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Music Media Software

Rolling Your Own Jukebox System? 48

Posted by Cliff from the music-on-demand dept.
Nurgled asks: "I've been tasked with implementing a client-server jukebox-like system using normal bits of PC equipment. The general idea is to have a central server with all of the music available and then one or more clients which have a kiosk-type interface for browsing the available music and enqueueing it on the central server, all connected to a normal ethernet network. It's important that none of the kiosks should be able to perform any operation other than enqueue new tracks, but it would also be handy if there was a separate administrative console where tracks can be skipped, which would then be available to the venue owners. The kiosks don't have very fancy hardware and most don't have touch-screens, so ideally it should support both mouse and keyboard-based operation. Is there any software already out there that can do this, or am I going to have to write my own? I'd prefer an integrated solution, but I also wouldn't mind separate client and server software as long as I can tweak both to make them work together. Any ideas?"
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Rolling Your Own Jukebox System? More

Rolling Your Own Jukebox System?

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  • Streamsicle (Score:3, Informative)

    by lou2ser ( 458778 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @02:29PM (#11459034)
    Sounds like you need Streamsicle.

    Its open source, runs on Win32 or Linux, and is still being devoloped.

    http://streamsicle.com/ [streamsicle.com]

  • XBox works best (Score:4, Insightful)

    by illumin8 ( 148082 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @02:30PM (#11459058) Journal
    I have to say that an Xbox paired with XBOX Media Center [xboxmediacenter.com] works best as a Jukebox. Even better yet, you can set the dashboard to XBMC, and lock it down so that all they can do is listen to music or even watch Music Videos (or Divx). It supports almost all formats under the sun, except DRMd ones like iTMS AAC, but it even supports normally encrypted AAC. You can use a joystick as the controller, or the infrared remote.

    Not only that, in newer versions you can even get weather forecasts, and listen to Internet radio. Xbox Media Center truly does rock. Keep all of your music/media on a central server and just mount it with SMB.
  • This question was asked before.

    Here [slashdot.org] was my answer then.

  • ... for the following:

    mp3 jukebox kiosk "client server"

    And I found this [thwartedefforts.org] as the fourth link.

  • Grind (Score:5, Informative)

    by coaxial ( 28297 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @02:53PM (#11459393) Homepage
    I've already done this. [siu.edu] Grind is a web based jukebox that supports playback of a wide range of media formats (mp3, ogg, wav, and flac to name a few). It has a small install footprint (no database overkill, just Apache, Perl, and some mediaplayers). It supports playback of internet streams as well.

    It is beta software because more metainformation in media files needs to be supported, along with perfecting its automatic installation proceedure. That said, I use it almost daily with no problems at all.

    The main feature that sets Grind apart from other jukebox software is that it supports intellegent autoqueuing. Grind monitors what songs, artists, and albums you frequently listen to, and which songs you frequently skip. The user can then set Grind basically in autopilot (autodj?) mode and it will automatically play songs from your favorite and similar artists. There may be another open source project that does that, but I've yet to find one.
  • I use Zina [pancake.org], which is an OpenSource clone of Andromeda [turnstyle.com]. Then, I use an old tablet PC and a web browser in kiosk mode.

  • SlimServer (Score:5, Informative)

    by babbage ( 61057 ) <cdevers@cis.usou ... minus herbivore> on Monday January 24, 2005 @02:55PM (#11459421) Homepage Journal

    Just use SlimServer [slimdevices.com] and be done with it. Read about it here [slimdevices.com], but to repeat the main features:

    • It's available under the GPL, so you can do what you want with it.
    • It's written in Perl, so you can run it on anything (Linux, OSX, Windows, etc)
    • It provides a configurable web interface to the central music library.

    It's intended to be the interface software for the same company's Squeezebox [slimdevices.com] network audio player, which explains why they're willing to give it away under the GPL -- they make their money of the hardware. That also explains some of the unusual design decisions that went into SlimServer, namely, that unlike some other network streaming setups (Apache::MP3 [apachemp3.com], iTunes DAAP streaming [sourceforge.net], etc) which let each client listen to their own selections, the SlimServer architecture allows multiple clients to have a say over the one stream that's being used centrally. For a management interface to a central home audio system, or for the system described in this article, that design decision is a perfect fit.

    Really, give it a try. I tried setting it up on a LAN for coworkers to listen to mp3s on their headphones, and while everyone liked the interface a lot, it was annoying that everyone listened to the same thing. But if you want to provide a way for everyone to set what is being played on a central system, this is exactly the way to do it.

    • Re:SlimServer (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Mournblade ( 72705 )
      I got one of these for christmas, and, with the exception of the screen dying 2 weeks after I installed it, I've had no problems with it (customer service was very responsive, and replacing the screen took about 10 minutes from start to finish).

      It's interesting that you say you couldn't enable multiple clients to listen to different audio, as they clearly intend you to be able to do that with the squeezeboxes. From the FAQ:

      Can I use multiple Squeezeboxes with a single server?

      Yes, you can have any numbe

      • It's interesting that you say you couldn't enable multiple clients to listen to different audio, as they clearly intend you to be able to do that with the squeezeboxes.

