Patent Publication Number: US-2010131346-A1

Title: Method And System For Associating A Seller With Purchased Digital Content

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Current online digital music stores such as Amazon MP3, Walmart.com, and Rhapsody provide Internet users the ability to discover and purchase full-track digital music downloads through a web service. In a standard purchase scenario, a user visits one of these websites, browses the site&#39;s music catalog and purchases a digital song which is then downloaded to the user&#39;s PC during the purchase process. From that point onward, the user may use one of several music players residing on his PC to listen to the song. Examples of such music players are iTunes and Windows Media Player. Often, the digital format of the purchased music is a well recognized standard, such as MP3, that is free of digital rights management (DRM) protections such that the playing of such purchased music can be easily implemented by any third party application developer. 
     In one typical situation, a user may purchase a digital song from a seller such as Amazon MP3 and ultimately play the song using a competitor&#39;s PC-based music player such as iTunes. In such a situation, iTunes is able to offer advertising and other marketing content and services through its PC-based music player interface to the user in an effort to lure the user to its own iTunes Music Store and away from Amazon MP3. As demonstrated by the foregoing situation, after content is purchased by a user, the digital content is disassociated from the online store during consumption of the content, allowing other competitors with complementary offerings (i.e., a popular music player, etc.) to gain market share by luring the user away by marketing the user through the complementary offering. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One or more embodiments of the present invention provides a system that offers a web based interface for managing digital content that provides marketing opportunities to a seller of digital content, such as Amazon MP3, even after the sale of such digital content, and particularly during a user&#39;s management of such digital content through the web based interface. By facilitating a purchase transaction for the seller through the web based interface, the system is able to establish and record an association between the purchased digital content and the seller during consummation of the purchase transaction. When the user subsequently accesses such purchased content through the web based interface, the system is able to deliver marketing content of the seller to the user through the web based interface. 
     A method, according to an embodiment of the invention, provides for associating a seller of digital content with the digital content during its consumption by a user. The method comprises enabling access to a digital content store owned by the seller through a web interface for managing digital content, tracking a purchase of digital content from the digital content store, and displaying marketing content relating to the seller through the web interface upon selection of the digital content through the web interface by the user for consumption. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  depicts a web based interface for managing digital content that may be used in an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  depicts a online digital content store accessed through the web based interface. 
         FIG. 3  depicts the web based interface upon a selection of digital content purchased through the online digital content store. 
         FIG. 4  depicts an architecture of an online digital content management system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention 
         FIG. 5  depicts a flow chart for purchasing digital content in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  depicts an exemplary record with a seller identification field for a purchased digital song in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  depicts a flow chart for consuming digital content in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  depicts a web based interface  100  for managing digital content that may be served by an online digital content management system in an embodiment of the present invention. A navigation panel  102  enables a logged in user to select and view a variety of collections of digital content (e.g., music, photos, video, other rich-media and multimedia formats, etc.), including digital content stored or otherwise managed by the management system in a locker  105 , digital content stored in the user&#39;s various devices  110  such as cell phone  115  and set top box  120 , as well as any of a number of third party web services that may be used as media sources  125  by the user to store or otherwise manage digital content. The user can further make a selection to navigate his computer  127  to find locally stored digital content and select a number of online digital content stores  130  to discover new digital content for purchase. 
     As depicted in  FIG. 1 , a user has chosen to view music  135  in his locker  105 . Selection of music  135  causes the user&#39;s digital music collection that is stored (or managed) by the management system to be presented in display window  140 . By selecting one of the digital songs in display window  140 , the user can consume the digital song in a number of ways, for example, by playing it in digital music player  145  or by dragging and dropping it into cell phone  115  and pressing the sync link  150  to deliver the song to the cell phone. A number of other digital content consumption activities may be available through the web interface, depending upon the type of digital content and the design of the web interface, including viewing the digital content (e.g., photos), downloading the digital content to a local data store, dragging and dropping the content to other devices  110  or media sources  125 , streaming the digital content from a remote data store, and any other digital content management activities. As depicted in  FIG. 1 , selecting one of the digital songs in display window  140 , such as “Optimistic Thought”  155 , causes the digital song&#39;s cover art to be displayed in cover art window  160  and the song&#39;s metadata information (e.g., artist, album, title, genre, etc.) to be displayed in song information window  165 . Additionally, the web based interface of  FIG. 1  also has an advertisement window  170  to serve ads and other marketing content to the user. 
