Systems and methods for networked music playback including remote add to queue

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9674587-B2
Application number	US-201213533785-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2012
Priority date	Jun 26, 2012
Publication date	Jun 6, 2017
Grant date	Jun 6, 2017

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to facilitate discovery and remote configuration of content for playback via a multimedia playback network are disclosed. An example method includes facilitating identification of multimedia content being played, the identification including at least one of a content identifier associated with the content and the content itself. An example method includes relaying at least one of the content identifier and the content to a playback system located remotely from a location of the multimedia content playback, at least one of the content identifier and the content remotely added for playback at the playback system.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
identifying, via a computing device at a first location, a media item corresponding to audio content being played at the first location, wherein the audio content is being played independent of the computing device;
in response to identifying the media item, (i) searching, via the computing device, a plurality of content provider services for the media item corresponding to the identified audio content, and (ii) determining via the computing device, a content identifier specifying a network location from where the media item is obtainable from one of the plurality of content provider services;
determining at a first time, whether a playback queue stored on a playback device of a playback system is accessible by the computing device, wherein the playback system is at a second location remote from the first location,
providing, to the playback system via the computing device over a wide area network, the content identifier, wherein providing the content identifier comprises:
if the computing device determines, at the first time, that the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system is accessible by the computing device, providing, to the playback system via the computing device over the wide area network, the content identifier; and
if the computing device determines, at the first time, that the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system is not accessible by the computing device:
storing the content identifier;
determining, at a second time, that the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system is accessible by the computing device; and
based on determining, at the second time, that the playback queue stored on the playback system is accessible by the computing device, providing, to the playback system via the computing device over the wide area network, the content identifier; and

causing, via the computing device, the media item to be remotely added to the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system for playback at the second location, wherein adding the media item to the playback queue comprises storing, by the playback device of the playback system, the content identifier in the playback queue, wherein the playback device is configured to obtain the media item for playback according to the content identifier in the playback queue.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing the content identifier to be remotely added to a playlist at the playback system.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing the content identifier in a cloud for playback at the playback system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the content identifier comprises: providing the content identifier and a copy of the audio content to the playback system.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the playback system comprises a first playback system, and wherein providing the content identifier comprises: providing the content identifier and a copy of the audio content to a second playback system.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
requesting the one content provider service to relay the audio content to the playback system.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising verifying authorization to add the audio content to the playback system.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the authorization is configured based on a group.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is a portable device, and wherein the identifying the media content and providing the content identifier are facilitated via the portable device.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the portable device is configured to store the media item until the portable device is within a range of a playback network associated with the playback system.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the content identifier further includes determining a content provider from which the playback system is able to access the audio content.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the computing device at the first location includes an indication of one or more content providers accessible by the playback system.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the content identifier to be remotely added to the playback queue comprises at least one of (a) causing a copy of the audio content to be remotely added to the playback queue and (b) causing a pointer to a location of the audio content at a source to be remotely added to the playback queue.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the audio content comprises at least one of an audio sample, metadata associated with the audio content, and a tag associated with the audio content.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wide area network comprises at least one of a cellular network, a public switched telephone network, and a cloud server.

16. A tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions for execution by a processor, the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause a computing device to implement a method, the method comprising:
identifying, via the computing device at a first location, a media item corresponding to audio content being played at the first location, wherein the audio content is being played independent of the computing device;
in response to identifying the media item, (i) searching a plurality of content provider services for the media item corresponding to the identified audio content, and (ii) determining a content identifier specifying a network location from where the media item is obtainable from one of the plurality of content provider services;
determining, at a first time, whether the playback queue stored on a playback device of a paybacks system is accessible by the computing device, wherein the playback system is at a second location remote from the first location;
providing, to the playback system via the computing device over a wide area network, the content identifier, wherein providing the content identifier comprises,
if the computing device determines, at the first time, that the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system is accessible by the computing device, providing, to the playback system via the computing device over the wide area network, the content identifier; and
if the computing device determines, at the first time, that the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system is not accessible by the computing device;
storing the content identifier;
determining, at a second time, that the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system is accessible by the computing device, and
based on determining, at the second time, that the playback queue stored on the playback device of the playback system is accessible by the computing device, providing, to the playback system via the computing device over the wide area network, the content identifier; and

causing the media item to be remotely added to the playback queue associated with the playback system for playback at the second location, wherein adding the media item to the playback queue comprises storing, by the playback device of the playback system, the content identifier in the playback queue, wherein the playback device is configured to obtain the media item for playback according to the content identifier in the playback queue.

17. The tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises causing the content identifier to be remotely added to a playlist at the playback system.

Assignees

• Triplett Mark
• Lang Jonathan P
• Gossain Hrishikesh
• Sonos Inc

Inventors

• Triplett Mark
• Lang Jonathan P
• Gossain Hrishikesh

Classifications

• G06F16/683

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• H04N21/233

  Processing of audio elementary streams {(monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58)} · CPC title

• H04N21/8113

  comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format · CPC title

• H04N21/41407 Primary

  embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop (constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57) · CPC title

• H04N21/632

  using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices (broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104) · CPC title