Now THAT’S a Jukebox!

If these guys can get access to “millions” of songs, why is it that none of the authorized digital music services in the U.S. have been able to do better than a few-hundred -thousand? It sounds like the pubs are the place to be, luv:

Internet terminals offering instant access to more than two million songs are to be installed in pubs across the country as part of a revolutionary plan to stop jukeboxes becoming obsolete.
Each year pubs scrap more than 1,000 jukeboxes as they become less popular with customers.

….Inspired Broadcast Networks, the digital division of quiz machine and gambling giant Leisure Link, is teaming up with Entertainment UK, the largest music distributor in Europe, in an effort to turn the tide.

They plan to install thousands of broadband-enabled jukeboxes that can be updated from a central server and will offer customers millions of tracks, which can be recent releases or back catalogue numbers.

The hi-tech devices will also enable pub goers to instantly order the CD or ring tone of the track they are listening to and, by paying an extra 50p, they can move their chosen song to the front of the queue.

Entertainment Music has also clinched a deal with the major record labels to allow new releases to be featured on the jukeboxes before they are available in the shops. [Guardian]

Supercool – the celestial jukebox (one version of it, anyway) has arrived.