Associating and linking compact disc metadata
Improved techniques for enhancing, associating, and linking various sources of metadata for music files, to allow integration of commercially generated metadata with user-entered metadata, and to ensure that metadata provided to the user is of the highest quality and accuracy available, even when the metadata comes from disparate sources having different levels of credibility. The invention further provides improved techniques for identifying approximate matches when querying metadata databases, and also provides improved techniques for accepting user submissions of metadata, for categorizing user submissions according to relative credibility, and for integrating user submissions with existing metadata.
1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a computing device, a metadata request, which comprises a plurality of numeric values retrieved from a media item, as metadata corresponding to the media item;
in response to the metadata request, first querying first and second metadata sources using the received metadata, so as to retrieve at least one primary record;
transmitting the at least one primary record in response to the metadata request;
in response to the metadata request and to extracting no metadata from one of the metadata sources queried using the first query, performing a second query of the queried metadata source, the second query formed using metadata extracted from the at least one primary record as other metadata corresponding to the media item, so as to retrieve, using the second query and the other metadata, at least one secondary record from the queried metadata source;
transmitting the at least one secondary record in response to the metadata request;
creating, at the computing device, a linking record associating the other metadata extracted from the primary record with the metadata received with the metadata request; and
storing the linking record in a linking database that is in communication with the computing device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed by at least one server.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first metadata source comprises a database having a first degree of credibility, and the secondary metadata source comprises a database having a second degree of credibility different than the first degree of credibility.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of numeric values comprises table of contents data, and the other metadata extracted from the primary record comprises at least one of an album title and artist.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the queried metadata source that has no metadata extracted using the first query has a greater level of credibility than the queried metadata source that has metadata extracted using the first query.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is a plurality of computing devices.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is a server.
8. A method comprising:
receiving, at a computing device, a metadata request, which comprises a plurality of numeric values retrieved from a media item, as metadata corresponding to the media item;
running a first query using the received metadata on first and second metadata sources;
responsive to retrieving at least one record from the first query performed in response to the metadata request, transmitting metadata from the retrieved at least one record; and
responsive to the metadata request and to extracting no metadata from one of the metadata sources queried in the first query performed in response to the metadata request:
forming a second query using additional media identification information as metadata corresponding to the media item, the additional metadata being other than the received metadata;
running the second query using the additional metadata, so as to retrieve at least one record from the queried metadata source; and
responsive to retrieving at least one record in response to the second query, transmitting metadata from the retrieved at least one record in response to the metadata request;
creating, at the computing device, an auxiliary record comprising a mapping between the metadata used in the second query and the metadata used in the first query; and
storing the auxiliary record in a linking database that is in communication with the computing device.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the additional media identification information comprises a bar code.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the additional media identification information comprises at least one of a title, artist, and uniform product code.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of numeric values comprises table of contents data.
12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the additional media identification information comprises at least one audio signature extracted from the media item.
13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
requesting the additional media identification information from a sender of the metadata request in response to retrieving no items of information for the media item in the first query performed in response to the metadata request.
14. A method comprising:
receiving, at a computing device, a metadata request, which comprises a plurality of numeric values retrieved from a media item, as metadata corresponding to the media item;
running a first query using the received metadata on first and second metadata sources;
responsive to retrieving at least one record from the first query performed in response to the metadata request, transmitting metadata from the retrieved at least one record; and
responsive to the metadata request and to extracting no metadata from one of the metadata sources queried in the first query performed in response to the metadata request:
forming a second query using additional media identification information as metadata corresponding to the media item, the additional metadata being other than the received metadata;
running the second query using the additional metadata, so as to retrieve at least one record from the queried metadata source; and
responsive to retrieving at least one record in response to the second query, transmitting metadata from the retrieved at least one record in response to the metadata request;
creating, at the computing device, a linking record associating the plurality of numeric values received as part of the request for metadata with the additional media identification information; and
storing the received linking record in a linking database that is in communication with the computing device.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the additional media identification information comprises a bar code.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the additional media identification information comprises at least one of a title, artist, and uniform product code.
17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of numeric values comprises table of contents data.
18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the additional media identification information comprises at least one audio signature extracted from the media item.
19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
requesting the additional media identification information from a sender of the metadata request in response to retrieving no items of information for the media item in the first query performed in response to the metadata request.
20. A method comprising:
receiving, at the computing device, a metadata request comprising an identifier as metadata corresponding to a media item;
responsive to receiving the metadata request, querying a metadata source using the received metadata, so as to retrieve metadata corresponding to the media item from the metadata source using the received metadata;
responsive to the metadata request and to extracting no metadata from the metadata source using the received metadata:
querying the metadata source using metadata other than the received metadata, the other metadata corresponding to the media item and having a predetermined link to the received metadata, so as to retrieve metadata corresponding to the media item from the metadata source; and
transmitting the retrieved metadata in response to the metadata request,
wherein querying the metadata source using metadata other than the received metadata further comprises:
retrieving a linking record from a set of metadata-source linking records using the received metadata, the linking record comprising the predetermined link between the received metadata and the other metadata.