       FIG. 2  depicts the web interface of  FIG. 1  when the user has selected one of the online digital content stores  130 , in particular, store  200  (i.e., Amazon MP3). Selection of store  200  in navigation panel  102  causes display window  140  to display a web page  205  for store  200 . In the embodiment of  FIG. 2 , for example, display window  140  is an inline frame that enables a user to navigate the various pages of store  200  (starting from web page  205 ) similar to a standalone web browser. A user navigating through the web pages of store  200  in display window  140  can ultimately consummate a purchase transaction with store  200  for digital content through display window  140 , resulting in the purchased digital content being stored in the user&#39;s music collection  135  of his locker  105 . 
     As depicted in  FIG. 3 , after purchasing a digital song  300  from store  200  (i.e., Beyonce&#39;s “If I Were A Boy”) in display window  140  of  FIG. 2 , digital song  300  is stored in the user&#39;s music collection  135  of locker  105  such that selecting music collection  135  cause digital song  300  to appear as part of the list of songs displayed in display window  140 . Upon selecting song  300  in display window  140 , in addition to digital song&#39;s  300  cover art and song information being displayed in cover art window  160  and song information window  165 , respectively, marketing content corresponding to store  200  is displayed in advertisement window  170 . Such marketing content can include advertisement banners, interactive widgets, marketing videos, animations and any other type of marketing content known to those with ordinary skill in the art. 
       FIG. 4  depicts an architecture of one embodiment of an online digital content management system  400  in accordance with the present invention. Web server  405  of system  400  serves web interface  100  to a web browser at a user&#39;s terminal  410 . In the embodiment of  FIG. 4 , the web browser of the user&#39;s terminal  410  has an installed plug-in  415 , such as an ActiveX control plug-in or browser extension, that is used to faciliate communication between management system  400  and online digital content store  420  through the web browser. Management system  400  further includes an application server  425  that handles actions performed by a user through web interface  100  to manage his digital content, for example, by adding, deleting or otherwise modifying the digital content stored in the user&#39;s locker account in locker data store  430 . 
     As previously discussed in the context of  FIG. 2 , in one embodiment of the present invention, display window  140  of web interface  100  receives web pages served by web server  435  of online digital content store  420 . Upon completing a purchase of digital content through web interface  100  at user terminal  410 , application server  440  of online digital content store  420  interacts with payment gateway  445  to complete the purchase transaction. Once the purchase transaction is confirmed to be successful, application server  440  can extract the purchased digital content from digital content database  450  and transmit it to application server  425  of management system  400  for storage in the user&#39;s locker account in locker store  430 . 
       FIG. 5  is a flow chart that further details interaction among digital content management system  400 , online digital content store  420  and the web browser of user terminal  410  during a purchase transaciton of digital content. In step  500 , a user first logs into web interface  100  served by digital content management system  400  to the browser of user terminal  410 . In step  505 , the user accesses online digital content store  420  through web interface  100  (e.g., via display window  140  in an embodiment utilizing a web interface design similar to  FIGS. 1-3 ). In step  515 , the user selects a particular item of digital content to purchase (e.g., a digital song, etc.) and begins the purchase transaction, for example, by submitting payment modalities or otherwise permitting access to stored payment information in a user account at online digital content store  420 . In step  520 , online digital content store  420  interacts with payment gateway  445  to finalize the purchase transaction and once finalized, in step  525 , transmits a confirmatory response to the web browser of user terminal  410 . Such a confirmatory response may take any of a number of forms, including a web page confirming a successful purchase or any other message format that may be received by the web browser, including by plug-in  415 . The confirmatory response contains a unique transaction identifier (e.g., receipt number, transaction code, etc.) corresponding to the successful purchase transaction. In step  530 , the web browser at user terminal  415  receives the confirmatory response and plug-in  415  extracts the unique transaction identifier from the confirmatory response and transmits the unique transaction identifier to data content management system  400 . Upon receipt of the unique transaction identifier, digital content management system  400  establishes a connection with online digital content store  420  in step  535 , submits the unique transaction identifier to online digital content store  420  to identify the purchased digital content for download. In step  540 , online digital content store  440  identifies the purchased digital content using the unique transaction identifier and transmits the purchased digital content to digital content management system  400 . In step  545 , digital content management system  400  receives the purchased digital content from online digital content store  440 . In step  550 , the received purchased digital content is stored in association with the user&#39;s account. The digital content may be stored locally in the digital content management system&#39;s  400  own storage, such as locker store  430  or may be stored at a remote location, for example, a third party online storage provider (e.g., whose content may be accessible through web interface  100  through a URL). In step  555 , a record is created to store metadata relating to the stored digital content, including its location in storage and identifying information (e.g., ID number, etc.) corresponding to online digital content store  420 . In an embodiment in which the purchased digital content is a digital song, the record may include further metadata fields such as title of song, artist, album, genre, song size, bitrate and any other metadata information relating to digital songs that are known to those with ordinary skill in the art.  FIG. 6  depicts one embodiment of such a record where the purchased digital content is a digital song. As depicted, location field  600  indicates a location where the digital song is stored and may be in the form of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Seller ID field  605  uniquely identifies the seller of the digital song, for example, online digital store  420 . 
