Here's a new app for PCs: cheap and unlimited commercial jukeboxes. nytimes.com
26,000-Hit Wonder Keeps It Hopping
Christopher Smith for The New York Times
Popular - Making a selection at the Hi Fi bar in Manhattan.
By JOHANNA JAINCHILL
In a rainy Monday night at 7, when most of the East Village bars in Manhattan are empty, a steady crowd is rolling into Hi Fi. Drinks are two for one until 8, but that is only one of the reasons many patrons choose the otherwise nondescript watering hole out of the many on Avenue A. They are there for EL DJ, an MP3 jukebox with 26,000 songs to choose from.
Mike Stuto, the 36-year-old owner of Hi Fi and the co-creator of EL DJ, says it has the biggest selection of any jukebox in the world. "The reason it's a great idea is because it's a simple idea," he said.
Mr. Stuto's basic idea was to digitize his music collection and make it available in a jukebox that held far more than the standard 100 albums. EL DJ, or Extra Large Digital Jukebox, includes tracks from 1,798 full-length CD's in Mr. Stuto's collection. Record companies might be pleased to know that he copied the albums individually onto the hard drive rather than downloading them Napster-style.
The artists range from the Replacements to De La Soul to Wilco. As with conventional jukeboxes, Mr. Stuto said, royalties are paid on the songs played.
The tall, narrow wooden box that holds EL DJ is outfitted with a bill accepter and a keypad for making selections. Customers use a trackball mouse to navigate through the albums, which are displayed randomly but can be searched alphabetically. Until a sign was attached to identify it, the jukebox, made from a refurbished PC and some off-the-shelf additions, was frequently confused for a cash machine. A dollar buys three songs on weekdays and two songs on weekends.
The jukebox's popularity is reflected in the lag time between pay and tune. "You can wait three hours and not hear your songs," said Charles Bottomley, who was at Hi Fi celebrating the birthday of a VH1.com colleague.
As a onetime owner of Brownies, a renowned live rock venue that stood on Hi Fi's site for more than a decade, Mr. Stuto wanted the music in his new bar to be delivered in a unique way. He turned to Timothy Roven, a former Web designer, to help him build what he wanted.
"Other stuff out there is ill conceived in that it overuses technology that's not relevant," Mr. Stuto said, referring to the few MP3 jukeboxes for bars, which typically come preprogrammed with a choice of 200 popular CD's and allow additional songs to be downloaded from the Internet by customers.
Mr. Stuto, a self-described music snob, was not about to fill EL DJ with Top 40 selections or allow just any music to be played at Hi Fi. His collection is eclectic and heavy on rock. Since he has all the room in the digital world, he can offer 17 full-length Rolling Stones albums instead of a greatest-hits compilation, and samplings of local bands that otherwise have little exposure. Music lovers have taken notice.
"Outside of the charming bartenders, it's the major draw," said Galen Polivka, a Hi Fi bartender himself, drinking there on his night off. During happy hours, "it's kind of a scholarly vibe," he said. "People want to impress their friends by picking the most obscure thing they possibly can."
If a song is excessively chosen it will be marked "overplayed," sparing anyone from making a choice considered common. Victims of overplay include Coldplay's "Yellow" and the Pixies' "Debaser."
The idea of identifying such songs was one of many originating with customers. From the response, Mr. Roven and Mr. Stuto concluded that there were two marketable products in EL DJ: a software program to equip home computers with similar capabilities, and a commercial version of the jukebox for bars, complete with computer hardware and kiosk.
They started a company and enlisted a code writer, and the three have spent seven months fine-tuning both versions. The home rendition will be available for purchase at ELDJ.com in the next month or so for about $20, they say, and the full-size jukeboxes, yet to be priced, will be made on a custom basis.
Mr. Stuto predicts that his idea will help the jukebox make a comeback. Kerry Segrave, a cultural historian who wrote "Jukeboxes: An American Social History" (McFarland, 2002), disagrees.
"Jukeboxes will never have the popularity they once had," Mr. Segrave said. In the 1920's, he said, people went to bars for the jukebox. "Now you don't notice it. It's in the background like a bottle of whiskey."
And not all bargoers want the MP3 format to take over. "I'm all for technology and the availability of more choices, but there's something nostalgic about flipping through," said Mariah Ehlert of Brooklyn, hanging out on a Friday night at 7B, a bar with a traditional jukebox just a few blocks from Hi Fi. "I miss the 45's, too."
Others are less skeptical.
"I'm addicted, totally addicted," said Vicky Karan, a former East Village resident visiting from San Francisco, while navigating EL DJ's glut of choices. "Even my mom knows how to use the Internet. Everyone knows how to use a mouse. This has finally caught up with what people are doing on a normal day." |
