I’ve never known the jukebox as anything but a beautiful relic of a musical past. For me, at least, the jukebox never existed to just play music. Instead, it did double duty: neat to have in a bar, clever, vintage, classic, ironic, hipsterish, whatever. I’m sure people who really used jukeboxes in the past didn’t care about that, they just wanted to play a damn song for a nickel. And that’s what the makers of the Virtuo Jukebox think people still want in a jukebox: to play music.
Frog Design, the makers of the Virtuo, claim that their jukebox does just that. And it might be true! They’ve created a 26-inch machine that lets you explore songs by genre, chronology, influences, lyrics, keywords and geography. It’s more interactive (there’s a photo booth camera!), information filled (contextual interface!) and actually tries to be a jukebox of today, rather than a soulless imitation of yesterday. I’ve seen a lot of ‘modern’ jukeboxes in bars with pretty snazzy touchscreens, they’re decent and plenty fine when the drinks are flowing but definitely lack the charm of yesteryear and the convenience of modern technology. Maybe the Virtuo Jukebox can be different. [Born Rich]
