Patent ID: 7281034

Claim:
A system for providing media from over a network to a terminal, the system comprising: one or more network sites that include at least a first network location and a second network location; one or more memory mediums that store data corresponding to (i) an identifier for each of a plurality of media resources, (ii) address information, apart from the identifiers, for locating on the network at least a portion of each of the plurality of media resources, and (iii) metadata information for each of the plurality of media resources; a media playback component installed on the terminal, wherein at least one of the first network location or the second network location is remote to the terminal; and a network server module that communicates with the media playback component over the network, the network server module signaling (i) a first link that includes an identifier of a first media resource provided at least in part at the first network location and (ii) a second link that includes an identifier of a second media resource provided at least in part at the second network location, wherein the network server module is configured to signal the first link and the second link for the media playback component with one or more control signals; wherein at least one of the first link or second link includes two or more commands as part of the control signals; wherein the media playback component is configured to use the identifier of the first media resource to connect to the first network location to receive streaming data corresponding to at least a portion of the first media resource, and to use the identifier of the second media resource to connect to the second network location to receive streaming data corresponding to at least a portion of the second media resource; and wherein the media playback component (i) uses the streaming data from the first network location to playback the first media resource, (ii) uses the streaming data from the second network location to play back the second media resource; and wherein the media playback component is configured to use at least one of the two or more commands of the control signals provided with at least one of the first link or the second link to identify a play-list and control when to automatically playback the second media resource relative to playback of the first media resource by determining to add at least one of the first media resource and the second media resource to the play-list; and wherein media, resulting from the media playback component playing back the first media resource and the second media resource, is provided on the terminal on which the media playback component is installed.