        It's been a while since I played with it, but my impression was that it was serving different things based on the client IP address, but if all the clients appeared to have the same IP (e.g. different subnets being bridged by a gateway server, so to the SlimServer the clients all appear to be 192.168.0.1 or something) then they'd all get

    • Second that. The Slimserver is very good, and V6 will support a SQL back end should you so desire. Also, check out JWZ's [jwz.org] Gronk [jwz.org]
  • Jukebox Project [semaya.net]

    This was originally my senior independent work in the Comp Sci department at Princeton, advisor Brian Kernighan.

    I am looking to open source the project when I get around to it. I built it on OS X 10.2, using PHP, AppleScript and iTunes.
  • I'm actually almost done writing exactly what you're looking for. I've got about another two weeks left of testing and it'll be ready to go. Central server software, simple web based admin interface, easy kiosk interface with security, cross platform, and simple to use.

    Contact me at anthony@opensource-strategies.com for information and pricing.

  • What about old school? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by cei ( 107343 )
    Feel free to rate this Offtopic...

    A couple of folks have made suggestions that answer the original post. I'm more curious about what the communication protocols for the jukeboxes that were used in diners in the 50s. Each remote station (table/booth) could add a song to the queue of the master jukebox. They'd have to transmit the song ID to the master. Was this done serial? Parallel? What was the encoding used? And how did the master jukebox implement a FIFO queue?

    Curious, and fairly ignorant of pre-solid-

    • Re:What about old school? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Blorgo ( 19032 ) on Monday January 24, 2005 @05:26PM (#11461681) Homepage
      12 volt dedicated lines to the booths, firing the same solenoids that the buttons on the front of the box would. Not really a FIFO queue.

      Older Rowe and Seeburg boxes had a mechanical queue. Jukebox idle, you choose A1 and D1. A1 starts playing. If nothing else happens, it will play D1. But if I choose C1 (while A1 is playing), C1 will play before D1, because the mechanical scanner comes to it first.

      When I put in my money and choose C1, a 9-notched mechanical thingie, about the length of a toothpick, will be pushed in to the first notch, for position C1. When song A1 finishes, it scans the 'next thing to play' mechanical queue, and plays the first thing it comes to. In my example, it plays C1 (and the notched thingie goes back to the 0 position) and then goes on to song D1.

      The 9-notch thing means that a song can be chosen 9 times but no more - and that the scanner will scan the rest of the jukebox queue first. If I had chosen C1 twice (and nothing else selected), song order would be A1, C1, D1, C1. If I had put in lots of coins and chosen C1 twenty times, it would only play 9 times.

      Details differ on different brands, of course. Slightly newer ones (in the late 1970s) started storing the playlist in a true FIFO queue electronically.
      • Back in the day I used to use jukeboxes as coin operated games by figuring out how they queued selections and then doing my song selection and order of song selection so as to create a good "flow" to the "mix", so even in bars where I wasn't the DJ I was still the DJ.
  • If you check out the forums as http://www.arcadecontrols.com/ [arcadecontrols.com] they have a section dedicated speficically to jukeboxes. This includes both hardware and software. If they haven't built/found something, then I'm not sure how feasible it is.
  • This a software list I've started on a new website I'm building. http://buildajukebox.com/content/view/8/26/ [buildajukebox.com]

    You might find something to help you there. Hopefully there'll be no /. effect.

    There also a forum at http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/board,5. 0.html [arcadecontrols.com]

  • http://www.mserv.org/ and http://dougiamas.com/mserv/
  • Check out MPD [musicpd.org].
    I have it running at home and I can control it through a web browser from wherever I happen to be. Permissions can be set by user, and playlist control is incredibly easy.

    I searched for this same thing for a while for myself and tried a number of systems, and have stuck with MPD because it just works, always.
    • I've been using this at work for a while now, and I love it. It runs on my desktop, connected to an amp and speakers, and I can control it from my laptop or desktop, and (more importantly) the person that shares my office can also control it, even if i'm not here and my screen is locked. The majority of the time, we listen to streams with it, which are all stored in playlists. There are various interfaces it, the one I use is phpMp (web-based).

  • Tunez (Score:3, Informative)

    by complete loony ( 663508 ) <Jeremy.Lakeman@nOSpaM.gmail.com> on Monday January 24, 2005 @05:16PM (#11461557)
    here [sourceforge.net]. Everyone can vote, admins can skip songs, and it's a web interface, so the client will run on anything.
    We use tunez at our LAN's so anyone can pick a song to play.
  • Do you want the music to play at each kiosk through an HTTP stream or play at the central server by queueing up songs through the kiosks? Plenty of web based jukeboxes out there that work either way. Some good suggestions in the other replies and don't forget to check Freshmeat and Sourceforge too.
  • I use XMMS Control. XMMS runs on a pc connected to the Amp that plays music through out the office. Control is done from any Web Browser. Office music battles are great
  • You may be interested in Bossogg [wishy.org], as it appears to have a lot of the functions that you're after.
  • I've used NetJuke [netjuke.org] in the past. It can either stream over a network or be used to control a player on the server.
  • At home I use Globecom Jukebox: http://gjukebox.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
    I started looking for a jukebox solution about 3 years ago. I've got ~15000 tunes online and of all the ones I looked at, this one seemed to be the most scaleable.
    It is written in PERL, and uses a MySQL database backend. It has a themeable Web based frontend driven by Apache and PHP. You can use any browser to search for songs and manage the playlist. I went with one of the very simple themes (not the default) and then customized it to

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