Patent ID: 7863511

Claim:
A system for automatically generating a composed audio output sequence of a prescribed duration, the composed audio sequence associated with a musical piece, comprising: a data storage library populated with a plurality of audio parts having predetermined durations and associated with at least one musical piece, the plurality of audio parts including one or more intro parts suitable as introductions to an audio selection, one or more outro parts suitable as endings to the audio selection, and optionally one or more main parts, marker data associated with each audio part indicative of a musical structure type and optionally one or more part properties, one or more audio selections associated with the at least one musical piece, wherein each audio selection is comprised of a plurality of the intro parts having distinct durations, one or more of the outro parts having distinct durations, and optionally one or more main parts having distinct durations and suitable for use in the audio selection between a particular intro part and a particular outro part, and one or more templates associated with the one or more audio selections, each template comprised of a style identifier and text string representing a preferred ordering of one or more of the audio parts; an interface permitting a user: to prescribe a target duration by entering a time value for the target duration or by equating the target duration to a duration of a chosen video sequence, to choose a musical style, to choose a musical piece from among the at least one musical piece in the data storage library that conform to the chosen style, to choose an audio selection from among the audio selections in the data storage library that conform to the chosen style and that have an available duration range encompassing the target duration, and to preview the chosen audio selection; and a sequence composer for identifying one or more audio selections to the user that conform to the chosen style and that have respective duration ranges encompassing the target duration and for automatically composing a sequence of audio parts conforming to the chosen selection, the sequence derived from the template associated with the chosen selection, each audio sequence having an intro part, an outro part, and optionally one or more main parts in a preferred ordering and further having a duration substantially matching the target duration.