Musically contextual audio advertisements
Audio advertisements for music services can be created and played to minimize any perceived discontinuity by a listener from a preceding song. Specifically, a voice-over content item (e.g., a spoken advertisement produced without music) may combined with a non-song musical content item (e.g., backing music specifically produced for advertisements) to create an audio advertisement to be played after a song on a streaming music service. The non-song musical content item may be selected based on its similarity to the preceding song (e.g., genre, tempo, or harmony) and/or a musical preference of a user (e.g., a preferred genre obtained through a user's music service account and/or selected by the user). The genre of both the preceding song and a musical preference of a user may be used to select a non-song musical content item genre by a weighting that determines the probability of the genre used for an advertisement.
1. A computer program product for following a first song with an advertisement, the computer program product comprising computer executable code stored in a non-transitory memory that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps of:
accessing a musical preference of a user of a music service, the musical preference including a preferred genre of music;
accessing metadata for a first song being played through the music service on a music playback device;
accessing a voice-over content item created for use in advertisements to follow songs played through the music service, the voice-over content item including a spoken advertisement produced without music;
selecting a non-song musical content item for use in an advertisement based on one or more of (i) a similarity between the first song and the non-song musical content item, and (ii) the musical preference of the user, the non-song musical content item including accompanying music expressly created for advertisements;
combining the voice-over content item and the non-song musical content item into an advertisement for playback after the first song; and
in response to determining that the first song is at or near its end of playback, transitioning to the advertisement.
2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein selecting the non-song musical content item includes a comparison of a genre of the non-song musical content item to one or more of the preferred genre of music for the user and a genre of the first song.
3. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the comparison includes utilizing one or more of a first weight related to a similarity of the genre of the non-song musical content item to the genre of the first song and a second weight related to a similarity of the genre of the non-song musical content item to the preferred genre of music for the user.
4. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein one or more of the first weight and the second weight is configurable by one or more of the music service and the user.
5. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein accessing metadata includes retrieving the genre of the first song from song genre metadata for the first song.
6. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising determining the preferred genre of music for the user through an analysis of account data for the user.
7. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the preferred genre of music for the user is selected by the user.
8. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein transitioning to the advertisement includes providing rhythmic continuity by playing the non-song musical content item and the voice-over content item immediately and contiguously following an end portion of the first song.
9. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising applying a Music Information Retrieval (MIR) process including one or more of a bar/beat grid detection routine, a key detection routine, a mode detection routine, and a chordal harmony detection routine to determine the similarity between the first song and the non-song musical content item.
10. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein transitioning to the advertisement includes a pitch-shifting of the non-song musical content item in real time by a minimum amount necessary to relate harmonically to the first song.
11. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein transitioning to the advertisement includes time-stretching the non-song musical content item to match a tempo of the first song in real time.
12. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the similarity between the first song and the non-song musical content item relates to one or more of keys, tempos, and genre.
13. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising a first database of non-song musical content items, wherein the non-song musical content items have different keys, tempos, or genres, and wherein the selected non-song musical content item is stored in the first database.
14. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising playing the non-song musical content item immediately and contiguously following an end of the first song to be rhythmically continuous in terms of tempo to the first song.
15. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising altering the non-song musical content item to be harmonically continuous in terms of key or mode to the first song.
16. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the non-song musical content item includes a short musical sound logo or mnemonic.
17. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the music playback device includes a digital music player selected from a group consisting of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a cellular telephone, a computer tablet, and a networked computer display.
18. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising collecting data representing an effectiveness of the advertisement and correlating the data to at least one of the non-song musical content item and the first song.
19. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the similarity between the first song and the non-song musical content item is based on a key or mode determined by a 6-note scale.
20. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the advertisement includes visual advertising content.