Content reproduction system, content providing method, content reproduction apparatus, content providing apparatus, content reproduction program and content providing program

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 from U.S. Ser. No. 11/477,434, filed Jun. 30, 2006, and claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 from Japanese Patent Application JP 2005-196364, filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Jul. 5, 2005, the entire contents of both documents being incorporated herein by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a content reproduction system, a content providing method, a content reproduction apparatus, a content providing-apparatus, a content reproduction program and a content providing program. For example, the present invention is applied suitably to a music reproduction system including a music providing server for providing musical data and a music reproduction terminal for acquiring musical data from the music providing server through a network and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the acquired musical data in the so-called streaming reproduction process.

2. Description of Related Art

In the conventional music reproduction system, when the user carries out a music-specifying operation on a music reproduction terminal to specify musical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process, the music reproduction terminal requests the music providing server to provide the musical data specified in the music-specifying operation.

In this case, the music providing server provides the requested musical data to the music reproduction terminal as musical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process. Then, the music reproduction terminal reproduces the acquired musical data in a streaming reproduction process. For more information on the conventional music reproduction system, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2004-4245.

By the way, in the music reproduction system having the configuration described above, musical data specified in a music-specifying operation carried out by the user is reproduced in the music reproduction terminal operated by the user in a streaming reproduction process. Thus, if there is a plurality of pieces of musical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process, the user must carry out a plurality of music-specifying operations to specify the pieces of musical data one after another. As a result, the music reproduction system raises a problem that the user is hardly capable of reproducing the pieces of musical data in a streaming reproduction process with a high degree of efficiency.

Addressing the problem described above, inventors of the present invention have proposed a content reproduction system capable of reproducing contents with a substantially high degree of efficiency as well as a content providing method, a content reproduction apparatus, a content providing-apparatus, a content reproduction program and a content providing program, which are provided for the content reproduction system.

In order to solve the problem described above, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a content reproduction system including a content-providing apparatus for providing contents and a content reproduction apparatus for acquiring a content from the content-providing apparatus and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the acquired content. In the content reproduction system, contents reproducible by the content reproduction apparatus are selected from contents that can be provided by the content-providing apparatus and a reproduction list showing an order or reproduction of the selected contents is created. Then, the selected contents are provided from the content-providing apparatus to the content reproduction apparatus in accordance with the created reproduction list.

As described above, the content-providing apparatus selects contents reproducible by the content reproduction apparatus from contents that can be provided by the content-providing apparatus and creates a reproduction list showing an order or reproduction of the selected contents. Then, the content-providing apparatus provides the selected contents to the content reproduction apparatus in accordance with the created reproduction list. Thus, the content reproduction apparatus is capable of sequentially receiving the contents sequentially provided by the content-producing apparatus and sequentially reproducing the contents in accordance with the reproduction list.

In accordance with the present invention, the content reproduction apparatus is capable of sequentially receiving contents sequentially provided by the content-producing apparatus and sequentially reproducing the contents in accordance with a reproduction list. Thus, the content reproduction apparatus is capable of reproducing contents with a substantially high degree of efficiency without the need for the user to spend long time and much labor.

These and other objects and features of the present invention will become clear from the following description of the preferred embodiments given with reference to the accompanying diagrams, in which:

FIG. 1 is a rough diagram showing an outline of a content reproduction system;

FIG. 2 is another rough diagram showing an outline of a content reproduction system;

FIG. 3 is a rough diagram showing the configuration of a music reproduction system;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory rough diagram referred to in description of a streaming reproduction process;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a music reproduction system in which a music providing server holds a reproduction list;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are rough diagrams showing the configurations of a music reproduction terminal and the music providing server, respectively;

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of a continuous streaming reproduction processing procedure;

FIGS. 8A to 8C show flowcharts of reproduction-list creation processing procedures;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are rough diagrams showing respectively a reproduction list and information exchanged between the music providing server and the music reproduction terminal;

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of a music-providing processing procedure;

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of a continuous streaming reproduction processing procedure;

FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of a music-providing processing procedure;

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIG. 15 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a music reproduction system in which the music reproduction terminal holds a reproduction list;

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of a continuous streaming reproduction processing procedure;

FIGS. 17A to 17C show flowcharts of reproduction-list creation processing procedures;

FIGS. 18A and 18B are rough diagrams showing respectively a reproduction list and information exchanged between the music providing server and the music reproduction terminal;

FIG. 19 shows a flowchart of a music-providing processing procedure;

FIG. 20 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIGS. 21A to 21D are explanatory rough diagrams showing management information;

FIG. 22 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIG. 23 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a reproduction list;

FIG. 24 shows a flowchart of a processing procedure for reproducing music in accordance with a reproduction list; and

FIG. 25 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a reproduction list having a different format.

Embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail by referring to diagrams as follows.

(1) Overview

An overview of first to fourth embodiments is explained below by referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 . By the way, after the overview is explained, the first to fourth embodiments are explained concretely.

A content reproduction system 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a content-providing apparatus 101 and a content reproduction apparatus 102 . The content-providing apparatus 101 is an apparatus for providing contents. On the other hand, the content reproduction apparatus 102 is an apparatus receiving contents provided by the content-providing apparatus 101 and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the contents received from the content-providing apparatus 101 . The content-providing apparatus 101 selects specific contents that can be reproduced by the content reproduction apparatus 102 from contents stored in the content-providing apparatus 101 and creates a reproduction list showing an order of reproduction of the selected contents. Then, the content-providing apparatus 101 provides the selected contents to the content reproduction apparatus 102 in accordance with the reproduction list.

To put it concretely, the content reproduction apparatus 102 includes a terminal-ID sender section 103 and a content reproduction section 108 . The terminal-ID sender section 103 is a unit for transmitting an apparatus ID used for identifying the content reproduction apparatus 102 to the content-providing apparatus 101 . The content reproduction section 108 is a unit for reproducing a content received from the content-providing apparatus 101 . On the other hand, the content-providing apparatus 101 includes a content storage section 104 , a content selection section 105 , a reproduction-list creation section 106 and a content providing section 107 . The content storage section 104 is a memory used for storing contents that can be provided to the content reproduction apparatus 102 . The content selection section 105 is a unit for selecting specific contents from the contents stored in the content storage section 104 . The specific contents selected by the content selection section 105 are contents that can be reproduced by the content reproduction apparatus 102 identified by an apparatus ID received from the terminal-ID sender section 103 . The reproduction-list creation section 106 is a unit for creating a reproduction list showing an order of reproduction of the contents selected by the content selection section 105 . The content providing section 107 is a unit for providing the content reproduction section 108 with contents in accordance with the reproduction list created by the reproduction-list creation section 106 . Thus, the content reproduction section 108 is capable of sequentially reproducing contents provided sequentially by the content reproduction apparatus 102 .

On the other hand, the content reproduction system 110 shown in FIG. 2 includes a content-providing apparatus 111 and a content reproduction apparatus 112 . The content-providing apparatus 111 is an apparatus for providing contents. On the other hand, the content reproduction apparatus 112 is an apparatus receiving contents provided by the content-providing apparatus 111 and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the contents received from the content-providing apparatus 111 . The content-providing apparatus 111 selects specific contents that can be reproduced by the content reproduction apparatus 112 from contents stored in the content-providing apparatus 111 . The content reproduction apparatus 112 creates a reproduction list showing an order of reproduction of the selected contents. Then, the content-providing apparatus 111 provides the selected contents to the content reproduction apparatus 112 in accordance with the reproduction list created by the content reproduction apparatus 112 .

