MATCHING PARTICIPANTS IN A P2P RECOMMENDATION NETWORK LOOSELY COUPLED TO A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

摘要

A system and method are provided for matching participants in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) recommendation network that is loosely coupled to a subscription music service. In general, the system includes a central server and a number of peer devices. For each of the peer devices, an associated user is either a subscriber to the subscription music service or a non-subscriber. When a user of a peer device desires to identify new friends with which to exchange recommendations in the P2P recommendation network, a friend recommendation function of the central server identifies new friends for the user of the peer device based on the user's status as either a subscriber or a non-subscriber to the subscription music service.