Playlists for real-time or near real-time streaming

A machine readable non-transitory storage medium storing executable program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:

• transmitting, in response to a request, from a device, for a program, a variant audio playlist containing a plurality of URLs for different audio content for the program, each of the URLs in the plurality of URLs referring to an audio playlist corresponding to one of the different audio content for the program, the variant audio playlist generated prior to receiving the request for the program, each audio playlist referred to by a URL in the plurality of URLs comprising one or more tags and a plurality of Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) indicating an ordering of a plurality of audio files divided from a corresponding one of the different audio content for the program to recreate the audio content for the program;
• receiving from the device a first URL in the plurality of URLs and transmitting, in response to receiving the first URL, a first audio playlist to the device, the first URL referring to the first audio playlist.

A machine implemented method comprising:

• transmitting, in response to a request, from a device, for a program, a variant audio playlist containing a plurality of URLs for different audio content for the program, each of the URLs in the plurality of URLs referring to an audio playlist corresponding to one of the different audio content for the program, the variant audio playlist generated prior to receiving the request for the program, each audio playlist referred to by a URL in the plurality of URLs comprising one or more tags and a plurality of Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) indicating an ordering of a plurality of audio files divided from a corresponding one of the different audio content for the program to recreate the audio content for the program;
• receiving from the device a first URL in the plurality of URLs and transmitting, in response to receiving the first URL, a first audio playlist to the device, the first URL referring to the first audio playlist.

A data processing system comprising:

• a processing device programmed with executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:
• transmitting, in response to a request, from a device, for a program, a variant audio playlist containing a plurality of URLs for different audio content for the program, each of the URLs in the plurality of URLs referring to an audio playlist corresponding to one of the different audio content for the program, the variant audio playlist generated prior to receiving the request for the program, each audio playlist referred to by a URL in the plurality of URLs comprising one or more tags and a plurality of Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) indicating an ordering of a plurality of audio files divided from a corresponding one of the different audio content for the program to recreate the audio content for the program;
• receiving from the device a first URL in the plurality of URLs and transmitting, in response to receiving the first URL, a first audio playlist to the device, the first URL referring to the first audio playlist.