To put it concretely, the content-providing apparatus 111 has a content storage section 114 , a content selection section 115 and content providing section 118 . The content storage section 114 is a memory used for storing contents that can be provided to the content reproduction apparatus 112 . The content selection section 115 is a unit for selecting specific contents from the contents stored in the content storage section 114 . The specific contents selected by the content selection section 105 are contents that can be reproduced by the content reproduction apparatus 112 identified by an apparatus ID received from the content reproduction apparatus 112 . The content providing section 118 is a unit for providing the content reproduction section 119 with contents requested by the content reproduction apparatus 112 . On the other hand, the content reproduction apparatus 112 has a terminal-ID sender section 113 , a reproduction-list creation section 116 , a content requesting section 117 and a content reproduction section 119 . The terminal-ID sender section 113 is a unit for transmitting an apparatus ID used for identifying the content reproduction apparatus 112 to the content-providing apparatus 111 . The reproduction-list creation section 116 is a unit for creating a reproduction list showing an order of reproduction of the contents selected by the content selection section 115 . The content requesting section 117 is a unit for requesting the content-providing apparatus 111 to sequentially transmitting contents in accordance with a reproduction list created by the reproduction-list creation section 116 . The content reproduction section 119 is a unit for receiving contents provided sequentially by the content providing section 118 employed in content-providing apparatus 111 as requested by the content requesting section 117 and, at the same time, reproducing the contents received from the content providing section 118 .

(2) First Embodiment

In FIG. 3 , reference numeral 1 denotes the whole of a music reproduction system, which includes a music providing server 2 , a network 3 and a music reproduction terminal 4 . The music providing server 2 is an apparatus for providing musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of the network 3 . The music reproduction terminal 4 is an apparatus for receiving musical data from the music providing server 2 and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the received musical data in a streaming reproduction process.

A typical streaming reproduction process is explained by referring to a conceptual diagram of FIG. 4 as follows. The music providing server 2 selects pieces of musical data requested by the music reproduction terminal 4 among a plurality of pieces of musical data that can be provided to the network 3 and provides the selected pieces of musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process. At that time, the music reproduction terminal 4 sequentially receives the musical data provided by the music providing server 2 as streaming musical data and sequentially reproduces the received musical data. Then, the music reproduction terminal 4 deletes musical data after the end of the reproduction process.

In the case of the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5 , the music providing server 2 holds a reproduction list as information on a music reproduction order, which is an order of reproduction of streaming musical data, and sequentially provides the streaming musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 in an order shown by the reproduction list. The music reproduction terminal 4 sequentially receives the streaming musical data provided sequentially by the music reproduction terminal 4 and sequentially reproduces the data. Thus, in accordance with the music reproduction system 1 , the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of reproducing a plurality of pieces of musical data in accordance with a reproduction list held by the music providing server 2 in a streaming reproduction process. This scheme is explained in more detail as follows.

When a continuous streaming data reproduction operation is carried out on a operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 shown in FIG. 6A to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, a control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 as a controller for controlling the entire music reproduction terminal 4 in an integrated manner transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including a terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 at step ST 1 of a procedure shown in FIG. 7 . The reproduction-list creation request signal is a signal making a request for creation of a reproduction list to be used in a continuous streaming reproduction process. The reproduction-list creation request signal includes a terminal ID for identifying the music reproduction terminal 4 .

In some cases, the reproduction-list creation request signal according to this embodiment may include a reproduction-list creation condition showing a requirement for creation of a reproduction list. For example, the reproduction-list creation condition typically includes musical-data specification information specifying pieces of musical data to be put on the reproduction list, musical-data type specification information specifying the types of pieces of musical data to be put on the reproduction list and reproduction-order specification information specifying an order of reproduction of the specified pieces of musical data. The types of musical data may be the name of an artist associated with the musical data, the genre of the musical data and a condition requiring that the musical data shall be data included in the top ten of sales. An example of the reproduction-order specification information is an order of release dates starting with the latest date. In addition, the reproduction-list creation request signal according to this embodiment may include a desired reproduction list created in advance by the user. The desired reproduction list created in advance by the user shows an order desired by the user as an order of reproduction of the pieces of streaming musical data requested by the user.

When a server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 shown in FIG. 6B receives a reproduction-list creation request signal transmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4 , a control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 as a section for controlling the entire music providing server 2 in an integrated manner carries out a reproduction-list creation process at step ST 2 of the procedure shown in FIG. 7 .

The reproduction-list creation processing is explained concretely by referring to flowcharts shown in FIG. 8 . In the case of the reproduction-list generation processing procedure RT 1 shown in FIG. 8A , for example, at the first step SP 1 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receives a reproduction-list generation request signal including a terminal ID from the music reproduction terminal 4 . Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 2 . At step SP 2 , the control section 9 carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data, which can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list generation request signal in a streaming reproduction process, from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in a server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2 . Then, the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L 1 like one shown in FIG. 9A by arranging musical-data IDs each used for identifying a piece of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selection process in a reproduction order. Subsequently, the control section 9 stores the created reproduction list L 1 in the server storage section 10 . At that time, the control section 9 associates the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 making a request for the generation of the reproduction list L 1 with the reproduction list L 1 . In addition, the control section 9 also associates each of the musical-data IDs included in the reproduction list L 1 with information on a storage location at which the piece of musical data identified by the musical-data ID has been stored in the server storage section 10 . The information on a storage location typically includes a path on the server storage section 10 .

By the way, in the processing to select reproducible musical data in accordance with this embodiment, for example, musical data having a format allowing the musical data to be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID is selected as musical data reproducible in a streaming reproduction process. Examples of the format allowing the musical data to be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 are MP3 and ATRAC. As another example, in the processing to select reproducible musical data, musical data according to a service to which the user of the music reproduction terminal 4 subscribes is selected as musical data reproducible in a streaming reproduction process. In addition, a variety of selection techniques can be adopted in the processing to select reproducible musical data.

In the case of the reproduction-list generation processing procedure RT 2 shown in FIG. 8B , at the first step SP 3 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receives a reproduction-list generation request signal including a terminal ID and a condition for creation of a reproduction list from the music reproduction terminal 4 . Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 4 . At step SP 4 , the control section 9 carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data, which can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list generation request signal in a streaming reproduction process, from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in a server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2 . Then, the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L 1 by arranging musical-data IDs in a reproduction order satisfying a requirement specified in the condition included in the reproduction-list generation request signal as the condition for creation of a reproduction list. The musical-data IDs put on the reproduction list L 1 are each used for identifying a specific piece of musical data extracted from the pieces of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selection process as a specific piece of musical data meeting the condition. Subsequently, the control section 9 stores the created reproduction list L 1 in the server storage section 10 .

In the case of the reproduction-list generation processing procedure RT 3 shown in FIG. 8C , at the first step SP 5 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receives a reproduction-list generation request signal including a terminal ID and a desired reproduction list from the music reproduction terminal 4 . Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 6 . At step SP 6 , the control section 9 carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data, which can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list generation request signal in a streaming reproduction process, from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in a server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2 . Then, the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L 1 by arranging musical-data IDs in a reproduction order shown in the desired reproduction list included in the reproduction-list generation request signal. The musical-data IDs put on the reproduction list L 1 are each used for identifying a specific piece of musical data extracted from the pieces of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selection process as a specific piece of musical data put on the desired reproduction list. Subsequently, the control section 9 stores the created reproduction list L 1 in the server storage section 10 .

