Media management and tracking

Abstract

A system for enabling a user to listen to songs on a network-enabled device, including an embedded receiver for receiving at least one song list, and for receiving music streamed over a wireless network, list navigation software, for navigating the at least one song list and selecting a desired song therefrom, using a keypad communicatively coupled with the network-enabled device, an embedded transmitter for transmitting a song selection to a tracking server, and an embedded audio player, for playing the music streamed to the network-enabled device over the wireless network, a tracking server, including a data store including at least one song list, a receiver for receiving a song selection from said network-enabled device, the song selection comprising an ID for a selected song, and a transmitter for transmitting the at least one song list to the network-enabled device, and for transmitting the received song selection to a media server, and a media server, including a data store including audio files for the songs listed in the song list, an audio streamer, a receiver for receiving an instruction from said tracking server to transmit the selected song to the network-enabled device, and a transmitter for streaming the selected song to the network-enabled device. A method and a computer-readable storage medium are also described and claimed

1 . An advertising method comprising:
 playing an audio advertisement on a portable media player; and   presenting an image or text on a screen of said portable media player during said playing.   
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1 , comprising:
 including meta-data in the audio advertisement to specify said image or text.   
     
     
         3 . A method for deploying advertisements within portable media players, comprising:
 transmitting a plurality of audio advertisements, each advertisement comprising meta-data specifying image or text to display during the audio advertisement, and a plurality of playback rules, to a plurality of portable media players;   periodically evaluating at least one of said plurality of playback rules and deriving a schedule for playback of advertisements based on the at least one playback rule, in each of said plurality of portable media players; and   playing at least one advertisement according to said schedule, in each of the plurality of portable media players and presenting said image or text on a screen of said portable media player during said playing.   
     
     
         4 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein at least one of said plurality of playback rules associates an advertisement with a song stored in a portable media player from among said plurality of portable media players. 
     
     
         5 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein at least one of said plurality of playback rules defines an expiration event for an advertisement. 
     
     
         6 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein at least one of said plurality of playback rules assigns frequencies of playback to an advertisement. 
     
     
         7 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein at least one of said plurality of playback rules includes priorities, and wherein said periodically evaluating uses the priorities to discriminate which of a plurality of playback rules to use when the plurality of playback rules are simultaneously satisfied. 
     
     
         8 . A method according to  claim 3 , comprising: determining if there is an advertisement to be played prior to playing a song on each of said plurality of portable media players. 
     
     
         9 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein the playback rules in each of the plurality of portable media players comprise instructions to play one or more ads under one or more of the following conditions:
 the portable media player has played media items over a specified time period with a frequency that exceeds a specified threshold; and   the portable media player has played media items of a specified genre over a specified time period with a frequency that exceeds a specified threshold.   
     
     
         10 . A system for deploying advertisements on portable media players, comprising:
 a plurality of portable media players, each portable media player being associated with a specific advertising campaign from among a plurality of advertising campaigns;   an advertising server at least periodically in communication with each of said plurality of portable media players, comprising:
 a database of information pertaining to advertising campaigns including audio advertisements comprising meta-data specifying image or text to display during a specific audio advertisement, and playback rules therefor, each audio advertisement and each playback rule being associated with a specific advertising campaign; 
 an ad provisioner adapted to transfer audio advertisements and playback rules to each of said portable media players in accord with said specific campaign assigned to the specific player during said periodic communication. 
   
     
     
         11 . A system according to  claim 10 , wherein said advertising server further comprises a tracking interface which generates tracking information about deployment of ads in portable media players associated with each of said plurality of advertising campaigns. 
     
     
         12 . A system according to  claim 11 , wherein each portable media player further comprises a tracking engine for maintaining a history of ads played, and for periodically uploading the history to said advertising server and clearing the history thereafter. 
     
     
         13 . A system according to  claim 10 , wherein at least one playback rule associates an advertisement with a song stored in said portable media player. 
     
     
         14 . A system according to  claim 10 , wherein at least one playback rule is an expiration event for an advertisement. 
     
     
         15 . A system according to  claim 10 , wherein at least one playback rule assigns frequencies of playback to a plurality of advertisements. 
     
     
         16 . A system according to  claim 10 , wherein playback rules comprise priorities, the priorities being used to discriminate which of a plurality of playback rules to use when the conditions of the plurality of playback rules are simultaneously satisfied. 
     
     
         17 . A system according to  claim 10 , wherein the playback rules comprise instructions for a portable media player to play one or more ads under one or more of the following conditions:
 the portable media player has played media items over a specified time period with a frequency that exceeds a specified threshold; and   the portable media player has played media items of a specified genre over a specified time period with a frequency that exceeds a specified threshold.