Rating media item groups

Abstract

Improved techniques to create, browse, rate and/or purchase media asset groups are disclosed. Media assets groups can be created by various users and published to a digital assets manager. Thereafter, the media assets groups can be finalized and made available for on-line purchase. Once the media asset groups are made available for on-line purchase, users can browse, rate and/or purchase the media asset groups at an on-line media store. One example of a media asset group (group of media items) is known as a playlist, which can pertain to a group of audio tracks.

1 . A method for rating media asset groups available on an on-line media asset store, said method comprising: 
 (a) causing a media asset group to be displayed for a user, the media asset group pertaining to a plurality of media assets;    (b) receiving a user rating indication, the user rating indication denoting a user rating; and    (c) updating a media asset group rating in accordance with the user rating.    
     
     
         2 . A method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said updating (c) produces the media asset group rating based on a plurality of different user rating indications received at different times from different users, the different user rating indications denoting different user ratings.  
     
     
         3 . A method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the different user ratings are averaged in producing the media asset group rating.  
     
     
         4 . A method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said updating (c) of the media asset group rating imposes a decay factor to discount older user ratings.  
     
     
         5 . A method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein said updating (c) imposes a decay factor to discount older ones of the user ratings.  
     
     
         6 . A method as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the decay factor is such that a user-indicated rating has one-half of its initial significance after a predetermined number of days.  
     
     
         7 . A method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the media asset group includes at least a group of audio tracks.  
     
     
         8 . A method for reviewing groups of media assets available from an on-line media asset store, the on-line media store supporting access thereto by one or more client devices via a network, said method comprising: 
 (a) receiving a user request, from a client device, for information concerning a particular group of media assets from a plurality of groups of media assets available on the on-line media asset store;    (b) retrieving media asset group information for the particular group of media assets from the on-line media asset store;    (c) providing the media asset group information for display on the client device, the media asset group information including a list of media items in the particular group of media assets, at least one media asset illustration, and rating selection information;    (d) receiving a user-indicated rating for the particular group of media assets, and    (e) subsequently updating a media asset group rating for the particular group of media assets in accordance with the user-indicated rating.    
     
     
         9 . A method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein the rating selection information includes a plurality of potential rating selections and a rating control for display on the client device.  
     
     
         10 . A method as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the user-indicated rating is indicated by providing a selection of one of the potential rating selections and then selection of the rating control.  
     
     
         11 . A method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein the media assets are audio tracks.  
     
     
         12 . A method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein said updating (e) of the media asset group rating is influenced by user-indicated ratings for a plurality of different users that have submitted user-indicated ratings.  
     
     
         13 . A method as recited in  claim 12 , wherein said updating (e) imposes a decay factor to discount older ones of the user-indicated ratings.  
     
     
         14 . A method as recited in  claim 13 , wherein the decay factor is such that a user-indicated rating has one-half of its initial significance after  30  days.  
     
     
         15 . A method as recited in  claim 13 , wherein the decay factor, D, is:  
       
         
           
             
               D 
               = 
               
                 
                   1 
                   2 
                 
                 H 
               
             
           
         
       
       wherein H is the number of days for the half-life.  
     
     
         16 . A method as recited in  claim 12 , wherein said updating (e) imposes an exponential decay function to discount older ones of the user-indicated ratings.  
     
     
         17 . A method as recited in  claim 12 , wherein said updating (e) of the media asset group rating discounts the effect of older user-indicated ratings as compared to more recent user-indicated ratings.  
     
     
         18 . A method as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the user-indicated rating is averaged with a plurality of other user-indicated ratings for the particular group of media assets.  
     
     
         19 . A method as recited in  claim 12 , wherein said updating (e) of the media asset group rating is performed on a daily basis.  
     
     
         20 . A method as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the media asset illustration is a media asset group illustration based on two or more of the media asset illustrations associated with the media assets of the particular group of media assets.  
     
     
         21 . A method as recited in  claim 20 , wherein the media asset group illustration is a mosaic.  
     
     
         22 . A method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein the media asset group illustration includes the two or more of the media asset illustrations arranged according to a pattern, wherein each of the two or more media asset illustrations represents only a part of the media asset group illustration.  
     
     
         23 . A method as recited in  claim 22 , wherein the pattern is based on the number of the media asset illustrations associated with the media assets of the media asset group.  
     
     
         24 . A method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein a color to be applied to some portion of the media asset group illustration can be automatically from one or more of the media asset illustrations associated with the media assets of the media asset group.  
     
     
         25 . A computer readable medium including at least computer program code for rating media asset groups available on an on-line media asset store, said computer readable medium comprising: 
 computer program code for causing a media asset group to be displayed for a user, the media asset group pertaining to a plurality of media assets;    computer program code for receiving a user rating indication, the user rating indication denoting a user rating; and    computer program code for updating a media asset group rating in accordance with the user rating.    
     
     
         26 . A computer readable medium for reviewing groups of media assets available from an on-line media asset store, the on-line media store supporting access thereto by one or more client devices via a network, said computer readable medium comprising: 
 computer program code for receiving a user request, from a client device, for information concerning a particular group of media assets from a plurality of groups of media assets available on the on-line media asset store;    computer program code for retrieving media asset group information for-the particular group of media assets from the on-line media asset store;    computer program code for providing the media asset group information for display on the client device, the media asset group information including a list of media items in the particular group of media assets, at least one media asset illustration, and rating selection information;    computer program code for receiving a user-indicated rating for the particular group of media assets, and    computer program code for subsequently updating a media asset group rating for the particular group of media assets in accordance with the user-indicated rating.