Patents Assigned to Sony Music Entertainment
  • Patent number: 11899755
    Abstract: Management of virtual content rights of digital assets for a virtual environment, including: receiving data indicating a request from a user for assignment of virtual content rights of a digital asset; determining whether the requested virtual content rights are available for assignment to the user and a set of terms of the assignment for the requested virtual content rights; notifying the user of the availability and the set of terms for the assignment of the virtual content rights to the user; receiving data indicating agreement by the user to the assignment, including agreement to at least one term of the set of terms; and updating the virtual content rights database to indicate the assignment of the virtual content rights to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignees: Sony Group Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment
    Inventors: Bradley Spahr, Thomas Sachson
  • Publication number: 20190340665
    Abstract: Software replaces album art stored in metadata of a music file with a personalized picture that is displayed when the music file is played on a music player device. The personalized picture may be selected from diverse sources such as social media sites or hard drives on computers. The personalized music file may be gifted to intended recipients and downloaded to their music player devices. The personalized picture is displayed when the personalized music file is played on the music player device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Publication date: November 7, 2019
    Applicants: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment
    Inventor: Jason Cohen
  • Patent number: 10339580
    Abstract: Software replaces album art stored in metadata of a music file with a personalized picture that is displayed when the music file is played on a music player device. The personalized picture may be selected from diverse sources such as social media sites or hard drives on computers. The personalized music file may be gifted to intended recipients and downloaded to their music player devices. The personalized picture is displayed when the personalized music file is played on the music player device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2019
    Assignees: SONY CORPORATION, SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
    Inventor: Jason Cohen
  • Patent number: 9619111
    Abstract: There is provided a content selection view in which the user can select a content intuitively and easily. When the user places a touch pen in touch with a touch panel in a position corresponding to a position P1 in a map and drags the touch pen along a locus to a position P2 with the touch pen being kept in touch with the touch panel, PD will judge that a grid is still an option. Thereafter, when the user takes the touch pen off the touch panel surface, the PD will select the grid corresponding to the position P2 where the touch pen has finally been in touch with the touch panel. The PD will output not only content data assigned to the selected grid but a sound corresponding to predetermined content data even while the grid is still an option. The present invention is applicable to a portable recorder/player.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
    Inventors: Junichiro Sakata, Kotaro Asaka, Susumu Takatsuka, Hideo Tsukazaki, Takashi Kinouchi, Takeshi Ozawa
  • Publication number: 20150185978
    Abstract: There is provided a content selection view in which the user can select a content intuitively and easily. When the user places a touch pen in touch with a touch panel in a position corresponding to a position P1 in a map and drags the touch pen along a locus to a position P2 with the touch pen being kept in touch with the touch panel, PD will judge that a grid is still an option. Thereafter, when the user takes the touch pen off the touch panel surface, the PD will select the grid corresponding to the position P2 where the touch pen has finally been in touch with the touch panel. The PD will output not only content data assigned to the selected grid but a sound corresponding to predetermined content data even while the grid is still an option. The present invention is applicable to a portable recorder/player.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2014
    Publication date: July 2, 2015
    Applicants: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
    Inventors: Junichiro Sakata, Kotara Asaka, Susumu Takatsuka, Hideo Tsukazaki, Takashi Kinouchi, Takeshi Ozawa
  • Patent number: 8922508
    Abstract: An apparatus and method provide logic for processing information. In one implementation, a method may obtain metadata associated with corresponding values of a first characteristic and a second characteristic of a plurality of content elements. A display including a plurality of display elements may be generated, and the content elements may be assigned to corresponding ones of the display elements, based on a comparison between first and second characteristic values and first and second characteristic value ranges. A first signal may be generated to display a representation of the display to a user, and a selection of a display element may be received from the user. The method may obtain a content element assigned to the selected display element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
    Inventors: Junichiro Sakata, Kotaro Asaka, Susumu Takatsuka, Hideo Tsukazaki, Takashi Kinouchi, Takeshi Ozawa
  • Patent number: 8717301
