JayBox, the privately owned British company which boasts two decades of jukebox innovation, has unveiled the VIBE – which it is describing as its most transformative product yet. JayBox Managing Director Phil Bolderson explains how the VIBE represents an entirely new way of approaching P2P music provision at a fraction of the cost, in the process boosting profits across the board and opening up entirely new markets.

Coinslot: Can you start by explaining the thinking and strategy behind the VIBE?

Phil Bolderson: JayBox was founded 20-years ago with the aim of harnessing advances in technology to provide an incredible music solution for venues at the best possible price. Hardware costs have always been a barrier to profitability within the jukebox market and this was something we wanted to address. 

The VIBE VJB transforms the economics of providing Pay to Play music into any venue with the ability to substantially increase profits in established venues and open up opportunities in other venues and markets which historically weren’t considered financially viable. 

The VIBE VJB is a discrete device (95x70x40mm) that requires minimal installation, no cash collection, no spare parts and which plugs into any existing sound system, offering huge savings over the traditional jukebox operating costs. The VIBE VJB unit price of £150 also comes with highly competitive music costs which start at £7.00 per week, representing another huge saving for operators. 

The economies of producing the VIBE VJB allow us to pass on substantial savings to our customers allowing them much more flexibility in their pricing in what is an increasingly price sensitive market. Overall, the costs of installing and running a VIBE VJB can be as little as 10 percent of the costs of a traditional jukebox. This allows operators and venues to scale up or modernise their product offering at a fraction of the usual costs. 

True to our heritage the VIBE has been designed in partnership with a major UK manufacturer and is produced domestically. This has the twin benefits of delivering tighter quality control and faster distribution.

Coinslot: What stage are you at in terms of production?

Phil Bolderson: Production of the VIBE VJB is underway, both the hardware and the App have been on-test since March and are now ready for delivery. 

We have the ability to build and supply the VIBE VJB in high volumes with a minimal lead time and we are already experiencing huge interest in a product which is discrete, robust, intuitive, reliable, affordable and which comes with a three-year full replacement warranty. 

Coinslot: How are you providing operators with flexibility?

Phil Bolderson: Flexibility is also high on the operator wish list. To this end we are offering a White Label version of the Connect App which can be individually branded with all financial transactions coming directly to the operator, cutting transaction fees even further. 

Many of our customers want to manage their own finances and promote their own brand so we have built into the VIBE VJB and JayBox Connect the facility to uniquely profile this for an individual customer and at a minimal cost. 

Coinslot: In addition to hardware and subscription costs how does the VIBE impact an operator’s support overheads?

Phil Bolderson: The simple answer is that it virtually eliminates them entirely. With no engineer visits, no spares, no cash collections and supported by a full replacement warranty we calculate that over the long-term VIBE cuts operational costs of P2P music provision by up to 90 percent.

Coinslot: Does JayBox fit the description of being a ‘positive disruptor’ in so far as you’ve succeeded in redefining the music proposition for the digital age?

Phil Bolderson: Very much so – we’re all accustomed to controlling every aspect of our environment with smart devices, so why should the music you listen to in a pub be delivered to you any differently from at home? 

Particularly in venues with a younger demographic the demand for app-driven jukeboxes has been fierce, and that is exactly what made us question whether an expensive jukebox is redundant when everyone in the pub is controlling it using their phones. 

At JayBox we’ve always tried to innovate, with a particular focus on providing the end user with the best possible experience, because driving that engagement is what turns a jukebox into a revenue centre in its own right. We’re extremely proud to bring the first Virtual Jukebox system to the UK market.

Coinslot: Does this open-up pay to play music to new audiences in new sectors and can it be used for background music?

Phil Bolderson: We certainly believe so. As the VIBE unit itself requires almost no space and with the costs being a fraction of a traditional physical jukebox, the Virtual Jukebox concept opens the door for P2P music as an additional revenue base for arcades, games centres, or nearly any type of entertainment centre. As well as opening up new revenue streams it will also make existing venues more profitable. 

As with all of our jukeboxes, the VIBE Virtual Jukebox has a BGM mode. The key difference with the VIBE is cost – a physical jukebox is not a cost-effective way of providing a dedicated BGM, however with the VIBE units priced at only £150 and music subscriptions starting at £7 per week it becomes a much more viable solution.

Coinslot: Can you put a figure on the number of R&D person hours that have been invested?

Phil Bolderson: The process began two-years ago and was driven by a commitment to deliver our key priorities of user experience, durability, affordability, flexibility and profitability. It’s hard to put an exact number on our R&D investment, but it’s at least 10,000 hours. 

The Virtual Jukebox environment is actually comprised of several interconnected systems which have all been under constant development and refinement over the last two years: the VIBE hardware, our JBOS operating system that powers all of our products, our JayBox Connect app which is how customers select their tracks, our JayBox Engineer app and Live Access web portal that give customers the power to configure and monitor their devices remotely. 

Everything we’ve been developing for the last two years has been leading up to this and it’s been a significant undertaking. 

Coinslot: Is the VIBE is an alternative to pubs using Spotify and breaking the law?

Phil Bolderson: For many venues operating a physical jukebox can be a financial burden, which is likely to be the main driver for sites to use unlicensed music, particularly in the current economy. With the VIBE Virtual Jukebox our goal has been to provide a music solution which is not only extremely affordable, but one that allows patrons to select their own music, that’s capable of generating a profit even in sites where that has not been the case historically, and which significantly increases profitability in existing well-performing sites. 

Coinslot: To what extent has the on-trade and leisure retailers in general contributed to the development of the VIBE? 

Phil Bolderson: Because we see the Virtual Jukebox concept as a paradigm shift for the delivery of licensed music solutions, the VIBE hardware and Virtual Jukebox concept itself has been developed in absolute secrecy, working only with a few select development partners all under NDAs. 

However, some of the constituent parts of the Virtual Jukebox, such as the JayBox Connect app and Live Access web portal, have been available in full or on test with operators and venues for some time, and we’ve incorporated their feedback into how these function in order to provide the most frictionless plug and play experience possible.

Coinslot: How much have you worked with your suppliers to keep the costs right down?

Phil Bolderson: As a proud SME we’re keenly aware of the impact of the current economy on our industry, and we’ve always aimed to support our customers and offer the best value music solutions on the market. 

With the VIBE Virtual Jukebox system, we’ve aimed to not just reduce hardware costs, but to shatter them. To that end, we’ve secured supply contracts direct from component manufacturers and partnered with a major UK manufacturer of embedded micro-computer solutions, which has allowed us to keep costs to an absolute minimum as well as the ability to scale our production to quickly meet demand at high volumes.

Coinslot: Have you planned for point-of-sale promotions to explain the new way of accessing music?

Phil Bolderson: With no physical jukebox for users to interact with explaining the Virtual Jukebox concept to customers in venues is absolutely key. 

To this end we’ve produced venue POS kits including eye catching table talkers and posters in a range of sizes that we can supply along with the VIBE units for £20 per kit: alternatively, we can supply customers with the graphics free of charge if they would prefer to have them produced themselves.

For more information contact enquiries@jaybox.co.uk