     Those with ordinary skill in the art will recognized that variations on the flow, architecture and techniques as described in the context of  FIGS. 4 and 5  may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, in an alternative embodiment, rather than using a plug-in  415  to forward communication between online digital content store  420  and digital content management system  400 , the confirmatory response of step  525  may be a web page including a button or other web page control mechanisms (e.g., checkbox, radio buttons, other means of receiving input from the user through a web page, etc). The web page may provide the user the ability to download the purchased digital content to his personal computer and/or solicit the user to additionally download the digital content to the user&#39;s account at the digital content management system  400  by clicking the button. Clicking the button thereby submits a request including the unique transaction identifier to web server  405  of digital content management sysem  400  (e.g., a POST request, etc.) which then communicates with application server  425  to establish the connection with online digital content store  420  in step  535 . In alternative embodiments, rather than sending the unique transaction identifier to user terminal  410  in step  525 , online digital content store  420  may initiate a download transaction directly with digital content management system  400  or transmit an email to digital content management system  400 , which, when received and parsed, triggers digital content management system  400  to initiate the download transaction. In yet another embodiment, rather than storing the purchased digital content in storage managed by digital content management system  400 , the purchased digital content may be stored locally in the user&#39;s computer or at a third-party storage or backup web service, both of which may be accessible (i.e., viewable through a display window in web interface  100  similar to display window  140 ) through selection options of a navigation panel of web interface  100  (e.g., similar to navigation panel  102 ). In such an embodiment, the location field  600  of the related record (see  FIG. 6 ) would properly reflect the off-site location of the purchased digital content. 
     In yet another alternative embodiment, the purchase of digital media by the user through web interface  100  is conducted through online digital content store&#39;s  420  standard purchase flow without communication with digital content management system  400 . Upon completion of the purchase, online digital content store  420  provides a link to the purchased digital content to the web browser of user terminal  410  to enable the web browser to download the digital content to the local storage of user terminal  410  (e.g., hard drive, etc.). During the web browser&#39;s download process, plug-in  415  is able to intercept and record the location on user terminal&#39;s  410  local storage where the digital content is stored. Plug-in  415  forwards the recorded location to online digital content management  400  to create the record of step  555 . 
       FIG. 7  is a flow chart detailing the association of a seller with digital content purchased from the seller when a user accesses the digital content through a web interface in accordance with the present invention. In step  700 , the user logs into digital content management server  400  to access web interface  100 . In step  705 , the user is able to access digital content via the web interface  100  and in step  710 , selects the desired digital content to consume, for example, through selection of an item in navigation panel  102  and then selecting the digital content in display window  140 . In step  715 , the selection action of the user is transmitted through the web browser to digital content management system  400  and digital content management system  400  accesses a record associated with the selected digital content (e.g., similar to the record of  FIG. 6 ). In step  720 , digital content management system  400  extracts a seller ID from the record to identify the online digital content store from which the selected digital content was purchased. In step  725 , digital content management system  400  is then able to deliver marketing content relating to the seller to the web browser of user terminal  410 , which in step  730  then displays such marketing content to the user through the web browser. Those with ordinary skill in the art will recognize numerous methods for delivering marketing content to user terminal  410 , including, for example, delivering a banner ad or widget to an advertisement window or location in web interface  100 , causing a pop-up window with marketing content to appear, embedding a link in a web page that enables the web browser to connect to a third party advertising delivery platform to obtain marketing content, or otherwise providing marketing content. 