    Abstract: There is provided a content selection view in which the user can select a content intuitively and easily. When the user places a touch pen in touch with a touch panel in a position corresponding to a position P1 in a map and drags the touch pen along a locus to a position P2 with the touch pen being kept in touch with the touch panel, PD will judge that a grid is still an option. Thereafter, when the user takes the touch pen off the touch panel surface, the PD will select the grid corresponding to the position P2 where the touch pen has finally been in touch with the touch panel. The PD will output not only content data assigned to the selected grid but a sound corresponding, to predetermined content data even while the grid is still an option. The present invention is applicable to a portable recorder/player.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
    Inventors: Junichiro Sakata, Kotaro Asaka, Susumu Takatsuka, Hideo Tsukazaki, Takashi Kinouchi, Takeshi Ozawa
  • Publication number: 20140081796
    Abstract: Software replaces album art stored in metadata of a music file with a personalized picture that is displayed when the music file is played on a music player device. The personalized picture may be selected from diverse sources such as social media sites or hard drives on computers. The personalized music file may be gifted to intended recipients and downloaded to their music player devices. The personalized picture is displayed when the personalized music file is played on the music player device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2013
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicants: Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Jason Cohen
  • Patent number: 8316299
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus performing a predetermined process in accordance with an operation of a touch panel on a display, includes: display control means for displaying, on the display, an item associated with predetermined content; detection means for detecting a contact of a user with the touch panel; determination means for determining whether or not the contact of the user is released, the contact being detected by the detection means; selection means for completing, when the determination means determines that the contact of the user is released, a selection of the item displayed by the display control means on a position where the contact of the user was detected by the detection means until just before; and playback means for playing back content associated with the item whose selection is completed by the selection means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
    Inventors: Kotaro Asaka, Takashi Kinouchi, Susumu Takatsuka, Junichiro Sakata, Hideo Tsukazaki, Takeshi Ozawa
  • Patent number: 8285403
    Abstract: A method and system for transcoding for a mobile device. The method includes accepting a master file, processing the master file with steps laid out in a definition file, the definition file providing instructions for converting the master file to a derivative file appropriate for playback on a pre-specified mobile handset, and outputting the results of the processing step into the derivative file. The system includes a definition file, the definition file providing instructions for converting a master file to a derivative file appropriate for playback on a pre-specified mobile handset. A plurality of modules is employed that are controlled by the definition file and which perform a corresponding plurality of functions on the master file or derivatives thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: Sergio Salvatore, Naveen Selvadurai, Tim Nilson
  • Patent number: 8150782
    Abstract: For possible use in an electronic content distribution system, automatic recognition of compact discs or other storage media containing particular content, and corresponding account crediting is described. In an electronic content distribution system, such as those providing music available by digital downloading or streaming technologies, a user may ordinarily pay a full price to receive the music. A user who possesses and apparently owns a compact disc containing particular content can be conveniently offered a discount or credit usable towards the purchase of the analogous particular content in a form provided by the electronic content distribution system. Preferably, compact discs are uniquely identified by determining whether their digital fingerprint matches a known reference fingerprint for a compact disc containing the particular content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher M. Tobin, Adrienne Lalla
  • Publication number: 20110295676
    Abstract: For possible use in an electronic content distribution system, automatic recognition of compact discs or other storage media containing particular content, and corresponding account crediting is described. In an electronic content distribution system, such as those providing music available by digital downloading or streaming technologies, a user may ordinarily pay a full price to receive the music. A user who possesses and apparently owns a compact disc containing particular content can be conveniently offered a discount or credit usable towards the purchase of the analogous particular content in a form provided by the electronic content distribution system. Preferably, compact discs are uniquely identified by determining whether their digital fingerprint matches a known reference fingerprint for a compact disc containing the particular content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2011
    Publication date: December 1, 2011
    Applicants: SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT INC., SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher M. Tobin, Adrienne Lalla
  • Patent number: 7996334
