Patent ID: 8213857

Claim:
A device for generating a playlist, the device comprising: a processor; a receiver for receiving a wireless transmission of a plurality of radio channels carrying audio content, each radio channel having associated therewith metadata describing the audio content carried on the radio channel; computer storage media storing a plurality of audio files, each audio file having associated therewith metadata describing the content of the audio file; and memory storing computer executable instructions which when executed by the processor perform acts to automatically organize the plurality of audio files into playlists based on a comparison of the metadata of each audio file to the metadata of each of the plurality of radio channels, the acts comprising: accessing the metadata of each of the plurality of radio channels to determine characteristics of the audio content that is carried over each of the radio channels receivable at the device; accessing the metadata of each of the plurality of audio files; for each audio file, comparing the metadata of the audio file to the metadata of each radio channel to determine which radio channel carries audio content that is most similar to the audio content of the audio file; and for each radio channel for which it is determined that at least one audio file contains audio content that is most similar to the audio content of the radio channel, creating a playlist of each audio file that contains audio content that is most similar to the audio content of the radio channel wherein the computer executable instruction, further perform; while the receiver is tuned to a particular radio channel and the device is outputting the audio content of the particular radio channel on speakers of the device, detecting that the particular radio channel is no longer being received by the receiver; and automatically playing the playlist associated with the particular radio channel.