Apple has filed for a patent (number 20220368961) for a “radio station provider management system and methods.”It involves efficient parsing, identification, searching, and playback of audio broadcasts from multiple different radio station providers in Apple Music.
About the patent filing
In the patent filing Apple notes that numerous electronic devices—including televisions, portable phones, computers, wearable devices, vehicle infotainment platforms, home streaming devices, and more—receive and play audio broadcasts. Such audio broadcasts may include, but are not limited to, frequency modulated (FM), amplitude modulated (AM), satellite based, and/or internet based radio stations.
What’s more, radio station providers (e.g., media groups, individual station owners, agglomeration services, publishing agencies, etc.) may contract with broadcast or streaming services to provide users with access to the individual audio broadcasts. However, Apple says that ssearching through lists of hundreds or thousands of radio stations, including multiple duplicates of the same radio station, to find a particular station may result in a cumbersome user experience. Additionally, certain audio broadcasts may have reduced availability based on location or radio station provider contract limitations.
Apple says that efficient searching and deduplication of the accumulated audio broadcasts from multiple station providers, while taking into account playback rights, location, and/or user preferences, may yield increased efficiency in searchability (e.g., faster results utilizing a reduced amount of processor bandwidth) as well as vetted more accurate search results for an improved user experience.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “A method may include receiving radio station data associated with multiple radio stations from one or more radio station providers and filtering the radio stations based at least in part on playback availability. Playback availability may include a broadcast right associated with the one or more radio station providers. The method may also include removing duplicate radio stations and supplying a searchable radio station directory to a platform or a client device.”
Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today