Patent ID: 7031921

Claim:
A method for monitoring audio content available over a network, said method comprising the steps of: searching the network for audio files; generating audio identifying information for each audio file that is found based on detected events in audio content from each audio file; and determining whether the audio identifying information generated for each audio file matches audio identifying information in an audio content database, wherein the generating step includes, for each audio file, the sub-step of: detecting a plurality of events in the audio content from that audio file, each of the events being a crossing of the value of a first running average and the value of a second running average, wherein the first running average is an average over a first averaging period of a plurality of time dependent frequency components of the audio content from that audio file, and the second running average is an average over a second averaging period, which is different than the first averaging period, of the time dependent frequency components of the audio content that audio file.