Social Queue

Abstract

Embodiments described herein may involve a “social” queue for use by a group of two or more media playback systems. An example method involves receiving, from a first media playback system, a first message indicating a first set of media items and receiving, from a second media playback system, a second message indicating a second set of media items. The method also involves generating a playback queue (i.e., a social queue) that includes the first set of media items indicated in the first message and the second set of media items indicated in the second message. The method may then involve transmitting, to at least one of the first media playback system and the second media playback system, the generated playback queue.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, from a first media playback system, a first message indicating a first set of media items;   receiving, from a second media playback system, a second message indicating a second set of media items;   generating a playback queue comprising (a) the first set of media items indicated in the first message and (b) the second set of media items indicated in the second message; and   transmitting, to at least one of the first media playback system and the second media playback system, the generated playback queue.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 after generating the playback queue, receiving, from the first media playback system, a command to modify the playback queue;   modifying the generated playback queue based on the received command; and   transmitting, to at least one of the first media playback system and the second media playback system, the modified playback queue.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the received command indicates one or more media items, and wherein modifying the generated playback queue comprises at least one of (i) adding the one or more media items indicated by the received command to the generated playback queue, (ii) removing the one or more media items indicated by the received command from the generated playback queue, and (iii) ordering the one or more media items indicated by the received command within the generated playback queue. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 before receiving (i) the first message and (ii) the second message, receiving a third message indicating that the first media playback system and the second media playback system shall form a group of media playback systems, and   after receiving the third message, causing the first media playback system and the second media playback system to form the group of media playback systems.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , the method further comprising:
 before transmitting the generated playback queue, determining that at least one of the first media playback system and the second media playback system is in the group of media playback systems, wherein transmitting, to at least one of the first media playback system and the second media playback system, the generated playback queue comprises transmitting the generated playback queue to each media playback system in the group of media playback systems.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a given media item in the first set of media items is associated with a respective media item identifier of a first media service provider, wherein the first playback system has access to the first media service provider, and wherein generating the playback queue comprises associating the respective media item identifier of the first media service provider with a respective media item identifier of a second media service provider. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the playback queue comprises an identification of the given media item, and wherein the identification of the given media item comprises the respective media item identifier of the first media service provider and the respective media item identifier of the second media service provider. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the playback queue comprises:
 for a given media item in the first set of media items,
 determining that (i) the first media playback system has access to the given media item using a given service and (ii) the second media playback system has access to the given media item using the given service; and 
 based at least in part on the determination, adding the given media item to the playback queue. 
   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generated playback queue is a first playback queue, the method further comprising:
 receiving at least one additional set of media items from a source that is not the first media playback system or the second media playback system;   generating a second queue comprising the at least one additional set of media items; and   transmitting, to at least one of the first media playback system and the second media playback system, the generated second playback queue.   
     
     
         10 . A method comprising:
 receiving, at a computing device associated with a first media playback system, a command to form a group of media playback systems that comprises the first media playback system and at least one other media playback system;   receiving, at the computing device, an identification of at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback systems; and   sending, by the computing device to the at least one other media playback system, a message comprising (i) an indication of the received command to form the group of media playback systems and (ii) an indication of the at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback systems.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 causing the at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback systems to be provided to each media playback system in the group of media playback systems.   
     
     
         12 . The method of claim  0 , further comprising:
 before receiving the command to form the group of media playback systems, displaying, on a user-interface, a list of media playback systems available for grouping,   wherein receiving the command to form the group of media playback systems comprises receiving a selection of one or more of the media playback systems displayed in the list of media playback systems available for grouping.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback system is at least one of a playback queue created by the first media playback system, an auxiliary input of the first media playback system, an audio stream of an Internet radio station, and a given playlist of a media service provider. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the at least one other media playback system is a second media playback system, and wherein the at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback system comprises at least two sources of audio, the method further comprising:
 sending an instruction to the second media playback system to select one of the at least two sources.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 in response to the indication of the command to form the group of media playback systems, forming, by the first media playback system, a group with the at least one other media playback system.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 receiving a message from the at least one other media playback system that acknowledges the indication of the command to form the group of media playback systems,   in response to receiving the message acknowledgement, forming the group of media playback system.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback system is a playback queue of the first media playback system indicating a first set of media playback items, wherein a given media item in the first set of media items is associated with a respective media item identifier of a first media service provider, wherein the first playback system has access to the first media service provider, and wherein sending the indication of the at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback systems comprises:
 associating the respective media item identifier of the first media service provider with a respective media item identifier of a second media service provider, wherein the indication of the at least one source of audio for playback by the group of media playback systems indicates the respective media item identifier of the second media service provider.   
     
     
         18 . A method comprising:
 receiving an instruction that causes at least a first media playback system and a second media playback system to form a group of media playback systems;   receiving, from a third-party service provider, a first message indicating a first set of media items and a second message indicating a second set of media items;   generating a playback queue comprising the first set of media items indicated in the received first message and the second set of media items indicated in the received second message; and   transmitting, to each media playback system in the group of media playback system, the generated playback queue.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein generating the playback queue comprises:
 determining (i) that the first playback system has access to a first media service provider and (ii) that a given media item in the first set of media items is associated with a respective first media item identifier of the first media service provider;   determining (i) that the second media playback system has access to a second media service provider; and (ii) based on the respective first media item identifier, that the given media item in the first set of media items is associated with a respective second media item identifier of the second media service provider; and   associating the respective first media item identifier and the respective second media item identifier the given media item in the playback queue.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein generating the playback queue further comprises:
 determining that a given media item in the second set of media items is associated with a respective second media item identifier of the second media service provider;   based on the respective second media item identifier, determining that the given media item in the second set of media items is associated with a respective first media item identifier of the first media service provider; and   associating the respective first media item identifier and the respective second media item identifier with the given media item in the playback queue.