Patent ID: 8639832

Claim:
A machine implemented method comprising: requesting data, with a client device, over a network using a transfer protocol; receiving, in response to the requesting, a playlist comprising a plurality of tags and a plurality of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) indicating a first playlist file and a second playlist file, wherein one or more of the plurality of tags indicates a first URI associated with the first playlist file and specifying a first location for a stream of content and a second URI associated with the second playlist file and specifying a second location for the stream of content, wherein the second location is different from, but at least partially redundant of, the first location; selecting, with the client device, the first playlist file or the second playlist file; using the transfer protocol, requesting the selected first or second playlist file with the client device, wherein the requesting uses a URI from the playlist corresponding to the selected playlist file; receiving, with the client device, the requested playlist file, the requested playlist file having URIs indicating segments of the stream of content and a plurality of tags having parameters related to playback of the segments of the stream of content, wherein the segments of the stream of content provide media for playback on the client device; using the transfer protocol, requesting one or more of the segments in an order indicated by the requested playlist file; receiving the one or more requested segments over the network using the transfer protocol.