After the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 stores a reproduction list L 1 created in the reproduction-list generation processing procedure RT 1 , RT 2 or RT 3 in the server storage section 10 as described above, at step ST 3 of the procedure shown in FIG. 7 , the control section 9 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a continuous streaming reproduction process can be carried out in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 stored in the server storage section 10 .

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the reproducibility notice signal from the music providing server 2 , at step ST 4 of the procedure shown in FIG. 7 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a continuous streaming reproduction start request signal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to start the continuous streaming reproduction process according to the reproduction list L 1 .

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 receives the continuous streaming reproduction start request signal from the music reproduction terminal 4 , at step ST 5 of the procedure shown in FIG. 7 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a process to transmit musical data in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data has been started. By the way, the music-providing process start notice signal includes attributes of the streaming musical data to be provided first by the music providing server 2 . Typically, the attributes include information such as the title of a piece of streaming musical data provided initially to the music reproduction terminal 4 and the name of an artist associated with the initial piece of streaming musical data.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the music-providing process start notice signal from the music providing server 2 , at step ST 6 of the procedure shown in FIG. 7 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displays information based on the attributes included in the music-providing process start notice signal received from the music providing server 2 on the display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. The displayed information typically includes the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

After transmitting a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 , at step ST 7 of the procedure shown in FIG. 7 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 refers to the reproduction list L 1 to recognize a storage location associated with the first musical-data ID in the reproduction order. Then, the control section 9 reads out musical data from the storage location recognized as a storage location in the server storage section 10 and transmits the musical data read out from the server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as streaming musical data.

In this way, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of outputting sounds of music from the sound outputting section 13 by controlling the reproduction section 12 to sequentially reproduce the streaming musical data being received by the terminal communication section 7 from the music providing server 2 .

Immediately after the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 finishes the transmission of the first streaming musical data shown in the reproduction list L 1 , the control section 9 transmits each of the subsequent pieces of streaming musical data shown in the reproduction list L 1 by executing the same procedure as the steps ST 5 to ST 7 described above.

Next, the continuous streaming reproduction procedure MRT 1 shown in FIG. 7 is explained by dividing the procedure into a processing procedure executed by the music providing server 2 and a processing procedure executed by the music reproduction terminal 4 as follows.

First of all, a music providing processing procedure RT 4 executed by the music providing server 2 is described by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 10 as follows.

When a reproduction-list creation request signal is received from the music reproduction terminal 4 at the first step SP 11 , the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 12 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by a terminal ID included in the received reproduction-list creation request signal. If the determination result produced at step SP 12 is a denial, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 13 at which the control section 9 carries out error processing by typically informing the user that a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able to be rendered to the user then, at the next step SP 14 , the control section 9 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT 4 . This is because the denial result indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able to be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 due to the fact that the user of the music reproduction terminal 4 is not a registered user subscribing to the service. If the determination result produced at step SP 12 is an affirmation, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 15 at which the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L 1 by execution of either of the reproduction-list generation processing procedures RT 1 , RT 2 and RT 3 described above. This is because the affirmation result indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

After the process to create the reproduction list L 1 is ended normally, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 16 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 . Right after the transmission, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 17 at which the control section 9 receives a continuous streaming reproduction start request signal from the music reproduction terminal 4 . After the continuous streaming reproduction start request signal is received from the music reproduction terminal 4 , the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 18 at which the control section 9 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a process to provide streaming musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 has been started.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 19 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 detects a storage location associated with the musical-data ID in accordance with the order of reproduction from the reproduction list L 1 and reads out musical data stored in the detected storage location from the server storage section 10 . Then, the control section 9 transmits the musical data read out from the server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data.

After the musical data is transmitted to the music reproduction terminal 4 , the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 20 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not next musical data in the order of reproduction exists on the reproduction list L 1 . If the determination result produced at step SP 20 is an affirmation indicating that the next musical data in the order of reproduction exists on the reproduction list L 1 , the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 18 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a process to provide the next streaming musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 in the order of reproduction has been started. If the determination result produced at step SP 20 is a denial, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 14 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT 4 . This is because the denial result indicates that the musical-data ID identifying the musical data to be reproduced next in the streaming reproduction process does not exist on the reproduction list L 1 .

Next, a music reproduction processing procedure RT 5 executed by the music reproduction terminal 4 is explained by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 11 .

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 in order to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at the first step SP 31 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal to the music providing server 2 as a signal making a request for creation of a reproduction list L 1 .

Then, at the next step SP 32 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a reproducibility notice signal has been transmitted from the music providing server 2 in a state of waiting for the reproducibility notice signal to arrive from the music providing server 2 . As the reproducibility notice signal arrives from the music providing server 2 , the control section 6 produces an affirmation result of determination at step SP 32 . In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 33 . If the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 determines that a reproducibility notice signal is not able to arrive from the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the determination result produced at step SP 32 is a denial. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 34 at which the control section 6 carries out error processing including a process to inform the user that the request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data has been turned down. Then, at the next step SP 35 , the control section 6 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 5 .

At step SP 33 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a continuous streaming reproduction start request signal to the music providing server 2 as a signal to start a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce musical data in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 .

Then, at the next step SP 36 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives a music-providing process start notice signal transmitted by the music providing server 2 . Subsequently, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 37 . At step SP 37 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displays information based on musical-data attributes, which are included in the music-providing process start notice signal received from the music providing server 2 as the attributes of the musical data to be provided by the music providing server 2 , on the display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. The displayed information typically includes the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

Then, at the next step SP 38 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a streaming reproduction process to output sounds of music from the sound outputting section 13 by controlling the reproduction section 12 to sequentially reproduce the streaming musical data being received by the terminal communication section 7 from the music providing server 2 .

Right after the streaming reproduction process to reproduce the streaming musical data is finished, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 39 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a music-providing process start notice signal to reproduce the musical data to be reproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order has been received from the music providing server 2 . If the determination result produced at step SP 39 is an affirmation, the flow of the procedure goes back to the next step SP 37 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displays information based on attributes, which are included in the music-providing process start notice signal received from the music providing server 2 as the attributes of the musical data to be provided by the music providing server 2 , on the display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. As described above, the displayed information typically includes the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data. This is because the affirmation result produced at step SP 39 means that the music-providing process start notice signal received from the music providing server 2 indicates the existence of musical data to be reproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order as musical data indicated by the received music-providing process start notice signal. If the determination result produced at step SP 39 is a denial indicating that no music-providing process start notice signal to reproduce the musical data to be reproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order has been received from the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 35 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 5 .

In the configuration described above, the music reproduction system 1 includes a music providing server 2 , a network 3 and a music reproduction terminal 4 . The music providing server 2 is an apparatus for providing musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the network 3 . The music reproduction terminal 4 is an apparatus for receiving musical data from the music providing server 2 and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the received data in a streaming reproduction process.

When the user carries out a continuous streaming reproduction operation on the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal including the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 .

When the music providing server 2 receives the reproduction-list creation request signal including the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 from the music reproduction terminal 4 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data, which can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list generation request signal in a streaming reproduction process, from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in a server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2 . Then, the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L 1 showing an order of reproduction of the selected pieces of musical data.

Subsequently, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 sequentially provides the musical data read out from the server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data in accordance with the reproduction order shown in the created reproduction list L 1 .

Thus, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentially receiving the streaming musical data sequentially provided by the music providing server 2 in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 held in the music providing server 2 and sequentially reproducing the received streaming musical data.

In accordance with the configuration described above, it is possible to realize a music reproduction system 1 in which the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentially receiving the streaming musical data sequentially provided by the music providing server 2 in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 held in the music providing server 2 and sequentially reproducing the received streaming musical data and, in addition, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of reproducing musical data with a substantially high degree of efficiency without the need for the user to spend long time and much labor.

