Remotely configurable media and advertisement player and methods of manufacture and operation thereof

A method of manufacturing a media and advertisement player, comprising:

• providing a media player subsystem that receives and stores media from a remote system via said computer network and plays stored media content in response to customer requests, said customer requests constrained by playback rules that selects among media content to be distributed, received, and stored among a plurality of media players, wherein said media player receives and stores, according to said playback rules, at least some different distributed media content than another of said plurality of said media players wherein said media is selected from the group consisting of:
• audio music, music videos, and skins;
• coupling an advertisement player subsystem that receives advertisements and a corresponding advertising schedule from said remote system via said computer network that stores and plays said advertisements according to said advertising schedule on said advertisement player subsystem, said advertising schedule being dependent upon a play of a content of said media, wherein said advertising schedule is correlated to said stored media content, said stored media content constrained by said playback rules;
• and
• coupling a tracking subsystem that generates as-run logs containing records of a playing of contents of said media derived from customer requests and said advertisements and transmits said as-run logs to said remote system via said computer network to said media player subsystem from said media player subsystem, said as-run logs employed by said remote system to adjust said playback rules.

For use with a computer network, a method of playing media and advertisements and reporting the playing of the media and advertisements to a remote system, comprising:

• receiving and storing media from a remote system via a computer network, wherein said media is selected from the group consisting of:
• audio music, music videos, and skins;
• receiving and storing advertisements and a corresponding advertising schedule from said remote system via said computer network;
• playing said media in response to customer requests, said customer requests constrained by playback rules that selects among media content to be distributed, received, and stored among a plurality of media players, wherein said media player receives and stores, according to said playback rules, at least some different distributed media content than another of said plurality of said media players according to said playback rules;
• playing said advertisements according to said advertising schedule, said advertising schedule being dependent upon a play of content of said media, wherein said advertising schedule is correlated to said stored media content, said media content constrained by said playback rules;
• generating as-run logs containing records of a playing of a content of said media and said advertisements;
• and
• transmitting said as-run logs containing records of a playing of contents of said media derived from customer requests to said remote system via a computer network, said as run logs employed by said remote system to adjust said playback rules.