People will always want to hear music in pubs, clubs, restaurants, diners, private homes and, of course, parties. The popularity of jukeboxes in commercial venues is on the rise. Punters are turning away from soulless DJs and enjoy paying for what they want to hear and what they want everyone else to  hear. According to the Times Newspaper, Jukeboxes are becoming the centre of attention in bars across the country.

Celebrity bar owners place great importance on a jukebox containing quality music because it is their reputation at stake.  Shane MacGowan’s bar, The Boogaloo in London, boasts a jukebox containing 100 albums that must be older than 10 years and Shane picks ten of the albums himself.

Amy Winehouse was known to visit her local pub in Camden, choose her songs and turn the volume up to maximum in the middle of the afternoon much to the owner’s amusement.

People want to share their musical tastes and share the unusual in their collection instead of coming together to listen to the same thing. Perhaps people need venues to accommodate their varied tastes and not just play it safe. I know I’d like to head to Corbieres, Half Moon Street in Manchester, UK. Devotees claim it’s the best in the world.

A person’s favourite Jukebox playlist is a very personal and telling piece of information.
John Lennon owned a Swiss made KB Discomatic jukebox and was used while he was touring. There were 40 vinyl singles on it. Some of the artists included on the jukebox are Wilson Picket, Smokey Robinson and Otis Reading.

Leonard Cohen’s album named “Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox, The songs that inspired the man” has 25  tracks on it including: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. The album gives an insight into the songs he held closest to his heart. The auction of John Lennon’s Jukebox did the same.

A quality jukebox will draw in the crowds but a poor quality jukebox with a lot of trickery being employed to con the customer is not doing the industry any favours. It can be the equivalent of unwelcoming staff or being short changed because they think you’ve had one too many to notice.

A Jukebox Charter  has been formulated to address the frustrating side of modern commercial jukeboxes and has seven rules including:

-”The Jukeboxes should play the songs as faithfully as possible…the jukebox should not fade in and fade out at the beginning and end of songs”.
-”There should be an explanation on the jukebox of how to get a refund in cases where someone cancels a selection”

So the workings of a jukebox can be an emotive topic and generate a lot of frustration if the user is not given the control he expects such as the recent story of the American man who stabbed a bar owner who refused to turn up the volume of the jukebox. Perhaps this might not have happened if there was an explanation on the jukebox of how to get a refund!