Patent ID: 8145776

Claim:
A service providing apparatus for providing a service to a plurality of information processing apparatuses via a network, said service providing apparatus comprising: storing means for storing a plurality of chat rooms, a list of available tunes and tune data corresponding to each of the available tunes, the tune data including a title, an artist name and an updating date; receiving means: for receiving participation requests transmitted from any of the plurality of information processing apparatuses to include a corresponding one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses in one of said plurality of chat rooms, for receiving tune requests transmitted from one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses currently participating in said one of the plurality of chat rooms, the tune request including a selection from the list of available tunes, and for receiving text messages transmitted from any of the plurality of information processing apparatuses currently participating in said one of the plurality of chat rooms; acquiring means for acquiring the tune requested by the tune requests from the one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses; transmitting means for transmitting to all of the plurality of information processing apparatuses currently participating in said one of the plurality of chat rooms: the list of available tunes stored in said storing means; the tune acquired by said acquiring means, wherein the tune acquired by the acquiring means is transmitted to all of the plurality of information processing apparatuses without receiving a request for the tune from any of the plurality of information processing apparatuses; a list of all of the information processing apparatuses currently accessing the service providing apparatus and participating in said one of the plurality of chat rooms; said text messages received by said receiving means; and instructions to each of the plurality of information processing apparatuses currently accessing the service providing apparatus and participating in said one of the plurality of chat rooms commanding said one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses to simultaneously display in one window on a display configured to display a plurality of windows, the list of available tunes, a name of the tune being shared by all of the information processing apparatuses currently receiving transmissions from the transmitting means, and identification information corresponding to all of the information processing apparatuses currently participating in said one of the plurality of chat rooms.