Distributing personalized content
View Patent ↗The invention provides a method and system for distributing personalized content to potentially large numbers of recipients. A pool is selected, from among all content available for distribution, of those content elements that will be made available for simultaneous distribution, and personalized content is selected for distribution from that pool. The content of the pool can change with new selections over time. For each individual recipient, content elements in the pool are examined to determine if they are predicted to be of sufficient interest to that recipient for distribution, and if so, those content elements are distributed. If not, successive content elements in the pool are examined, relaxing the standard for sufficient interest, until at least one content element is found and distributed to the individual recipient.
1. A method of enabling access to digital media items through one or more theme-based channels over a communications network, the method comprising:
obtaining a pool of digital media items of potential interest to a community of users that access a theme-based channel, the pool of digital media items including a first digital media item and a second digital media item;
receiving, over the communications network, requests from a first individual recipient and a second individual recipient to access the theme-based channel;
providing, as the first individual recipient is accessing the theme-based channel, the first individual recipient with the first digital media item, the first digital media item being provided to the first individual recipient in response to a determination that the first digital media item is more responsive to a predicted interest of the first individual recipient than the second digital media item;
providing, as the second individual recipient is accessing the theme-based channel, the second individual recipient with the second digital media item; and
replacing one or more of the digital media items in the pool, based on a determination that the one or more digital media items are not responsive to a predicted interest of the community of users.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, after providing the first digital media item, a third digital media item to the first individual recipient; and
providing, after providing the second digital media item, the third digital media item to the second individual recipient.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the pool of digital media items comprises:
determining whether the digital media items in the pool are responsive to the predicted interest of the community of users accessing the theme-based channel.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
removing the first digital media item from the pool in response to providing the first digital media item to the first individual recipient; and
removing the second digital media item from the pool in response to providing the second digital media item to the second individual recipient.
5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising removing the third digital media item from the pool in response to providing the third digital media item to the first individual recipient.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising replacing one or more of the digital media items of the pool on a periodic basis.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising replacing one or more of the digital media items in the pool in response to user feedback.
8. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying the third digital media item in response to a determination that the third digital media item complies with a requirement that an artist may not be selected for consecutive digital media items.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying the second digital media item in response to a determination that the second digital media item complies with a requirement that the second digital media item may not be played more than a threshold number of times in a threshold period of time.
10. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying the third digital media item in response to a determination that the third digital media item has a different mood than the first digital media item and the second digital media item.
11. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying the third digital media item in response to a determination that the third digital media item has a different tempo than the first digital media item and the second digital media item.
12. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying the third digital media item independent of a predicted interest in the third digital media item from the first individual recipient.
13. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying the third digital media item independent of a predicted interest in the first digital media item from the first individual recipient.
14. The method of claim 3 , further comprising identifying the second digital media item in response to a determination that the second digital media item has a threshold degree of interest from the community of users.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first individual recipient receives the first digital media item at substantially the same time that the second individual recipient receives the second digital media item.
16. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first individual recipient receives the third digital media item at substantially the same time that the second individual recipient receives the third digital media item.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the first digital media item to the first individual recipient includes providing an advertisement.
18. A system of enabling access to digital media items through one or more theme-based channels over a communications network, the method comprising:
a storage device that stores a library of content; and
a processor configured to:
obtain, from the library of content, a pool of digital media items of potential interest to a community of users that access a theme-based channel, the pool of digital media items including a first digital media item and a second digital media item;
receive, over the communications network, requests from a first individual recipient and a second individual recipient to access the theme-based channel;
provide, as the first individual recipient is accessing the theme-based channel, the first individual recipient with the first digital media item, the first digital media item being provided to the first individual recipient in response to a determination that the first digital media item is more responsive to a predicted interest of the first individual recipient than the second digital media item;
provide, as the second individual recipient is accessing the theme-based channel, the second individual recipient with the second digital media item; and
replace one or more of the digital media items in the pool, based on a determination that the one or more digital media items are not responsive to a predicted interest of the community of users.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
provide, after providing the first digital media item, a third digital media item to the first individual recipient and;
provide, after providing the second digital media item, the third digital media item to the second individual recipient.
20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine whether the digital media items in the pool are responsive to the predicted interests of the community of users accessing the theme-based channel.
21. The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configure to identify the second digital media item in response to a determination that the second digital media item complies with a requirement that the second digital media item may not be played more than a threshold number of times in a threshold period of time.
22. The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide the first digital media item to the first individual recipient along with an advertisement.