System and Method for Managing and Distributing Audio Recordings

Abstract

Disclosed are system, methods and computer program products for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio recordings. In one example embodiment, the system includes an audio management server that stores and distributes through various third-party websites audio clips, such as voice, music, sounds, and other recordings made by system users. The audio clips can be recorded by system users directly through a central website hosted by the server. Alternatively, the audio clips can be recorded on various third-party websites using audio widgets provided by the audio management server. In addition, the recorded audio clips can be shared on various other third-party websites, such as blogs, social networking sites, celebrity sites and the like, using the audio widget provided by the server.

1 . A method for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio clips comprising:
 providing to a first third-party website an audio widget that allows website visitors to record, play back, respond to and share audio clips;   receiving from the audio widget an audio clip recorded by a first website visitor and an identifier of the first third-party website where the audio clip was recorded;   storing information received from the audio widget in an audio server;   posting on the first third-party website at least one of a link to the audio clip and the audio widget operable to play back, respond to and share the audio clip;   receiving from the audio widget on the first third-party website a request by the website visitor to share the audio clip on a second third-party website; and   posting on the second third-party website at least one of the link to the audio clip and the audio widget operable to play back, respond to and share the audio clip.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving from the second third-party website a request by a second website visitor to play back the audio clip, wherein the request includes the link to the audio clip; and 
 redirecting the second website visitor to the first third-party website where the second website visitor can play back the audio clip using the audio widget. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein storing information received from the audio widget in an audio server further comprises:
 assigning by the audio server a unique identifier to the audio clip; and   generating by the audio server a link to the audio clip, the link comprising an identifier of the audio server and the unique identifier of the audio clip.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein storing information received from the audio widget in the audio server further comprises:
 requesting the first website visitor to provide login information to the audio server, the login information including first website visitor's username and password;   if the first website visitor provides the requested login information,
 accessing a user account of said first website visitor in the audio server; and 
 storing in the user account the unique identifier of the audio clip and the identifier of the first third-party website; and 
   if the first website visitor does not provide the requested login information,
 unanimously storing on the audio server the unique identifier of the audio clip and the identifier of the first third-party website. 
   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving from the first third-party website a request to share the audio clip on a second third-party website further comprises:
 requesting the first website visitor to provide a login information for the second third-party website, the login information including visitor's username and password; and   if the first website visitor provides the requested login information, posting on the second third-party website the link to the audio clip.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 receiving by the audio server a request to display user account statistics data; 
 collecting statistics data from the user account, the statistics data includes one or more of a list of all audio clips recorded by the account user, a list of third-party websites where the audio clips were posted, the number of times each audio clip was played back; and 
 displaying the collected statistics data in a user interface of the audio server. 
 
     
     
         7 . A method for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio clips comprising:
 storing in an audio server a first audio clip recorded on a first third-party website;   posting on a second third-party website a link for accessing the first audio clip;   receiving a request from a website visitor to play back the first audio clip, wherein the request includes a link to the first audio clip on the audio server;   determining if the playback request came from the first or second third-party website;   if the playback request came from the first third-party website where the first audio clip was recorded, providing to the first third-party website the first audio clip and an audio widget operable to play back, respond to and share the first audio clip; and   if the playback request came from the second third-party website, redirecting the website visitor to the first third-party website and providing to the first third-party website the first audio clip and the audio widget operable to play back, respond to and share the audio clip.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein storing in an audio server a first audio clip further comprises:
 assigning by the audio server a unique identifier to the first audio clip; and   generating by the audio server a link to the first audio clip, the link comprising an identifier of the audio server and the unique identifier of the first audio clip.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein determining if the playback request came from the first or second third-party website further comprises:
 determining from the playback request a website which sent the playback request; and   comparing said website with the first website where the first audio clip was recorded.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein, after the playback of the audio clip on the first website,
 identifying a user of the audio server who recorded the first audio clip;   accessing a user account of the identified user in the audio server;   updating in the user account a playback counter associated with the first audio clip; and   if the playback request came from the second third-party website, storing in the user account an identifier of the second third-party website.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7  further comprising:
 receiving from the website visitor a request to record a second audio clip in response to the first audio clip recorded on the first third-party website; 
 recording the second audio clip using the audio player widget of the first website; and 
 posting on the first and second third-party websites links to the second audio clip. 
 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 receiving from the website visitor a request to record a third audio clip in response to the second clip recorded on the first third-party website; 
 recording the third audio clip using the audio widget of the first website; and 
 posting on the first and second third-party websites links to the third audio clip. 
 
     
     
         13 . A method for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio clips comprising:
 receiving from a second third-party website a request by a website visitor to play back a first audio clip recorded on a first third-party website;   redirecting the website visitor to the first third-party website;   providing to the first website the requested first audio clip and an audio widget operable to play back, respond to and share the first audio clip;   receiving from the first third-party website a request by the website visitor to record a second audio clip in response to the first audio clip;   recording the second audio clip using the audio widget on the first third-party website;   posting on the first and second third-party websites at least one of links to the first and second audio clip and audio widgets for playback, responding to and sharing of said audio clips.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising:
 storing in an audio server (i) the first audio clip and a unique identifier of the first audio clip (ii) the second audio clip and a unique identifier of the second audio clip; and (iii) an indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in response to the first audio clip. 
 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising:
 determining whether the first and second audio clips were recorded by the same or different website visitors. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein, if the first and second audio clips were recorded by the same website visitor, the method further comprises:
 identifying said website visitor in user account records of an audio server;   accessing a user account of said website visitor in the audio server; and   storing in the user account (i) the identifier of the first audio clip and an identifier of the first third-party website; (ii) the identifier of the second audio clip and an identifier of the second third-party website; and (iii) the indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in response to the first audio clip.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein, if the first and second audio clips were recorded by different website visitors, the method further comprises:
 identifying a first website visitor who recorded the first audio clip;   accessing a first user account of the first website visitor in the audio server;   storing in the first user account the identifier of the first audio clip, an identifier of the first website, the identifier of the second audio clip, and the indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in response to the first audio clip; and   identifying a second website visitor who recorded the second audio clip;   accessing a second user account of the second website visitor in the audio server;   storing in the second user account the identifier of the second audio clip, an identifier of the second website, the identifier of the first audio clip, and the indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in response to the first audio clip.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising:
 receiving from the website visitor a request to display one or more second audio clips recorded in response to the first audio clip; 
 identifying in the audio server at least one second audio clip recorded in response to the first audio clip by at least one second website visitor; and 
 displaying a list of one or more second audio clips to the website visitor.