US 7,209,900 B2Granted

Music distribution systems

OwnerCharles Eric Hunter, Bernard L. Ballou, Jr. +2inventors

InventorsCharles Eric Hunter, Bernard L. Ballou, Jr., Kelly C. Sparks, John H. Hebrank

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Abstract

Music is blanket transmitted (for example, via satellite downlink transmission) to each customer's user station where selected music files are recorded. Customers preselect from a list of available music in advance using an interactive screen selector, and pay only for music that they choose to playback for their enjoyment. An antipiracy “ID tag” is woven into the recorded music so that any illegal copies therefrom may be traced to the purchase transaction. Music is transmitted on a fixed schedule or through an active scheduling process that monitors music requests from all or a subset of satellite receivers and adjust scheduling according to demand for various CD's. Receivers store selections that are likely to be preferred by a specific customer. In those instances where weather conditions, motion of atmospheric layers or dish obstructions result in data loss, the system downloads the next transmission of the requested CD and uses both transmissions to produce a “good copy”. In conjunction with the blanket transmission of more popular music, an automated CD manufacturing facility may be provided to manufacture CD's that are not frequently requested and distribute them by ground transportation.

Claims4

Dependent claims

A system for distributing music to at least one customer household, the system comprising:

(a) a data transmission system for blanket transmitting at least one music selections to the at least one customer household in digital format;
(b) a user station for placement at the at least one customer households, enabling the at least one customer household to preview the at least one music selection a predetermined number of times before billing the at least one customer household for the at least one music selection, the user station including:
i. a user interface for permitting the at least one customer household to preselect a transmitted music selection for recording;
ii. a receiver;
iii. a high capacity storage medium, in communication with the receiver for recording the preselected music selection in digital form;
and
iv. an audio output for outputting audio signals from the high capacity storage medium to a playback device for enabling the at least one customer household to playback the recorded music selection;
v. a circuit for degrading a quality of the previewed preselected music selections by compressing the preselected music selections by a process selected from the group consisting of:
compressing the preselected music selections;
adding distortion to the preselected music selections;
overlaying voice over the preselected music selections;
and deleting sections from the preselected music selections;
vi. an anti-piracy module to embed an ID tag in decoded music selections;
vii. an output device for supplying the decoded music selections to the at least one customer household from a decoder;
(c) a central controller system having a database for storing therein information corresponding to the at least one customer household and having a key unique to the music selections;
(d) a communications link for placement between the at least one customer household and the central controller system for verifying to the controller system when a preselected music selection has been made available for playback;
and
(e) a billing system associated with the central controller system to bill the at least one customer household for a music selection that has been made available for playback.

15 more elements

A system for distributing music to at least one customer households, the system comprising:

(a) a data transmission system for blanket transmitting at least one music selection to the at least one customer household in digital format;
(b) a user station to be placed at the at least one customer household, the user station including:
i. a user interface for permitting the at least one customer household to preselect desired transmitted music selections for recording and permitting each of the plurality of customer households to designate the music preference information;
ii. a receiver and associated high capacity storage medium for recording the preselected music selection in digital form;
and
iii. an audio output for outputting audio signals to a playback device for enabling the at least one customer household to playback the recorded music selection;
iv. an anti-piracy module to embed an ID tag in decoded music selections;
v. an output device for supplying the decoded music selections to the at least one customer household from a decoder;
(c) a central controller system having a database for storing therein information corresponding to the at least one customer household and having a key unique to the music selections, wherein the central controller system further:
automatically enables blanket transmission to the user stations of music content without requiring music selections from the user station according to assigned customer profiles,
assigns a customer profiles according to the at least one households music preference information communicated by the user station to the central controller system;
and further comprises:
a customer preference information storage memory for receiving and storing the at least one customer households designated music preference infomiation;
a general population preference database for storing preference information for the at least one customer household;
a customer catalog generator for analyzing the customer preference information storage memory and the general population preference database to create an individual customer catalog for the at least one customer household that determines which music is automatically blanket transmitted;
(d) a communications link between each of the plurality of customer households and the central controller system for verifying to the controller system when a preselected music selection has been made available for playback;
and
(e) a billing system associated with the central controller system to bill the customer household for music selections that are made available for playback.

15 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/855,992Filed 15 May 2001 · continuation in part
Priority: 27 Aug 1999
Published: US 2002/0111912 A115 Aug 2002
Granted: 24 Apr 2007
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification42 codes

G06Q 20/1235
Shopping for digital content: with control of digital rights management [DRM]
G06Q 30/06
Commerce: buying, selling or leasing transactions
G07F 17/0014
Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services: for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere…
G11B 27/031
Editing, e.g. varying the order of information signals recorded on, or reproduced from, record carriers: electronic editing of digitised analogue…

Family

Application09/385,671Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 27 Aug 1999
Application09/436,281Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 8 Nov 1999
Application09/476,078Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 30 Dec 1999
Application09/487,978Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 20 Jan 2000
Application09/493,854Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 28 Jan 2000
Application09/502,169Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 10 Feb 2000
Application09/684,442Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 6 Oct 2000
Application09/707,273Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 6 Nov 2000
US 2002/0111912 A1Pre-grant publication · published 15 Aug 2002
US 6,647,471 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 11 Nov 2003
US 2003/0133692 A1Published application
US 6,266,240 B1Related patent
US 6,952,685 B1Related patent
US 7,370,016 B1Related patent
US 8,090,619 B1Related patent
US 7,209,900 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.