Associating and linking compact disc metadata

Abstract

Improved techniques for enhancing, associating, and linking various sources of metadata for music files, to allow integration of commercially generated metadata with user-entered metadata, and to ensure that metadata provided to the user is of the highest quality and accuracy available, even when the metadata comes from disparate sources having different levels of credibility. The invention further provides improved techniques for identifying approximate matches when querying metadata databases, and also provides improved techniques for accepting user submissions of metadata, for categorizing user submissions according to relative credibility, and for integrating user submissions with existing metadata.

1 - 10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . A method of retrieving metadata corresponding to a media item, comprising:
 querying, by at least one a first metadata source using an identifier associated with the media item;   responsive to the first metadata source missing at least a portion of the metadata corresponding to the media item, the at least one processing unit querying a second metadata source using an identifier associated with the media item;   responsive to at least one of the metadata sources having metadata corresponding to the media item, the at least one processing unit retrieving the at least a portion of the metadata; and   outputting the retrieved metadata.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein each metadata source comprises a database. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first metadata source comprises a database of commercially generated metadata, and the second metadata source comprises a database of user-entered metadata. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first metadata source comprises a database having a first degree of credibility, and the second metadata source comprises a database having a second degree of credibility lower than the first degree of credibility. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first metadata source comprises a database of corroborated metadata, and the second metadata source comprises a database of uncorroborated metadata. 
     
     
         16 . A method of retrieving metadata corresponding to a media item, comprising:
 querying, by at least one a metadata source using an identifier associated with the media item;   retrieving, by the at least one processing unit, at least two metadata records based on the query, each retrieved metadata record having an indicator of relative credibility;   responsive to a first retrieved metadata record having the highest relative credibility containing complete metadata corresponding to the media item, outputting the metadata from the first retrieved metadata record; and   responsive to the retrieved metadata record having the highest relative credibility missing at least a portion of the metadata corresponding to the media item, outputting corresponding metadata from the second retrieved metadata record.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the first metadata record comprises commercially generated metadata, and the second metadata source comprises user-entered metadata. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the first metadata record comprises corroborated metadata, and the second metadata source comprises uncorroborated metadata. 
     
     
         19 - 33 . (canceled) 
     
     
         34 . A method of retrieving metadata corresponding to a media item, comprising:
 obtaining, by at least one processing unit, a plurality of numeric values of the media item;   forming, by the at least one processing unit, a first query from the plurality of numeric values;   running, by the at least one processing unit, the first query on a first metadata source to retrieve at least one primary record comprising metadata;   forming, by the at least one processing unit, a second query from metadata extracted from the retrieved at least one primary record;   running, by the at least one processing unit, the second query on a second metadata source to retrieve at least one secondary record comprising metadata; and   outputting at least a portion of the metadata from the at least one secondary record.   
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the first metadata source comprises a database having a first degree of credibility, and the second metadata source comprises a database having a second degree of credibility different than the first degree of credibility. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the plurality of numeric values comprises table of contents data, and the extracted metadata comprises at least one of an album title and artist. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 storing, in the primary record, metadata from the secondary record.   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 generating a tertiary record comprising metadata from the first source and metadata from the second source; and   storing the generated tertiary record.   
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 generating a linking record associating the primary record with the secondary record; and   storing the generated linking record.   
     
     
         40 . A method of retrieving metadata corresponding to a media item, comprising:
 obtaining, by at least one processing unit, a plurality of numeric values of the media item;   forming, by the at least one processing unit, a first query from the plurality of numeric values;   running, by the at least one processing unit, the first query on a metadata source;   responsive to at least one record matching the query, the at least one processing unit outputting at least a portion of the metadata from the matching record;   responsive to no records matching the query, the at least one processing unit:
 obtaining additional media identification information; 
 forming a second query from the additional media identification information; 
 running the second query on the metadata source to retrieve at least one record comprising metadata; and 
 outputting at least a portion of the metadata from the at least one record. 
   
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein obtaining additional media identification information comprises receiving user-entered input. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein obtaining additional media identification information comprises scanning a bar code. 
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein the additional media identification information comprises at least one of a title, artist, and uniform product code. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein the plurality of numeric values comprises table of contents data. 
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 40 , further comprising:
 adding the plurality of numeric values to the retrieved at least one record.   
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 40 , further comprising:
 generating a linking record associating the plurality of numeric values with the additional media identification information; and   storing the generated linking record.   
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 40 , further comprising:
 generating an auxiliary record comprising the plurality of numeric values and metadata from the retrieved record; and   storing the generated auxiliary record.   
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein obtaining additional media identification information comprises extracting at least one audio signature from the media item. 
     
     
         49 - 78 . (canceled)