Sound Leisure Headlines IGX
Around the corner and down the street from the ATEI amusement trade show at Earl’s Court exhibition center in London, InterGame magazine sponsored a competing event at the Hotel Ibis. Dubbed IGX, it fared rather better than I had expected of a lower-cost show in a smallish hotel ball room. Sound Leisure, the UK-based jukebox […]
Report: The Internet’s Role in Music Purchase Decisions
I recently read the following interesting bit on www.digitalmusicnews.com The internet has little sway over most music-related buying decisions, at least according to a survey released by the Pew Internet American Life Project. “The internet helps music buyers connect with artists and learn more about music, but it doesn’t strongly influence what or how they […]
Broader Broadband Begs for Greater Innovation
Broadband speeds will get considerably faster over the next four years, according to a research note issued Tuesday by Parks Associates. The Dallas-based group noted that more than 33 million US households will enjoy speeds of 10mbps (megabytes per second) or higher by 2012, a jump from 5.7 million currently. This increased speed is a […]
Essential Jukebox Qualities
An expanded version of the following post appeared in the April 2008 issue of Playmeter magazine, a trade journal for the coin-operated amusement industry. If you’re involved with music, check out a site called digitalmusicnews.com. Read their top stories and you’ll see that there is a vicious, blood-thirsty battle being waged over how music will […]
Your Friendly Neighborhood Jukebox
The following piece originally appeared in the September issue of Playmeter magazine, a trade journal for the coin-operated amusement industry. Jukebox music is a shared experience. We can listen to our favorite songs as often as we’d like in our homes and on our headphones, but we are drawn to share music with the communities […]
Music Sales Take a Beating in 2007
Album Sales Drop 15 Percent in US The US-based recording industry suffered a steep decline in 2007. The tracking firm Nielsen Soundscan reported album sales declines of 15% for the year. Nielsen counted albums sales of 500.5 million units during 2007, a marked decrease from 2006 sales of 588.2 million units. More specifically, Nielsen reported […]
Jukebox Homogenization
Picking songs on any jukebox is a challenge. Whether it’s digital, CD or 45, it is an art that’s part mix tape concoction and part DJing. There are obvious pitfalls — no one really needs to hear “Sweet Caroline” or “You Shook Me All Night Long” again, right? (Don’t get me started on “Free Bird.”) […]
Format Shift Deja Vu
The technology shift is on in the jukebox business. And the growing pains we’re currently experiencing are similar to those experienced by hifi companies in the mid to late 90’s. Enco Systems not only supplies compact disc technology to the jukebox industry, we have also worked closely with some of the top hifi companies on […]
Jukebox Crystal Ball: Autumn ‘07
What does the future hold for the venerable jukebox? How will this much-loved American icon be shaped in the future? Clearly, pay-per-play public performance of recorded music still has a vital role to play in our industry and in American culture. And it also seems clear that the predicted technology shift has finally arrived. Digital […]
Operators: True American Independents
I compared the cashbox economics of CD jukeboxes versus digital in July’s post, and on the surface the numbers seem to quite convincingly favor the digital machine. But a fairly strong case for the continued viability of CD jukes also emerged from those same calculations. So what do operators think? After all, these are the […]