Apparatus, system, and method for digital audio services

1 .- 20 . (canceled)

21 . A method for proving digital audio services, comprising:

receiving, using a broadcast communications interface, an audio stream from a content provider, the audio stream including advertisements;

playing, through an output of the broadcast communications interface, the audio stream;

determining an origin for a first advertisement in the audio stream;

receiving, through a web communications interface, a first interactive element associated with the origin of the first advertisement; and

outputting, by a user interface, the first interactive element.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the determining an origin for the first advertisement comprises sampling audio stream at regular intervals and matching to at least one model audio sample of a plurality of model audio samples.

23 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising:

determining an origin for a second advertisement in the audio stream;

receiving, through the web communications interface, a second interactive element associated with the origin of the second advertisement;

creating a playlist, by the user interface, of a plurality of interactive elements; and

outputting, by a user interface, the playlist.

24 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising:

determining that the first interactive element and the second interactive element are different based on a fingerprint analysis; and

updating the playlist to include the first interactive element and the second interactive element.

25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the fingerprint analysis comprises:

creating spectrograph data from the audio stream;

filtering out, from the spectrograph data, data representing frequencies not within a predetermined minimum and predetermined maximum range; and

scaling the spectrograph data to a predetermined decibel range.

26 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the first interactive element includes information selected from the group consisting of vendor information, unique receipt information, and offer information.

27 . The method of claim 21 , wherein said determining an origin step comprises:

recording a timestamp of the first advertisement; and

comparing, by a web communications interface, the time stamp to a meta data record of the audio stream.

28 . The method of claim 21 , wherein said determining an origin step comprises:

analyzing embedded RDS or RBDS metadata from audio stream received by the broadcast communications interface.

29 . The method of claim 21 , wherein said determining an origin step comprises:

receiving an embedded RDS or RBDS metadata trigger from the audio stream;

generating a fingerprint by initiating audio sampling from the audio stream for a predetermined period of time; and

matching the fingerprint to an advertisement database.

30 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the first interactive element includes any of:

a coupon code;

an interactive survey; or

an Internet link to an external website.

31 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising:

receiving user input, by a user interface, with reference to the first interactive element; and

transmitting, by a web communications interface, user input and a time stamp for the user input to an external server.

32 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising:

differentiating the first advertisement from other broadcast content by:

a. periodically sampling the audio stream to generate fingerprints;

b. comparing the fingerprints to model samples in a database;

c. determining an identity of current audio stream content from fingerprint comparison;

d. outputting identity result; and

d. delaying subsequent periodic samples by a predetermined time based upon said identity.

33 . A method for proving digital audio services, comprising:

receiving, using a web communications interface on a device, an audio stream from a content provider, the audio stream including advertisements;

playing, through an output of the web communications interface on the device, the audio stream;

receiving, through the web communications interface on the device, a first interactive element associated with a first advertisement; and

outputting, by a user interface of the device, the first interactive element.

34 . The method of claim 33 , further comprising:

receiving, through the web communications interface, a second interactive element associated with a second advertisement;

creating a playlist, by the user interface, of a plurality of interactive elements; and

outputting, by a user interface, the playlist.

35 . The method of claim 34 , further comprising:

determining that the first interactive element and the second interactive element are different based on a fingerprint analysis; and

updating the playlist to include the first interactive element and the second interactive element.

36 . The method of claim 33 , wherein the first interactive element includes any of:

a coupon code;

an interactive survey; or

an Internet link to an external website.

37 . A method for proving digital audio services, comprising:

receiving, using a broadcast communications interface, an audio stream from a content provider;

playing, through an output of the broadcast communications interface to a device, the audio stream;

determining an identification for a first song in the audio stream;

receiving, through a web communications interface on the device, an interactive element having metadata for the first song and a user interface to purchase the first song from an external source;

transmitting, by the user interface, purchase requests for the first song.

38 . The method of claim 37 , further comprising:

determining an identification for a second song in the audio stream;

receiving, through the web communications interface, a second interactive element associated with the identification of the second song;

creating a playlist, by the user interface, of a plurality of interactive elements; and

outputting, by a user interface, the playlist.

39 . The method of claim 38 , further comprising:

determining that the first interactive element and the second interactive element are different based on a fingerprint analysis; and

updating the playlist to include the first interactive element and the second interactive element.

40 . The method of claim 37 , wherein said determining an identification step comprises:

recording a timestamp of the first advertisement; and

comparing, by a web communications interface, the time stamp to a meta data record of the audio stream.

41 . The method of claim 37 , wherein said determining an identification step comprises:

analyzing embedded RDS or RBDS metadata from audio stream received by the broadcast communications interface.

42 . The method of claim 37 , wherein said determining an identification step comprises:

receiving an embedded RDS or RBDS metadata trigger from the audio stream;

generating a fingerprint by initiating audio sampling from the audio stream for a predetermined period of time; and

matching the fingerprint to a song database.