Patent ID: 8249421

Claim:
A method of encoding information and recording the encoded information on an information recording medium having a recording area for an auxiliary signal and a recording area for a main signal, the auxiliary-signal recording area and the main-signal recording area being successively arranged, the method comprising the steps of: generating first interactive data for identifying groups of tunes which are 1st to “n−1”th groups of original tunes and “n”th group of bonus tunes, wherein “n” denotes a predetermined positive integer, and the “n”th group of bonus tunes is either present or absent; generating second interactive data representing a password to permit an access to the “n”th group of bonus tunes when the “n”th group of bonus tunes is present, and representing the absence of the “n”th group of bonus tunes when the “n”th group of bonus tunes is absent; and recording the first interactive data, the second interactive data, a first audio title, a second audio title, an audio manager, and a still picture set (SPS); wherein the first audio title is an audio title including structural elements of tunes represented by audio data, and is structural elements of the original tunes; wherein the second audio title is an audio title including structural elements of tunes represented by audio data, and is structural elements of the bonus tunes when the “n”th group of bonus tunes is present; wherein the audio manager includes management information for playing back the 1st to “n”th group of tunes in a prescribed playback order; and wherein the still picture set includes still picture data, and the still picture data is synchronized with the audio data of at least one of the original tunes and the bonus tunes when the 1st to “n”th group of tunes are played back.