    Abstract: For possible use in an electronic content distribution system, automatic recognition of compact discs or other storage media containing particular content, and corresponding account crediting is described. In an electronic content distribution system, such as those providing music available by digital downloading or streaming technologies, a user may ordinarily pay a full price to receive the music. A user who possesses and apparently owns a compact disc containing particular content can be conveniently offered a discount or credit usable towards the purchase of the analogous particular content in a form provided by the electronic content distribution system. Preferably, compact discs are uniquely identified by determining whether their digital fingerprint matches a known reference fingerprint for a compact disc containing the particular content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher M. Tobin, Adrienne Lalla
  • Patent number: 7576742
    Abstract: A picture display controller can display picture data taken from a plurality of viewpoints in a flexible manner. For displaying moving-picture data taken from the plurality of viewpoints, read from a storage medium or received from a server, switching can be made at any time between a manual mode in which a picture is selected or synthesized based on designated information such as viewpoint position included in a viewpoint setting command from the controller operated by the user or from the sensor such as head tracker and displayed and a preset mode in which moving-picture data taken from different viewpoints are selected one after another according to a picture display program preset for a moving picture and displayed. With this system design, a user's setting can be made effective only for a picture portion in which he is interested.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2009
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
    Inventors: Koichi Kanematsu, Tetsu Natsume, Tsukasa Yoshimura
  • Patent number: 7542923
    Abstract: A method for generating a unique identifier that can be used to integrate an offline experience of a user with an online experience of the user, including establishing an offline experience identifier that can be used to access at least one offline experience data item. The method further includes, as part of a transaction related to at least one of the offline experience and the online experience, collecting at least one user data item, the user data item being a data item relevant to the user. The method further includes establishing a user identifier that can be used to access the user data item; and using at least one of the offline experience identifier and the user identifier to establish the unique identifier. The unique identifier can be subsequently used to obtain at least one of the offline experience identifier and the user identifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventor: Julian David Waldman
  • Patent number: 7526450
    Abstract: A transaction for downloadable digital data is facilitated over an electronic network. A presence is maintained on the electronic network to which a consumer may connect. A page is transmitted from the presence to the consumer over the electronic network, the page including information concerning the downloadable digital data. A command is received from the consumer over the electronic network indicating that the consumer wishes the transaction for the downloadable digital data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2009
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: David A. Hughes, Allen J. Smith
  • Patent number: 7376592
    Abstract: A method of using a unique identifier to integrate an offline experience of a user with an online experience of the user. The method includes receiving a unique identifier during a transaction related to the online experience. The method further includes using the unique identifier to obtain at least one of an offline experience identifier and a user identifier, the offline experience identifier being usable to access at least one offline experience data item which is relevant to the offline experience, the user identifier being usable to access at least one user data item which is relevant to the user. The method further includes tailoring the online experience based on at least one offline experience data item and at least one user data item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventor: Julian David Waldman
  • Patent number: 7333935
    Abstract: For possible use in an electronic content distribution system, automatic recognition of compact discs or other storage media containing particular content, and corresponding account crediting is described. In an electronic content distribution system, such as those providing music available by digital downloading or streaming technologies, a user may ordinarily pay a full price to receive the music. A user who possesses and apparently owns a compact disc containing particular content can be conveniently offered a discount or credit usable towards the purchase of the analogous particular content in a form provided by the electronic content distribution system. Preferably, compact discs are uniquely identified by determining whether their digital fingerprint matches a known reference fingerprint for a compact disc containing the particular content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher M. Tobin, Adrienne Lalla
  • Patent number: 7277877
    Abstract: A system and method including an agent for selecting a song among simultaneously streaming songs based on user information is presented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2007
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventor: David A. Hughes
  • Patent number: RE44569
    Abstract: A system and method including an agent for selecting at least two songs among simultaneously streaming songs based on user information and inserting additional content in the duration of time between the end of the earlier song and the start of the later song.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
    Inventor: David A. Hughes