(3) Second Embodiment

A second embodiment implements the music reproduction system 1 , the music providing server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4 , which have configurations identical with the configurations of their respective counterparts implemented by the first embodiment. In the case of the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5 , the music providing server 2 holds the reproduction list L 1 as is the case with the first embodiment. The following description is focused on differences between the first and second embodiments.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 in order to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at step ST 11 of a procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 as a signal making a request for creation of a reproduction list L 1 to be used in the continuous streaming reproduction process. The reproduction-list creation request signal includes a terminal ID for identifying the music reproduction terminal 4 . In some cases, the reproduction-list creation request signal according to this embodiment may include a reproduction-list creation condition showing a requirement for creation of a reproduction list. The reproduction-list creation request signal according to this embodiment may also include a desired reproduction list.

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 shown in FIG. 6B receives a reproduction-list creation request signal transmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 carries out one of the reproduction-list creation processes RT 1 , RT 2 and RT 3 at step ST 12 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 in order to create a reproduction list L 1 .

After the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 stores a reproduction list L 1 created in the reproduction-list generation processing procedure RT 1 , RT 2 or RT 3 in the server storage section 10 as described above, at step ST 13 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 9 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a continuous streaming reproduction process can be carried out in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 stored in the server storage section 10 . At that time, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 acquires a musical-data ID from the reproduction list L 1 as the musical-data ID of musical data to be reproduced first by the music reproduction terminal 4 and includes the acquired musical-data ID in the reproducibility notice signal to be transmitted to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the reproducibility notice signal including the musical-data ID from the music providing server 2 , at step ST 14 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 stores the musical-data ID included in the reproducibility notice signal in the terminal storage section 14 .

Then, at step ST 15 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a music request signal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to provide the music reproduction terminal 4 with musical data identified by the musical-data ID stored in the terminal storage section 14 as streaming musical data. At that time, as shown in FIG. 9B , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 includes the musical-data ID used for identifying musical data requested as musical data to be provided by the music providing server 2 and the terminal ID identifying the music reproduction terminal 4 in the music request signal.

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 receives the music request signal including the musical-data ID and the terminal ID from the music reproduction terminal 4 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 confirms the existence of the reproduction list L 1 including the musical-data ID. If the existence of the reproduction list L 1 can be confirmed, at step ST 16 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 searches the reproduction list L 1 for a storage location of the musical data identified by the musical-data ID. Then, at step ST 17 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 9 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a process to transmit musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 has been started. By the way, the music-providing process start notice signal includes attributes of the streaming musical data to be provided first by the music providing server 2 . Typically, the attributes include information such as the title of a piece of streaming musical data provided initially to the music reproduction terminal 4 and the name of an artist associated with the initial piece of streaming musical data.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the music-providing process start notice signal from the music providing server 2 , at step ST 18 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displays information based on the attributes included in the music-providing process start notice signal from the music providing server 2 on the display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. The displayed information typically includes the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

After transmitting a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 , at step ST 16 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 refers to the reproduction list L 1 to recognize a storage location associated with the first musical-data ID in the reproduction order. Then, the control section 9 reads out musical data from the storage location recognized as a storage location in the server storage section 10 and transmits the musical data read out from the server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as streaming musical data at step S 19 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 .

Thus, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of outputting sounds of music from the sound outputting section 13 by controlling the reproduction section 12 to sequentially reproduce the streaming musical data being received by the terminal communication section 7 from the music providing server 2 .

Immediately after the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 finishes the transmission of the first streaming musical data shown in the reproduction list L 1 , the control section 9 transmits each of the subsequent pieces of streaming musical data shown in the reproduction list L 1 by executing the same procedure as the steps ST 13 to ST 19 described above.

Next, the continuous streaming reproduction procedure MRT 2 shown in FIG. 12 is explained by dividing the procedure into a processing procedure executed by the music providing server 2 and a processing procedure executed by the music reproduction terminal 4 as follows.

First of all, a music providing processing procedure RT 6 executed by the music providing server 2 is described by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 13 as follows.

When a reproduction-list creation request signal is received from the music reproduction terminal 4 at the first step SP 51 , the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 52 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by a terminal ID included in the received reproduction-list creation request signal. If the determination result produced at step SP 52 is a denial, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 53 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 carries out error processing by typically informing the user that a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able to be rendered to the user then, at the next step SP 54 , the control section 9 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT 6 . This is because the denial result indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able to be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 due to the fact that the user of the music reproduction terminal 4 is not a registered user subscribing to the service. If the determination result produced at step SP 52 is an affirmation, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 55 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 creates a reproduction list L 1 by execution of either of the reproduction-list generation processing procedures RT 1 , RT 2 and RT 3 described above. This is because the affirmation result indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

After the process to create the reproduction list L 1 is ended normally, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 56 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal including the musical-data ID of musical data to be reproduced first in a streaming reproduction process.

Right after the transmission, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 57 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receives a music request signal including a terminal ID and a musical-data ID from the music reproduction terminal 4 . Then, the control section 9 confirms the existence of the reproduction list L 1 showing the musical-data ID. If the existence of the reproduction list L 1 can be confirmed, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 58 at which, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 searches the reproduction list L 1 for a storage location of the musical data identified by the musical-data ID.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 59 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not the musical data stored at the storage location found in the process to search the reproduction list L 1 can be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

If the determination result produced at step SP 59 is a denial, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 60 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not musical data to be reproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order is included on the reproduction list L 1 . This is because the denial result typically indicates that no musical data is stored at the storage location and can be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 . If the determination result produced at step SP 60 is an affirmation indicating that the reproduction list L 1 includes the musical ID of the next musical data that can be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 56 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal including the musical-data ID of the next musical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process. If the determination result produced at step SP 60 is a denial, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 54 at which the control section 9 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT 6 . This is because the denial result indicates that the reproduction list L 1 does not include the musical ID of the next musical data that can be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process.

If the determination result produced at step SP 59 is an affirmation, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 61 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a process to provide streaming musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 has been started. This is because the affirmation result typically indicates that musical data has been stored at the storage location and can be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 62 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 reads out musical data stored in the storage location found in the search process carried out on the reproduction list L 1 from the server storage section 10 . Then, the control section 9 transmits the musical data read out from the server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data.

After the musical data is transmitted to the music reproduction terminal 4 , the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 63 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not next musical data in the order of reproduction exists on the reproduction list L 1 . If the determination result produced at step SP 63 is an affirmation indicating that the next musical data in the order of reproduction exists on the reproduction list L 1 , the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 56 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal including the musical-data ID of the next musical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process. If the determination result produced at step SP 63 is a denial, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 54 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT 6 . This is because the denial result indicates that the musical-data ID identifying the musical data to be reproduced next in the streaming reproduction process does not exist on the reproduction list L 1 .

Next, a music reproduction processing procedure RT 7 executed by the music reproduction terminal 4 is explained by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 14 .

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 in order to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at the first step SP 71 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal to the music providing server 2 as a signal making a request for creation of a reproduction list L 1 .

Then, at the next step SP 72 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a reproducibility notice signal has been transmitted from the music providing server 2 in a state of waiting for the reproducibility notice signal to arrive from the music providing server 2 . As the reproducibility notice signal arrives from the music providing server 2 , the control section 6 produces an affirmation result of determination at step SP 72 . In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 73 at which the control section 6 stores the musical-data ID included in the received reproducibility notice signal in the terminal storage section 14 . Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 74 . If the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 determines that a reproducibility notice signal is not able to arrive from the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the determination result produced at step SP 72 is a denial. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 75 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out error processing including a process to inform the user that the request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data has been turned down. Then, at the next step SP 76 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 7 .

