Patent ID: 8606717

Claim:
A method of allocating capacity delivery of playable media items over between a first user of a media distribution service and a second user of the media distribution service, the method comprising: (a) providing a first delivery queue for the first user with a computing system accessible over an electronic network, said first delivery queue having a first capacity for delivering playable media items to said first user; wherein said first capacity defines a first maximum number of said playable media items which can be in a delivered state to the first user at any time; (b) providing a second delivery queue for the second user with said computing system, said second delivery queue having a second capacity for delivering second playable media items to said second user: wherein said second capacity defines a second maximum number of said playable media items which can be in a delivered state to the second user at any time; (c) exchanging capacity between said first subscriber queue and said second delivery queue for delivery of playable media items with said computing system in response to a request received from one or both of said first user and second user over said electronic network; wherein said first capacity and said second capacity are altered such that a respective first maximum number and second maximum number of playable media items which the first user and second user are able to have in their respective possession at any time is also altered.