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Telephone controlled Internet Jukebox

Submitted by: branchcut
Created: Aug 5, 2006, 1:29 pm

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The Idea

A pure-internet jukebox that is operated by a phone call. When you walk into a bar, instead of a physical jukebox you see a sign with a phone number that says "call 555-5555 for virtual jukebox". The phone system takes payment from the user using pay-by-cellphone technology (eg, mobilelime.com). After payment, the user can speak the band name and song names he or she would like to hear, and it will be queued for playback from a net-connected PC in the bar. Aside from the net-connected PC provided by bar owner, the rest is server-side software. As far as the telephone side of things, that can all be implemented in software by using a service like VoicePulse Connect to bridge a normal call into VoIP, and from there use the Open Source Asterisk VoIP server to handle the call using a Ruby script. The business model: the user pays 25 cents per song, 10 cents goes to record label. 5 cents goes to bar owner, and the remaining 10 cents is kept as revenue.

I thought of this idea when I was...

... explaining to a foreign friend the concept of jukeboxes, and mentioning that while they are cool they have a limited selection, which made me think of hooking it up to the internet. Another friend (A.B.) came up with the idea of using pay-by-cellphone technology to handle payment.

Comments Posted

Chuck_Norris Posted: August 8, 2006, 2:10 pm

I like this idea. It's got a certain ring-tone ring to it. ;-)

branchcut Posted: August 9, 2006, 11:22 am

RE: Chuck. Thanks for the kind words. Ah, if it were only as simple as ringtones... that would be nice. Compared to ringtone downloads this idea is kind of a complex system to build.

_Matt_ Posted: August 10, 2006, 6:49 am

nice idea

Aidan Posted: August 10, 2006, 7:13 am

I think this idea would be better using SMS (text messaging) services. Charge a premium rate ($1 or whatever is appropriate). Voice recognition in a noisy bar is going to be tough.

branchcut Posted: August 10, 2006, 12:23 pm

RE: Aidan. SMS is a good idea. Another option would be to allow the user to key in the first few letters of the band/song on the numeric keypad and the system could list the matches. On the other hand, because it is a relatively constrained vocabulary, the voice recognition could be made to be pretty accurate even in noisy environments.

FireWire Posted: August 10, 2006, 12:26 pm

The problem comes down to miss spelling, or if the song is not on the list. It could become a very lengthy exercise opposed to just walking acorss the room, and browsing the selection as well as seeing how many songs are already lined up.

branchcut Posted: August 10, 2006, 1:23 pm

RE: firewire. I agree the user interface over a phone would never be quite as easy as a physical jukebox... but one of the constraints of CH is that the idea must be pure software/internet. Aside from a little clunkiness for the end users, there is also some advantages. For example, the system could let you repeat previous playlists, and perhaps even create/edit playlists over the web when you are at home. For the bar owner and the jukebox provider, there are quite a lot of advantages of not having a physical device to worry about.

branchcut Posted: August 10, 2006, 1:47 pm

RE: firewire(2). Actually there are some "logistic" advantages. You can dial-in songs without potentially giving up your seat at the bar. It could spur conversation if people hear you saying the name of their favorite band. Imagine sitting next to an attractive lady, asking what kind of music she listens to, and queueing up her favorite songs without even having to get up from your seat (which you might have lost while standing at the jukebox).

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