At step SP 74 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a music request signal to the music providing server 2 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to provide the music reproduction terminal 4 with musical data identified by the musical-data ID stored in the terminal storage section 14 as streaming musical data.

Then, at the next step SP 77 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a music-providing process start notice signal has been transmitted by the music providing server 2 in a state of waiting for the music-providing process start notice signal to arrive from the music providing server 2 . As the reproducibility notice signal arrives from the music providing server 2 , the control section 6 produces an affirmation result of determination at step S 77 . In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 78 . If the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 determines that a music-providing process start notice signal does not arrive from the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the determination result produced at step SP 77 is a denial. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 79 at which the control section 6 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a reproducibility notice signal including the musical-data ID of the musical data to be reproduced next in a streaming reproduction process has been transmitted from the music providing server 2 in a state of waiting for the reproducibility notice signal, which includes the musical-data ID of the musical data to be reproduced next in a streaming reproduction process, to arrive from the music providing server 2 instead of waiting for the music-providing process start notice signal determined at step SP 77 not to arrive from the music providing server 2 . As the reproducibility notice signal arrives from the music providing server 2 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces an affirmation result of determination at step S 79 . In this case, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 73 at which the control section 6 stores the musical-data ID included in the received reproducibility notice signal in the terminal storage section 14 . If the control section 6 determines that a reproducibility notice signal does not arrive from the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the determination result produced at step SP 79 is a denial. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 76 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 7 .

At step SP 78 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displays information based on musical-data attributes, which are included in the music-providing process start notice signal received from the music providing server 2 as the attributes of the musical data to be provided by the music providing server 2 , on the display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. The displayed information typically includes the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

Then, at the next step SP 80 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a streaming reproduction process to output sounds of music from the sound outputting section 13 by controlling the reproduction section 12 to sequentially reproduce the streaming musical data being received by the terminal communication section 7 from the music providing server 2 .

Right after the streaming reproduction process to reproduce the streaming musical data is finished, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 81 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a reproducibility notice signal including the musical-data ID of the musical data to be reproduced next in a streaming reproduction process has been transmitted from the music providing server 2 in a state of waiting for the reproducibility notice signal to arrive from the music providing server 2 . As the reproducibility notice signal arrives from the music providing server 2 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces an affirmation result of determination at step SP 81 . In this case, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 73 at which the control section 6 stores the musical-data ID included in the received reproducibility notice signal in the terminal storage section 14 . If the control section 6 determines that a reproducibility notice signal does not arrive from the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the determination result produced at step SP 81 is a denial. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 76 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 7 .

In the configuration described above, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 creates a reproduction list L 1 showing the musical-data ID of each musical data to be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

Then, before musical data is provided by the music providing server 2 to the music reproduction terminal 4 in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 as streaming musical data, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 stores the musical-data ID of the musical data in the music reproduction terminal 4 .

Thus, even if an error occurs in the music reproduction system 1 due to a failure of the network 3 while streaming musical data is being transmitted from the music providing server 2 to the music reproduction terminal 4 and causes the transmission to be temporarily suspended, the musical-data ID of the streaming musical data being transmitted has already been stored in the music reproduction terminal 4 . As a result, the streaming reproduction process of the musical data identified by the stored musical-data ID stored can be resumed.

As explained above, in accordance with the configuration, even if an error is detected due to a failure of the network 3 while streaming musical data is being transmitted from the music providing server 2 to the music reproduction terminal 4 and causes the transmission to be temporarily stopped, the musical-data ID of the streaming musical data being transmitted has already been stored in the music reproduction terminal 4 . As a result, the streaming reproduction process of the musical data identified by the stored musical-data ID stored can be resumed so that the user-friendliness of the music reproduction system 1 can be enhanced considerably.

(4) Third Embodiment

A third embodiment implements the music reproduction system 1 , the music providing server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4 , which have configurations identical with the configurations of their respective counterparts implemented by the first embodiment. The following description is focused on differences between the first and third embodiments.

In the case of the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 15 , the music reproduction terminal 4 holds the music reproduction order information referred to as the reproduction list showing an order of reproduction of pieces of musical data. The music reproduction terminal 4 requests the music providing server 2 to provide pieces of streaming musical data in an order shown by the reproduction list. The music reproduction terminal 4 then receives the requested pieces of streaming musical data from the music providing server 2 and reproduces them. Thus, in accordance with the music reproduction system 1 , the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of reproducing a plurality of pieces of musical data in a streaming reproduction process in an order shown by the reproduction list held by the music reproduction terminal 4 . This scheme is explained in more detail as follows.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 in order to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at step ST 21 of a procedure shown in FIG. 16 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproducibility confirmation request signal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to confirm that the music reproduction terminal 4 is entitled to a continuous streaming reproduction service. The transmitted reproducibility confirmation request signal includes the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 .

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 receives the reproducibility confirmation request signal from the music reproduction terminal 4 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproducibility confirmation request signal. If the user has been registered in the music providing server 2 as a user subscribing to the continuous streaming reproduction service, for example, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 confirms that a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 . In this case, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 at step ST 22 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the reproducibility notice signal from the music providing server 2 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a process to create a reproduction list in conformity with the signal at step ST 23 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 .

The processing to create a reproduction list is explained by referring to flowcharts shown in FIG. 17 as follows. In the case of a reproduction-list creation processing RT 8 represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 17A , for example, at the first step SP 91 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal including the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 . The control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receiving the reproduction-list creation request signal carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data each reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list creation request signal in a streaming reproduction process from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in the server storage section 10 . Then, by arranging the musical-data IDs of the reproducible pieces of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selection process in a reproduction order, the control section 9 is capable of creating a reproduction list L 2 like one shown in FIG. 18A . Subsequently, the control section 9 transmits the created reproduction list L 2 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 . When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the reproduction list L 2 from the music providing server 2 , at step SP 92 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 stores the received reproduction list L 2 in the terminal storage section 14 . By the way, when the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 creates the reproduction list L 2 , the control section 9 associates each musical-data ID put on the created reproduction list L 2 with a server ID of the music providing server 2 , which provides musical data identified by the musical-data ID.

In the case of a reproduction-list creation processing RT 9 represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 17B , at the first step SP 93 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal including the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 . In addition to the terminal ID, the reproduction-list creation request signal also includes a reproduction-list creation condition, which is a condition for creation of a reproduction list L 2 . The control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receiving the reproduction-list creation request signal carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data each reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list creation request signal in a streaming reproduction process from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in the server storage section 10 . Then, the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L 2 by arranging musical-data IDs in a reproduction order satisfying a condition specified in the condition included in the reproduction-list generation request signal as the condition for creation of the reproduction list L 2 . The musical-data IDs put on the reproduction list L 2 are each used for identifying a specific piece of musical data extracted from the pieces of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selection process as a specific piece of musical data meeting the condition. Subsequently, the control section 9 transmits the created reproduction list L 2 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 . When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the reproduction list L 2 from the music providing server 2 , at step SP 94 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 stores the received reproduction list L 2 in the terminal storage section 14 .

