Yahoo! Inc.

Slacker, Inc.

Excalibur Ip, LLC

Bradley D Kindig

Ted E Dunning

Celite Milbrandt

Sean Cornell Joshlin

Christopher P Archibald

Safdar M Asghar

Amir Doron

Kevin L Sitze

Philip Mansiel Pellouchoud

Daniel Baird

Michael J Kogan

Mark Alan Laffoon

Robert F Kleemann

Ameen Hikmat Abed

Nathan Lavar Clegg

Sean Robert Sullivan

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing devices capable of the reception and playback of one or more crafted media channels transmitted over an intermittent connection. The one or more channels may be customized by the end user to bias the programming towards individual tastes or moods. The channels may be delivered over an intermittent, unidirectional link, for example a Satellite Radio receiver in a home or car. Content may also be delivered over an intermittent, bidirectional link, for example to a portable media player via a wireless 802.11 or other networked connection.

Methods and systems for personalized rendering of digital media content

A system, method, and computer program product discover relationships among items and recommend items based on the discovered relationships. The recommendations provided by the present invention are based on user profiles that take into account actual preferences of users, without requiring users to complete questionnaires. An improved binomial log likelihood ratio analysis technique is applied, to reduce adverse effects of overstatement of coincidence and predominance of best sellers. The invention may be used, for example, to generate track lists for a personalized radio station.

Relationship discovery engine

A media device and user interface for selecting media. In one embodiment, the media is selected based upon a desired relationship measure between at least two media files. In another embodiment, the media is selected based upon a skip command control functions.

Media device and user interface for selecting media

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing devices capable of the reception and playback of one or more crafted media channels transmitted over an intermittent connection. An exemplary method of personalized rendering of media content includes receiving media files and file metadata defining attributes of the media files over a data link at a receiver. The method further includes executing, using a processor of the receiver, instructions stored in a memory of the receiver. The instructions cause the processor to store certain ones of the media files characterized by file metadata consistent with one or more channel profiles in the memory, remove certain of the ones of the media files stored within the memory, and sequence the ones of the media files stored within the memory for rendering based upon one or more of the channel profiles.

Systems and devices for personalized rendering of digital media content

A system, method, and machine-readable medium are disclosed for the controlled, non-real-time conveyance of digital content for playback. Digital content and associated metadata are marked, rated, categorized, and then converted into encoded digital data. The resulting encoded digital data is transmitted as a plurality of data streams through a communications facility such as a satellite, wireless, or physical network. The data streams are received by a content receiver where they are decoded into metadata and digital content for controlled conveyance and playback. A digital content management module comprising a content selection algorithm compares metadata associated with candidate digital content to a predetermined content selection profile. If the metadata matches predetermined selection parameters of the selection profile, the candidate digital content and its associated metadata are stored in a machine-readable medium for controlled conveyance and playback.

Method and apparatus for interactive distribution of digital content

Improved techniques for enhancing, associating, and linking various sources of metadata for music files, to allow integration of commercially generated metadata with user-entered metadata, and to ensure that metadata provided to the user is of the highest quality and accuracy available, even when the metadata comes from disparate sources having different levels of credibility. The invention further provides improved techniques for identifying approximate matches when querying metadata databases, and also provides improved techniques for accepting user submissions of metadata, for categorizing user submissions according to relative credibility, and for integrating user submissions with existing metadata.

Associating and linking compact disc metadata

An online music purchasing system and method is disclosed, in which a radio service operates on a user's computer and is configured for receiving and playing digital radio representations of media content in near real-time in a radio session. A content server is configured for serving the digital radio representations of media content to the radio service, and a radio sequence server is configured for serving a sequential list of currently-playing and previously-played media content of the radio session to the radio service. An account server is configured for receiving a signal indicative of a user's desire to purchase a file of one of a currently-playing or previously-played media content. A download manager is configured for downloading the file to the user's computer according to the signal indicative of the user's desire to purchase the file.

Music purchasing and playing system and method

A system, method, and computer program product perform text equivalencing. The text equivalencing is performed by modifying a string of characters by applying a set of heuristics, comparing the modified strings of characters to known strings of characters. If a match is found, the text equivalencing engine performs database update and exits. If no match is found, sub-strings are formed by grouping together frequently occurring sets of characters. An information retrieval technique is performed on the sub-strings to determine equivalent text.

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Bradley D Kindig