     In yet another alternative embodiment, rather than associating a seller with purchased digital content by creating a record with a seller ID field, a seller ID is embedded into the purchased digital content itself. For example, in the case of a digital song, the seller ID may be inserted into certain headers of the digital song file depending upon the file&#39;s format, such as embedding such information in an ID3 tag for an MP3 file. Alternatively, the seller ID may be embedded through known watermarking or fingerprinting techniques. Similarly, marketing content may also be embedded directly into the digital song. For example, marketing content may be inserted as cover art in the digital song&#39;s format. Upon consumption of the digital content, the seller ID and/or marketing content is extracted directly from the digital content itself to be displayed, for example, through the web interface. 
     In yet another embodiment, digital content may be uploaded to or otherwise made available to digital content management system  400  (e.g., links for streaming, etc.) to offer to its users. For example, a music label may upload music (or otherwise provide a URL for downloading or streaming) to digital content management system  400  in order to offer its users for subscription or promotional purposes. When a user logged into digital content management system  400  subsequently selects such music for consumption (e.g., playback, streaming, preview, etc.), marketing material relating to the music label may be delivered to the user through the web interface. For example, a user may select from a catalog of digital content provided by digital content management system  400  to create a playlist, album or other collection. When the user subsequently accesses such playlist, digital content management system  400  delivers marketing content corresponding to the music label. 
     Those of ordinary skill in the art will additionally recognize that the control logic and data stored and used by the various software components as described in the foregoing specification are merely illustrative and may be redistributed through various other software components and databases in alternative but functionally equivalent designs, including the removal of certain software components and/or databases, without departing from the scope or spirit of the described embodiments. For example, those with ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the architecture of  FIG. 4  depicts simplified versions of a digital content management system and online digital content store and that additional and/or alternative servers and/or data stores may be required in an actual implementation. Similarly, while the foregoing examples have used a web based interface and web browser as primary examples, those with ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other alternatives such as PC based applications which access the Internet to acquire information and content may be used in alternative embodiments. Terminology used in the foregoing description is for the purpose of describing the particular versions or embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention which will be limited only by the appended claims. As used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Similarly, the words “for example”, “such as”, “include,” “includes” and “including” when used herein shall be deemed in each case to be followed by the words “without limitation.” Unless defined otherwise herein, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. All publications mentioned herein are incorporated by reference. Nothing herein is to be construed as an admission that the embodiments disclosed herein are not entitled to antedate such disclosure by virtue of prior invention. Thus, various modifications, additions and substitutions and the like can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and these are therefore considered to be within the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims. 
     The various embodiments described herein may employ various computer-implemented operations involving data stored in computer systems. For example, these operations may require physical manipulation of physical quantities usually, though not necessarily, these quantities may take the form of electrical or magnetic signals where they, or representations of them, are capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated. Further, such manipulations are often referred to in terms, such as producing, identifying, determining, or comparing. Any operations described herein that form part of one or more embodiments of the invention may be useful machine operations. In addition, one or more embodiments of the invention also relate to a device or an apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus may be specially constructed for specific required purposes, or it may be a general purpose computer selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer. In particular, various general purpose machines may be used with computer programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required operations. 
     The various embodiments described herein may be practiced with other computer system configurations including hand-held devices, microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. 
     One or more embodiments of the present invention may be implemented as one or more computer programs or as one or more computer program modules embodied in one or more computer readable media. The term computer readable medium refers to any data storage device that can store data which can thereafter be input to a computer system computer readable media may be based on any existing or subsequently developed technology for embodying computer programs in a manner that enables them to be read by a computer. Examples of a computer readable medium include a hard drive, network attached storage (NAS), read-only memory, random-access memory (e.g., a flash memory device), a CD (Compact Discs) CD-ROM, a CD-R, or a CD-RW, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), a magnetic tape, and other optical and non-optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over a network coupled computer system so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. 
     Although one or more embodiments of the present invention have been described in some detail for clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the claims. Accordingly, the described embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the scope of the claims is not to be limited to details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the claims. In the claims, elements and/or steps do not imply any particular order of operation, unless explicitly stated in the claims.