Generating and distributing a replacement playlist

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11494435-B2
Application number	US-202117537147-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2021
Priority date	Jan 4, 2016
Publication date	Nov 8, 2022
Grant date	Nov 8, 2022

Abstract

An embodiment may involve a server device transmitting, over a wide area network, a first playlist with a first duration to a client device. Possibly while the client device is playing out a current audio file of a first plurality of audio files in the playlist, the server device may receive an instruction from the client device and generate a second playlist. The second playlist may include references to a second plurality of audio files, where playout of the second plurality of audio files may have a duration that is less than the duration of the playout of the first plurality of audio files. The server device may transmit, over the wide area network, the second playlist to the client device. Reception of the second playlist at the client device may cause the audio player application to retrieve and play out the second plurality of audio files.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
generating, by a server device, a first playlist for a client device, wherein the first playlist includes references to a first plurality of audio files and has a first duration;
transmitting, by the server device, the first playlist to the client device;
receiving, by the server device, a target duration from the client device;
in response to receiving the target duration, generating, by the server device, a second playlist, wherein the second playlist includes references to a second plurality of audio files and has a second duration that is: less than the first duration and within a threshold duration of the target duration; and
transmitting, by the server device, the second playlist to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target duration is an estimated duration for the client device to reach a destination.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein reception of the first playlist at the client device causes an audio player application of the client device to retrieve and play out at least some of the first plurality of audio files.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein reception of the second playlist at the client device causes the audio player application to stop playing out audio files from the first plurality of audio files and to retrieve and play out at least some of the second plurality of audio files.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein causing the audio player application to stop playing out audio files from the first plurality of audio files comprises:
causing the audio player application to, after playout of a current audio file being played out completes, stop playing out the audio files from the first plurality of audio files.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the second duration is based on the target duration minus any time remaining for playout of the current audio file.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the second plurality of audio files does not include any of the audio files of the first plurality of audio files that are before the current audio file in an ordering of the first plurality of audio files.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the second plurality of audio files includes at least some audio files of the first plurality of audio files that are after the current audio file in an ordering of the first plurality of audio files.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold duration is three minutes or less.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein audio files in the first plurality of audio files are each associated with a higher priority or a lower priority, and wherein the second plurality of audio files includes audio files from the first plurality of audio files associated with the higher priority.

11. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a server device, cause the server device to perform operations comprising:
generating a first playlist for a client device, wherein the first playlist includes references to a first plurality of audio files and has a first duration;
transmitting the first playlist to the client device;
receiving a target duration from the client device;
in response to receiving the target duration, generating a second playlist, wherein the second playlist includes references to a second plurality of audio files and has a second duration that is: less than the first duration and within a threshold duration of the target duration; and
transmitting the second playlist to the client device.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11 , wherein the target duration is an estimated duration for the client device to reach a destination.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 11 , wherein reception of the first playlist at the client device causes an audio player application of the client device to retrieve and play out at least some of the first plurality of audio files.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 13 , wherein reception of the second playlist at the client device causes the audio player application to stop playing out audio files from the first plurality of audio files and to retrieve and play out at least some of the second plurality of audio files.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14 , wherein causing the audio player application to stop playing out audio files from the first plurality of audio files comprises:
causing the audio player application to, after playout of a current audio file being played out completes, stop playing out the audio files from the first plurality of audio files.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15 , wherein the second duration is based on the target duration minus any time remaining for playout of the current audio file.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15 , wherein the second plurality of audio files does not include any of the audio files of the first plurality of audio files that are before the current audio file in an ordering of the first plurality of audio files.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15 , wherein the second plurality of audio files includes at least some audio files of the first plurality of audio files that are after the current audio file in an ordering of the first plurality of audio files.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 11 , wherein audio files in the first plurality of audio files are each associated with a higher priority or a lower priority, and wherein the second plurality of audio files includes audio files from the first plurality of audio files associated with the higher priority.

20. A server device comprising:
a processor;
memory; and
program instructions, stored in the memory, that upon execution by the processor cause the server device to perform operations comprising:
generating a first playlist for a client device, wherein the first playlist includes references to a first plurality of audio files and has a first duration;
transmitting the first playlist to the client device;
receiving a target duration from the client device;
in response to receiving the target duration, generating a second playlist, wherein the second playlist includes references to a second plurality of audio files and has a second duration that is: less than the first duration and within a threshold duration of the target duration; and
transmitting the second playlist to the client device.

Assignees

• Gracenote Inc

Inventors

• Sharma Rishabh
• Cremer Markus

Classifications

• H04N21/44224

  Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing · CPC title

• G06F16/635 Primary

  Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06F16/951 Primary

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• H04N21/44213

  Monitoring of end-user related data (arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title