In the case of a reproduction-list creation processing RT 10 represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 17C , at the first step SP 95 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproducible-music notice request signal including the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to inform the music reproduction terminal 4 of specific pieces of musical data stored in the server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2 . The specific pieces of musical data are each reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproducible-music notice request signal in a streaming reproduction process. The control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receiving the reproduction-list creation request signal carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data each reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list creation request signal in a streaming reproduction process from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in the server storage section 10 . Then, by arranging the musical-data IDs of the reproducible pieces of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selection process in a reproduction order, the control section 9 creates a reproducible-music list. When the control section 9 creates the reproducible-music list, the control section 9 associates each musical-data ID put on the created reproducible-music list as the musical-data ID of a piece of musical data found in the reproducible-music selection process with a server ID of the music providing server 2 , which provides musical data identified by the musical-data ID to the music reproduction terminal 4 . Subsequently, the control section 9 transmits the created reproducible-music list to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 . When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the reproducible-music list from the music providing server 2 , at step SP 96 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 creates a reproduction list L 2 by arranging the musical-data IDs each shown on the received reproducible-music list as an ID associated with the server ID in any reproduction order or, to be more specific, in a reproduction order conforming to a condition set by the user. Finally, the control section 6 stores the created reproduction list L 2 in the terminal storage section 14 .

As described above, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 stores a reproduction list L 2 created by carrying out the reproduction-list creation processing RT 8 , RT 9 or RT 10 explained above in the terminal storage section 14 . Then, at step ST 24 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 , the control section 6 refers to the stored reproduction list L 2 to recognize for example the first musical-data ID in the reproduction order and the server ID associated with the musical-data ID, transmitting a music-providing process start request signal to the music providing server 2 identified by the recognized server ID as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to start a process of providing a piece of musical data identified by the recognized musical-data ID to the music reproduction terminal 4 . By the way, as shown in FIG. 18B , the music-providing process start request signal includes the server ID of a server requested to start the process of providing a piece of musical data, the musical-data ID of the piece of the musical data and the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 .

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 identified by the server ID included in the music-providing process start request signal receives the music-providing process start request signal from the music reproduction terminal 4 , at step ST 25 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that the music providing server 2 has started the process of providing a piece of musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providing process start request signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 . By the way, the music-providing process start notice signal includes the attributes of the musical data provided by the music providing server 2 . The attributes typically include the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the music-providing process start notice signal from the music providing server 2 , at step ST 26 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 , the control section 6 displays information based on musical-data attributes included in the received music-providing process start notice signal on the display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. The displayed information typically includes the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

Then, at step ST 27 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 identified by the server ID included in the music-providing process start request signal reads out musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providing process start request signal from the server storage section 10 and transmits the musical data read out from the server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the music-providing process start request signal as streaming musical data.

Right after the transmission of the streaming musical data to be reproduced first in accordance with the reproduction order to the music reproduction terminal 4 is ended, at step ST 28 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a transmission end notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that the transmission of the streaming musical data has been ended.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives the transmission end notice signal from the music providing server 2 , at the second step ST 24 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to the stored reproduction list L 2 to recognize this time the second musical-data ID in the reproduction order and the server ID associated with the musical-data ID, transmitting a music-providing process start request signal to the music providing server 2 identified by the recognized server ID as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to start a process of providing a piece of musical data identified by the recognized musical-data ID.

The music reproduction terminal 4 and the music providing server 2 repeatedly execute the steps ST 24 to ST 28 for each of the subsequent pieces of musical data in the same way as the procedure described above. In this way, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentially reproducing a plurality of pieces of streaming musical data in accordance with the reproduction list L 2 stored in the terminal storage section 14 .

Next, the continuous streaming reproduction procedure MRT 3 shown in FIG. 16 is explained by dividing the procedure into a processing procedure executed by the music providing server 2 and a processing procedure executed by the music reproduction terminal 4 as follows.

First of all, a music providing processing procedure RT 11 executed by the music providing server 2 is described by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 19 as follows.

When a reproducibility confirmation request signal is received from the music reproduction terminal 4 at the first step SP 101 , the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 102 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by a terminal ID included in the received a reproducibility confirmation request signal. If the determination result produced at step SP 102 is a denial, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 103 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits an impossible-reproduction notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 in order to inform the user of the music reproduction terminal 4 that a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able to be rendered to the user and then, at the next step SP 104 , the control section 9 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT 11 . This is because the denial result indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able to be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 due to the fact that the user of the music reproduction terminal 4 is not a registered user subscribing to the service.

If the determination result produced at step SP 102 is an affirmation, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 105 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a possible-reproduction notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 in order to inform the user that a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the user. This is because the affirmation result indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 due to the fact that the user of the music reproduction terminal 4 is a registered user subscribing to the service.

Then, at the next step SP 106 , the server communication section 8 employed in the music providing server 2 receives a music-providing process start request signal from the music reproduction terminal 4 . As described earlier, the music-providing process start request signal includes the musical-data ID of a piece of the musical data and the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 . Subsequently, at the next step SP 107 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not the piece of the musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providing process start request signal can be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

If the determination result produced at step SP 107 is a denial indicating that the piece of the musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providing process start request signal is not able to be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 typically due to the fact that the piece of data does not exist in the server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2 , the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 108 . At step SP 108 the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits an available music notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 in order to inform the music reproduction terminal 4 that the requested piece of data are not able to be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 . Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 112 . If the determination result produced at step SP 107 is an affirmation indicating that the piece of the musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providing process start request signal can be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 typically due to the fact that the piece of data exists in the server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 109 . At step SP 109 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that the music providing server 2 has started the process of providing a piece of musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providing process start request signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 110 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 reads out musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providing process start request signal from the server storage section 10 and transmits the musical data read out from the server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in the music-providing process start request signal as streaming musical data.

Right after the transmission of the streaming musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 is completed, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 111 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a transmission end notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the server communication section 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that the transmission of the streaming musical data has been ended.

Then, at the next step SP 112 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not a music-providing process start request signal has been received from the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to start a process of providing the next musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 . If the determination result produced at step SP 112 is an affirmation indicating that a music-providing process start request signal has been received from the music reproduction terminal 4 , the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 107 . If the determination result produced at step SP 112 is a denial indicating that no music-providing process start request signal has been received from the music reproduction terminal 4 , on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 104 at which the control section 9 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT 11 .

Next, a music reproduction processing procedure RT 12 executed by the music reproduction terminal 4 is described by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 20 as follows.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 in order to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at the first step SP 121 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproducibility confirmation request signal including the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 .

Then, at the next step SP 122 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether a reproducibility notice signal or an irreproducibility notice signal has been received from the music providing server 2 . If the determination result produced at step SP 122 is a denial indicating that an irreproducibility notice signal has been received from the music providing server 2 , the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 123 at which the control section 6 carries out error processing including a process to inform the user that the request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data has been turned down. Then, at the next step SP 124 , the control section 6 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 12 .

If the determination result produced at step SP 122 is an affirmation indicating that a reproducibility notice signal has been received from the music providing server 2 , on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 125 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a process to create a reproduction list L 2 by executing one of the reproduction-list creation procedures RT 8 , RT 9 and RT 10 described before and stores the created reproduction list L 2 in the terminal storage section 14 .

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 126 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to the reproduction list L 2 stored in the terminal storage section 14 to recognize for example the first musical-data ID in the reproduction order and the server ID associated with the musical-data ID, transmitting a music-providing process start request signal to the music providing server 2 identified by the recognized server ID as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to start a process of providing a piece of musical data identified by the recognized musical-data ID to the music reproduction terminal 4 .

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 127 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether a music-providing process start notice signal or an impossible music-providing process notice signal has been received from the music providing server 2 . If the determination result produced at step SP 127 is an affirmation indicating that a music-providing process start notice signal has been received from the music providing server 2 , the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 128 . If the determination result produced at step SP 127 is a denial indicating that an impossible music-providing process notice signal has been received from the music providing server 2 in place of a music-providing process start notice signal, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 131 .

