Pandora Media, Inc.

Eric Kenson Bieschke

Gordon Parker Rios

Kyle George Lind

A content server generates a media channel including a plurality of media items. A request for a media channel is received from a client device of a user, the request including a free-form media input seed identifying a plurality of ambiguous entities. A plurality of media playlists of media items is determined where each media playlist is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of ambiguous entities identified by the free-form media input seed. The plurality of media playlists are combined into the media channel that includes media items selected from among the plurality of media playlists. The media channel is provided to the client device.

Media channel creation based on free-form media input seeds

A content server system provides a user of a client device with a playlist of content, such as streamed audio. The provided playlist is customized for the particular country of the user, even if the content server system has only recently begun to provide content to that country. To customize the playlist for a country lacking a sufficient amount of country-specific statistical data, the content server system generates a number of non-country-specific channels, each channel recommending content according to its own criteria. The content server system generates a non-content specific playlist by combining the channels. The content server system also generates, using the statistics for the country of the user, a country-specific channel that is specific to that country. The content server system generates a country-specific playlist by combining the non-country-specific playlist with the country-specific channel, e.g., according to the amount of country-specific statistics that are available.

Country-specific content recommendations in view of sparse country data

Systems, methods, and computer readable storage mediums are provided for selecting a media content object for a user using a combination of inputs. A media input seed associated with a user is obtained. A plurality of channels of media content objects is obtained. At least one of the plurality of channels is associated with the media input seed. Also, in some embodiments, each media content object of each of those channels has a score specific to that channel. A combination score for a respective media content object is calculated based at least in part on that respective media content object's channel specific score for each of at least two of the plurality of channels. Then at least some of the media content objects are ranked based at least in part on their respective combination scores. Finally, at least one ranked media content object is then selected for transmission.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Eric Kenson Bieschke