Sharing Playlists in a Recommendation System

Abstract

A system for sharing playlists and playlist essence with different users. A user desiring to share his or her playlist generates the playlist and a playlist characterization. The playlist characterization is based on acoustic analysis data of one or more songs in the playlist. The playlist and playlist characterization is then transmitted to another end user device. The end user device receiving the shared playlist searches the user's music collection for the songs in the playlist. If a gap is detected in the playlist because the receiving user does not own a particular song, the receiving end user devices automatically selects another song that is owned by the user to fill-in the gap. The song is selected based on the playlist characterization with the aim of preserving the essence of the shared playlist.

1 . A computer-implemented method for sharing playlists comprising:
 receiving, under control of the computer, a playlist of songs;   searching, under control of the computer, a data store for the songs in the playlist;   identifying, under control of the computer, a first song in the playlist unavailable in the data store;   responsive to the identification of the first song, automatically identifying a second song available in the data store for replacing the first song;   generating, under control of the computer, a modified playlist of songs, the modified playlist replacing the first song with the second song; and   outputting the modified playlist.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the playlist is downloaded from a remote location. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automatically identifying of the second song further includes:
 retrieving, under control of the computer, a playlist characterization; and   selecting the second song based on the playlist characterization.   
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on acoustic analysis data of at least one song in the playlist. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on a group profile of the playlist, the group profile being generated based on acoustic analysis data of a plurality of songs in the playlist. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on a group profile of an artist associated with the playlist. 
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on a group profile of an album associated with the playlist. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data store is a local data store. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data store is a remote data store. 
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 playing, under control of the computer, the modified playlist of songs.   
   
   
       11 . An end user device in a system for sharing playlists, the end user device comprising:
 a network connection for receiving a playlist of songs;   a data store including a plurality of stored songs;   a processor; and   a memory coupled to the processor, and having program instructions stored therein, the processor being operable to execute the program instructions, the program instructions including:
 searching the data store for the songs in the playlist; 
 identifying a first song in the playlist unavailable in the data store; 
 responsive to the identification of the first song, automatically identifying a second song available in the data store for replacing the first song; 
 generating a modified playlist of songs, the modified playlist replacing the first song with the second song; and 
 outputting the modified playlist. 
   
   
   
       12 . The end user device of  claim 11 , wherein the network connection downloads the playlist from a remote location. 
   
   
       13 . The end user device of  claim 11 , wherein the program instructions for automatically identifying of the second song further includes program instructions for:
 retrieving a playlist characterization; and   selecting the second song based on the playlist characterization.   
   
   
       14 . The end user device of  claim 13 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on acoustic analysis data of at least one song in the playlist. 
   
   
       15 . The end user device of  claim 13 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on a group profile of the playlist, the group profile being generated based on acoustic analysis data of a plurality of songs in the playlist. 
   
   
       16 . The end user device of  claim 13 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on a group profile of an artist associated with the playlist. 
   
   
       17 . The end user device of  claim 13 , wherein the playlist characterization is based on a group profile of an album associated with the playlist. 
   
   
       18 . The end user device of  claim 11  further comprising:
 a music player playing the modified playlist of songs.