At step SP 128 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displays information based on musical-data attributes included in the received music-providing process start notice signal on the display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. The displayed information typically includes the title of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

Then, at the next step SP 129 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a streaming reproduction process by controlling the reproduction section 12 to sequentially reproduce the streaming musical data being received by the terminal communication section 7 from the music providing server 2 .

Right after the terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives a transmission end notice signal from the music providing server 2 at the next step SP 130 , the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 131 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to the reproduction list L 2 stored in the terminal storage section 14 in order to produce a result of determination as to whether or not the musical data to be reproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order and a server ID associated with the next musical data exist on the reproduction list L 2 . If the determination result produced at step SP 131 is an affirmation indicating that the next musical data and the server ID exist on the reproduction list L 2 , the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 126 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits a music-providing process start request signal to the music providing server 2 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to start a process of providing the musical data to be reproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order to the music reproduction terminal 4 . If the determination result produced at step SP 131 is a denial indicating that neither next musical data nor server ID exists on the reproduction list L 2 , on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 124 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 12 .

As described above, the configuration of the music reproduction system 1 includes the music providing server 2 for providing musical data and the music reproduction terminal 4 for receiving musical data provided by the music providing server 2 by way of the network 3 and sequentially reproducing the musical data in streaming reproduction processes.

When the user carries out a continuous streaming reproduction operation on the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 in order to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits at least the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 .

When the music providing server 2 receives the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 from the music reproduction terminal 4 , the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data each reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID in a streaming reproduction process from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in the server storage section 10 . Then, by arranging the musical-data IDs of the reproducible pieces of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selection process in a reproduction order, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 or the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 creates a reproduction list L 2 showing the order of reproduction of the selected pieces of musical data. The reproduction list L 2 is then stored in the terminal storage section 14 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 .

Then, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 requests the music providing server 2 to provide the music reproduction terminal 4 with pieces of musical data as streaming musical data in accordance with a reproduction order shown by the reproduction list L 2 stored in the terminal storage section 14 .

Thus, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentially reproducing a plurality of pieces of streaming musical data being sequentially received from the music providing server 2 in accordance with the reproduction list L 2 stored in the terminal storage section 14 .

In accordance with the configuration described above, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentially reproducing a plurality of pieces of streaming musical data being sequentially received from the music providing server 2 in accordance with the reproduction list L 2 stored in the terminal storage section 14 . As a result, it is possible to realize a music reproduction system 1 capable of reproducing musical data with a substantially high degree of efficiency without the need for the user to spend long time and much labor.

(5) Fourth Embodiment

A fourth embodiment implements the music reproduction system 1 , the music providing server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4 , which have configurations identical with the configurations of their respective counterparts implemented by the first embodiment. The following description is focused on differences between the first and fourth embodiments.

In the case of the fourth embodiment, a recording medium used for recording a plurality of pieces of musical data is mounted on a recording-medium reproduction section 15 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 . Examples of the recording medium are a CD (Compact Disc), a semiconductor memory and an MD (Mini Disc, which is a trade mark). The recording-medium reproduction section 15 reads out musical data from the recording medium mounted thereon and supplies the musical data read out from the recording medium to the reproduction section 12 , which then reproduces the musical data. In this way, the sound outputting section 13 is capable of outputting sounds of the musical data.

A CD is also used for storing typically CD recording music management information I 1 including musical-data IDs each used for identifying a piece of musical data recorded on the CD and storage locations each associated with one of the musical-data IDs as shown in FIG. 21A . By the way, the musical-data ID of musical data recorded on a CD corresponds to the title of the musical data, the name of an artist associated with the musical data and a track number assigned to the musical data.

By the same token, a semiconductor memory is also used for storing typically semiconductor-memory recording music management information I 2 including musical-data IDs each used for identifying a piece of musical data recorded on the semiconductor memory and storage locations each associated with one of the musical-data IDs as shown in FIG. 21B . In the same way, an MD is also used for storing typically MD recording music management information I 3 including musical-data IDs each used for identifying a piece of musical data recorded on the MD and storage locations each associated with one of the musical-data IDs as shown in FIG. 21C .

In the case of this embodiment, typically, a hard-disk drive employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 to function as the terminal storage section 14 is used for storing a plurality of pieces of musical data in advance. Much like the recording mediums described above, the terminal storage section 14 is also used for storing typically terminal recording music management information I 4 including musical-data IDs each used for identifying a piece of musical data recorded on the terminal storage section 14 and storage locations each associated with one of the musical-data IDs as shown in FIG. 21D .

By referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 22 , the following description explains a reproduction processing procedure RT 13 executed to carry out reproduction processing to reproduce musical data recorded on a CD. By the way, reproduction processing procedures for a semiconductor memory, an MD and the terminal storage section 14 are all but the same as the reproduction processing procedure RT 13 , making it unnecessary to explain the reproduction processing procedures for a semiconductor memory, an MD and the terminal storage section 14 .

If a reproduction-requesting operation to make a request for reproduction of musical data recorded on the CD is carried out by entering the musical-data ID of the musical data to the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 , at the first step SP 141 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to the CD recording music management information I 1 to recognize a storage location associated with the musical-data ID entered to the operation section 5 . In this case, the musical-data ID is typically a track number.

Then, the flow of the processing goes on to the next step SP 142 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 makes an access to the recognized storage location, which is a storage location on the CD, and produces a result of determination as to whether or not the musical data recorded at the storage location can be reproduced.

If the determination result produced at step SP 142 is a denial indicating that the musical data recorded at the storage location cannot be reproduced, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 143 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out error processing including a process to inform the user that the request for a reproduction process to reproduce the musical data has been turned down. Then, at the next step SP 144 , the control section 6 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 13 .

If the determination result produced at step SP 142 is an affirmation indicating that the musical data recorded at the storage location can be reproduced, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 145 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not an initialization process for reproduction of musical data from the CD has been done. If the determination result produced at step SP 145 is a denial indicating that the initialization process has not been done, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 146 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out the initialization process. Then, upon completion of the initialization process, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 147 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a process to reproduce the requested musical data from the CD. If the determination result produced at step SP 145 is an affirmation indicating that the initialization process has been done, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on directly to step SP 147 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a process to reproduce the requested musical data from the CD as described above.

By the way, if a reproduction-list creation requesting operation to make a request for creation of a reproduction list is carried out, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 creates a reproduction list L 3 like one shown in FIG. 23 and stores the created reproduction list L 3 in the terminal storage section 14 .

The music reproduction terminal 4 creates a reproduction list L 3 showing the musical-data ID of each piece of musical data stored on the CD, the semiconductor memory or the MD, musical-data related information relevant to the musical data and a provider ID identifying the provider of the musical data. The musical-data related information typically includes the title of the musical data and the name of an artist associated with the musical data. On the other hand, the provider ID of the musical data can be the ID of the CD, the semiconductor memory or the MD.

The control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 may also recognize musical data stored in the music providing server 2 as musical data that can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 . In this case, the reproduction list L 3 shows the musical-data ID of such musical data, musical-data related information relevant to the musical data and a provider ID identifying the provider of the musical data. As described above, the musical-data related information typically includes the title of the musical data and the name of an artist associated with the musical data. In this case, however, the provider ID of the musical data is the music providing server 2 .

Next, by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 24 , the following description explains a music reproduction processing procedure RT 14 for reproducing musical data in accordance with the reproduction list L 3 .

