their location. Location sharing would reveal at least the time of day, time of year, and weather. This non-invasive environmental and situational factor monitoring allows the system to tailor advertising content to a listener's interests but also to provide content that fits the mood of the external factors. If it is raining and the listener is listening to somber music, the system would present a commercial with an appropriate somber mood as opposed to one that is loud and cheery.
A listener viewing advertised content may save said advertised content in their user account for future viewing and interaction. The listener may save an entire live streaming session comprising of a certain length of airplay or a user may opt to only save specific advertised content aired within a live session.
The present invention includes software which may either be loaded onto a computer or accessed by a computer. The loaded software may include an application on a smart device. A computer may access the software via a web browser using the internet, extranet, intranet, host server, internet cloud and the like.
It should be understood that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/071,645 filed Aug. 28, 2020, and U.S. non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 17/343,702 filed on Jun. 9, 2021, which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63071645 | Aug 2020 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17343702 | Jun 2021 | US |
| Child | 18450333 | US |
