Global Distribution Model

According to aspects of the technology there are provided a method for distributing content from one or more content sources over a communications network to a plurality of users by a content distribution system, the content distribution system comprising a master node and a plurality of local nodes in communication with the master node, each local node serving a group of users from the plurality of users, the method comprising: maintaining, at the master node, a content directory associated with a plurality of content items from the one or more content sources, the content directory comprising content location data for the plurality of content items and information associated with each of the content items; generating, at each local node, user content location data for each user in the group of users based on selecting a plurality of content items from the content directory according to a user profile of each user, the user content location data for each user including locations of the selected content items; and transmitting, by the local node, the user content location data for each user to a content player associated with said each user for use in retrieving the corresponding content items from the one or more content sources for seamless playback of the selected content items.