At the first step SP 151 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 recognizes a music reproduction requesting operation carried out on the operation section 5 to make a request for reproduction of pieces of musical data in accordance with the reproduction list L 3 . Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 152 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to the reproduction list L 3 to recognize the musical-data ID of the musical data to be reproduced first in accordance with the reproduction order. Subsequently, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 153 at which the control section 6 recognizes a provider ID associated with the musical-data ID. For example, the provider ID is the ID of a CD.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 154 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not the musical data can be acquired from the CD serving as the musical-data provider identified by the recognized provider ID. If the determination result produced at step S 154 is a negation indicating that the musical data is not able to be acquired from the CD serving as the musical-data provider due to, for example, the fact that the CD has not been mounted on or connected to the recording-medium reproduction section 15 , the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 155 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out error processing including a process to inform the user that the musical data cannot be acquired from the CD. Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 156 .

If the determination result produced at step S 154 is an affirmation indicating that the musical data can be acquired from the CD already been mounted on or connected to the recording-medium reproduction section 15 , on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 157 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a process as follows.

At step SP 157 , the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to music management information of the musical-data provider identified by the provider ID recognized at step SP 153 to recognize the storage location associated with the musical-data ID recognized at step SP 152 . In this case, the music management information of the musical-data provider is the CD recording music management information I 1 .

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 158 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 makes an access to the storage location recognized at step S 157 as a storage location on the CD and produces a result of determination as to whether or not the musical data can be reproduced.

If the determination result produced at step S 158 is a negation indicating that the musical data is not able to be reproduced, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 155 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out error processing including a process to inform the user that the musical data is not able to be reproduced. If the determination result produced at step S 158 is an affirmation indicating that the musical data can be reproduced, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 159 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 reads out the musical data from the musical-data provider and starts reproducing the musical data.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 160 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not the reproduction of the musical data can be started normally. If the determination result produced at step S 160 is a negation indicating that the reproduction of the musical data is not able to be started normally, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 155 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out error processing. If the determination result produced at step S 160 is an affirmation indicating that the reproduction of the musical data can be started normally, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 161 at which the control section 6 fetches musical-data related information associated with the musical-data ID of the musical data from the reproduction list L 3 and displays data based on the musical-data related information on the display section 11 in order to inform the user that the reproduction of the musical data has been started. The displayed information includes the title of the musical data and the name of an artist associated with the musical data.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP 162 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not the reproduction of the musical data has been completed. If the determination result produced at step S 162 is a negation indicating that the reproduction of the musical data has not been completed yet, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 162 to repeat the process of the same step. If the determination result produced at step S 162 is an affirmation indicating that the reproduction of the musical data has been completed, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 163 at which the control section 6 produces a result of determination as to whether or not musical-data related information and a musical-data ID still remain on the reproduction list L 3 to be processed next. If the determination result produced at step S 163 is an affirmation indicating that musical-data related information and a musical-data ID still remain on the reproduction list L 3 to be processed next, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP 156 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to the next object of reproduction on the reproduction list L 3 . Then, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP 152 . If the determination result produced at step S 163 is a negation indicating that neither musical-data related information nor musical-data ID remains on the reproduction list L 3 to be processed next, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP 164 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of the musical-data reproduction processing procedure RT 14 .

As described above, by execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT 14 for reproducing musical data in accordance with a reproduction list, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentially reproducing pieces of musical data in accordance with the reproduction list L 3 . As described above, the reproduced pieces of musical data are pieces of musical data downloaded from the music providing server 2 , pieces of musical data recorded on a CD, an MD or a semiconductor memory, or pieces of musical data stored in advance in the terminal storage section 14 .

By the way, in the case of this embodiment, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 creates a reproduction list L 3 showing a musical-data ID of each specific piece of musical data, information related to the specific piece of musical data and the ID of a provider providing the specific piece of musical data. The specific piece of musical data is a piece of data selected among pieces of musical data stored in the provider, which is the music providing server 2 , as a piece of musical data that can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 . However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. For example, only the music providing server 2 is shown as the provider ID as indicated on the second row of the reproduction list L 3 shown in FIG. 25 . In this case, the music providing server 2 holds a reproduction list L 1 as is the case with the first embodiment described earlier. With the reproduction list L 3 held in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the reproduction list L 1 held in the music providing server 2 , the music reproduction terminal 4 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of reproducing streaming musical data corresponding to, for example, the second line of the reproduction list L 3 in accordance with the reproduction list L 1 when the second row is recognized as an object of reproduction by carrying out the processing of the steps ST 4 to ST 7 of the procedure shown in FIG. 7 .

(6) Other Embodiments

In the first to fourth embodiments described above, musical data is reproduced as a piece of content. It is to be noted, however, that the scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. For example, the present invention can be applied to other contents such as a movie or a TV program.

In addition, in the first to fourth embodiments described above, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 and the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 execute the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 and other procedures in accordance with programs installed in the control section 9 and the control section 6 respectively. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. For example, the music providing server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4 are capable of executing the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 and other procedures by hardware, which is circuits provided in the music providing server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4 respectively as circuits for executing the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 and other procedures. If the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 and the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 execute the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 and other procedures in accordance with preinstalled programs, the programs can be installed from a recording medium for storing the programs. An example of the recording medium is a CD.

In addition, in the first to fourth embodiments described above, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 selects only pieces of musical data to be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4 in order to exclude musical data having a format incompatible with the reproduction characteristic of the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 . However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. For example, the music providing server 2 may also change the format of musical data into a format compatible with the control section 6 before providing the musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 . To put it concretely, let us assume for example that the music reproduction terminal 4 is compatible with the ATRAC format only. In this case, if the musical data held in the music providing server 2 has the MP3 format, a converter employed in the music providing server 2 converts the musical data having the MP3 format into musical data having the ATRAC format before transmitting the musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 by adoption of a streaming method. In this case, the terminal ID transmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 includes information on the format compatible with the music reproduction terminal 4 .

It is to be noted that, instead of including information on the format compatible with the music reproduction terminal 4 in the terminal ID transmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 , the music providing server 2 may read out a musical file stored in the music reproduction terminal 4 and recognize the format of the file as a format compatible with the music reproduction terminal 4 .

By the way, in the configuration shown in FIG. 1 , the content-providing apparatus 101 corresponds to the music providing server 2 , the content reproduction apparatus 102 corresponds to the music reproduction terminal 4 , the terminal-ID sender section 103 corresponds to the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 as a controller for executing the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 , the content storage section 104 corresponds to the server storage section 10 , the content selection section 105 , the reproduction-list creation section 106 and the content providing section 107 correspond to the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 as a controller for executing the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 whereas the content reproduction section 108 corresponds to the reproduction section 12 . In the configuration shown in FIG. 2 , the content-providing apparatus 111 corresponds to the music providing server 2 , the content reproduction apparatus 112 corresponds to the music reproduction terminal 4 , the terminal-ID sender section 113 , the reproduction-list creation section 116 and the content requesting section 117 correspond to the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 as a controller for executing the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 , the content storage section 114 corresponds to the server storage section 10 , the content selection section 115 and the content providing section 118 correspond to the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 as a controller for executing the continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT 1 to MRT 3 whereas the content reproduction section 119 corresponds to the reproduction section 12 .

For example, the present invention can be applied to typically a music reproduction system including a music providing server for providing musical data and a music reproduction terminal for acquiring musical data provided by the music providing server by way of a network and, at the same time, reproducing the acquired musical data.

In addition, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occur in dependence on design requirements and other factors insofar as they are within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.