System for managing transitions between media content items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11262974-B2
Application number	US-202016786108-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2020
Priority date	May 19, 2015
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

A system for playing media content items operates to provide smooth transitions between the media content items to continuously support a user's repetitive motion activity. The system can generate crossfade data containing information for transitions between media content items. The mix-in and mix-out points for the transitions are calculated to eliminate one or more portions of media content items that have lower musical energy than a majority portion of the items, and to maintain substantially consistent and/or stable musical energy (e.g., audio power or sound power) throughout the media content items including transitions therebetween.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of continuously playing back a plurality of media content items, the method comprising:
dividing a first media content item into a plurality of sections, including an ending section;
dividing the ending section into a plurality of segments;
determining a value of a musical attribute for each of the plurality of segments of the ending section;
identifying a mix-out point of the first media content item within a segment of the ending section having the musical attribute with a target value;
playing back the first media content item on a media playback device;
determining an alignment of the mix-out point of the first media content item with a mix-in point of a second media content item; and
playing back the second media content item on the media playback device based on the determined alignment.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
defining a beginning of the segment of the ending section having the musical attribute with the target value as the mix-out point of the first media content item.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the value of the musical attribute for each of the plurality of segments of the ending section comprises:
determining the value based on variations in the musical attribute over the respective segment of the ending section.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a mix-in point for the first media content item; and
playing back the first media content item on the media playback device based on the mix-in point.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of sections into which the first media content item is divided further includes a beginning section, and determining the mix-in point for the first media content item comprises:
dividing the beginning section into a plurality of segments;
determining a value of a musical attribute for each of the plurality of segments in the beginning section; and
identifying the mix-in point of the first media content item within a segment of the beginning section having the musical attribute with a target value.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
generating crossfade data including the mix-in point and the mix-out point of the first media content item, wherein the crossfade data is stored in association with the first media content item.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
playing back the second media content item on the media playback device further based on a crossfade duration.

8. A method of continuously playing back a plurality of media content items, the method comprising:
playing back a first media content item on a media playback device;
dividing a second media content item into a plurality of sections, including a beginning section;
dividing the beginning section into a plurality of segments;
determining a value of a musical attribute for each of the plurality of segments of the beginning section;
identifying a mix-in point of the second media content item within a segment of the beginning section having the musical attribute with a target value;
determining an alignment of a mix-out point of the first media content item with the mix-in point of the second media content item; and
playing back the second media content item on the media playback device based on the determined alignment.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
defining a beginning of the segment of the beginning section having the musical attribute with the target value as the mix-in point of the second media content item.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining the value of the musical attribute for each of the plurality of segments of the beginning section comprises:
determining the value based on variations in the musical attribute over the respective segment of the beginning section.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining a mix-out point for the second media content item;
determining an alignment of the mix-out point of the second media content item with a mix-in point of a third media content item; and
playing back the third media content item on the media playback device based on the determined alignment.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of sections into which the second media content item is divided further includes an ending section, and determining the mix-out point for the second media content item comprises:
dividing the ending section into a plurality of segments;
determining a value of a musical attribute for each of the plurality of segments in the ending section; and
identifying the mix-out point of the second media content item within a segment of the ending section having the musical attribute with a target value.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
generating crossfade data including the mix-in point and the mix-out point of the second media content item, wherein the crossfade data is stored in association with the second media content item.

14. A method of providing a continuous transition during playback of a plurality of media content items, the method comprising:
dividing a first media content item and a second media content item into a plurality of sections, including a beginning section and an ending section;
dividing the ending section of the first media content item into a plurality of ending section segments and the beginning section of the second media content item into a plurality of beginning section segments;
determining a value of a musical attribute for each of the plurality of ending section segments of the first media content item and the plurality of beginning section segments of the second media content item;
identifying a mix-out point of the first media content item within a ending section segment having the musical attribute with a first target value and a mix-in point of the second media content item within a beginning section segment having the musical attribute with a second target value;
storing the mix-out point of the first media content item as mix-out point data for the first media content item and the mix-in point of the second media content item as mix-in point data for the second media content item; and
transmitting the mix-out point data and the mix-in point data to a media playback device for playback of the first media content item and the second media content item on the media playback device with the mix-out point of the first media content item aligned with the mix-in point of the second media content item.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the value of the musical attribute represents a power associated with the musical attribute.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the musical attribute includes one or more of tempo, pitch, dynamics, articulation, timbre, or order.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the alignment of the mix-out point of the first media content item with the mix-in point of the second media content item is adjusted to match at least one beat within the segment of the ending section of the first media content item with at least one beat within the segment of the beginning section of the second media content item.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first target value is a highest value of the musical attribute across the plurality of ending section segments of the first media content item, and the second target value is a highest value of the musical attribute across the plurality of beginning section segments of the second media content item.

19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
adjustin

Assignees

• Spotify Ab

Inventors

• Jehan Tristan
• Garmark Sten
• Montecchio Nicola

Classifications

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• G06F16/683

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• G06F3/165 Primary

  Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path · CPC title

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title

• G11B27/038

  Cross-faders therefor · CPC title