Indicating related but absent media content
View Patent ↗Systems, products, and methods are disclosed for providing an indication of unavailable media products. An illustrative method includes referencing one or more attributes of a currently present media file, based on the attributes, determining a set of absent media files that are related to the present media file but not currently available for presentation via the device, and presenting indications of at least a portion of the absent media files of the set. An indication of one or more absent media files may be presented to a user so that the user may recognize absent media files. In one embodiment, such an indication may include an identifier, such as text or a symbol, that is positioned adjacent a media attribute that describes the absent media file.
1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon which, when executed by a processing unit of a device, configure the device to perform a method for indicating absent media files comprising:
retrieving, by the device, a first media list comprising at least one present media file, wherein the present media file is a file currently available for presentation by the device, and wherein the retrieving of the first media list is based on information provided by a user request;
retrieving, by the device, after the retrieving of the first media list, at least one attribute of the at least one present media file;
determining, by the device, a set of absent media files related to the at least one present media file, wherein an absent media file is a file not currently available for presentation by the device, and wherein the determining is based on a retrieved attribute of the at least one present media file; and
presenting, by the device, a second media list comprising the set of absent media files and indications identifying the absent media files.
2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the absent media file comprises a media file that is stored remotely from the device.
3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises media titles related based on one of artist, album, and genre.
4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising identifying media attributes relating to the at least one present media file and the absent media files.
5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein identifying the media attributes relating to the at least one present media file and the absent media files comprises referencing the media attributes relating to the at least one present media file and information related to the media attributes from the at least one media file.
6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the at least one present media file comprises at least one of an audio file, a video file, an animated media file, and an image file.
7. A method for indicating absent media files comprising:
receiving, by a device, a media request comprising a request for a media file;
retrieving, by the device, a first list comprising a set of media attributes that are related to at least one media attribute of the requested media file and are shared by a set of media files, when the requested media file is currently available for presentation by the device;
retrieving, by the device, a set of descriptive information comprising a description of the requested media file, when the requested media file is currently available for presentation by the device;
determining, by the device, at least one absent media file related to the requested media file, wherein an absent media file is a file not currently available for presentation by the device, and wherein the determining is based on at least one attribute of the retrieved set of media attributes; and
presenting, by the device, a second list comprising the at least one absent media file and indications identifying the absent media files.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the set of media attributes is described by metadata, and wherein the set of media attributes are related to the at least one media attribute of the requested media file based on at least one of an album, a series, an artist, a producer, a release time-frame, and a genre.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the metadata comprises metadata of a media file.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein a tagging scheme is used to incorporate the metadata within the media file, and wherein the tagging scheme is consistent with at least one of embedding ID3 tags and EXIF (exchangeable image file format) tags.
11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the set of descriptive information further comprises a set of media files.
12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the set of descriptive information is stored within a computing device that hosts a media-player application.
13. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining the at least one absent media file comprises comparing the set of media attributes to the set of descriptive information to recognize each of the media attributes within the set of media attributes not associated with the requested media file.
14. The method of claim 7 , wherein presenting the at least one absent media file comprises presenting an indication of the at least one absent media file on a display of the device.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the indication comprises at least one of a text, a value, a symbol, and an icon.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the presenting the at least one absent media files further comprises including an indication of unavailability of the at least one absent media file.