Coinslot: Who were the founders of the company, and can you remember where and when the decision was taken to launch Jay Box?
Graham Bolderson: Duncan Wood and myself were disillusioned when trying to use a jukebox in a local pub in late 2002. It was rubbish, with no depth of music. We felt that a more modern take on a jukebox should be used to leverage compressed audio files and provide them on-line, thus bringing a huge repertoire to the device.
As a hobby style project, we started planning, much by intuition and guesswork, how this might be achieved. It took a couple of years of slogging in our spare time to get a working prototype – which was so good that we felt we should try to bring it to market.
With little or no funding, we managed to design a case and software architecture, as well as unpick and agree the necessary licensing to host our own music library. We officially registered JayBox Ltd as a company on August 18th, 2005.
Coinslot: Where did the name come from, what was the inspiration?
Graham Bolderson: Initially we thought J-Box would be a good name, but unfortunately it was already taken and trademarked. Both being fans of The Simpsons, we were reminded of an episode where Homer tracks down his estranged mother to find out what the “J” stands for in Homer J Simpson, only to find the “J” stands for “Jay” – so we followed suit and settled on “JayBox”!
Coinslot: Can you provide a list of key developments and dates in the history of the company?
Phil Bolderson: The JayBox v1 was released in 2006 and sold a few dozen units. Following feedback from customers we quickly followed this with the revised JayBox v2 in 2007, featuring a larger cabinet with modular subassemblies that made it easier for customers to perform component-level repairs. The v2 was also the first jukebox to incorporate a feature which is now ubiquitous on digital jukeboxes – a bingo caller, the voice of which was provided by one of customers’ engineers who worked as an amateur caller in his spare time.
In 2012 we made a number of upgrades to our system in the JayBox v3, including a Bang & Olufsen amplifier (which we still use today, although it is now ICEPower), and our first fully digital Multi-Function Control Board which allowed us to introduce powerful features providing control over multiple simultaneous sound zones, play modes, scheduling, and coin mech control.
In 2018 we began a total redevelopment of our back-end systems, as by that point they were aging and written in largely unsupported languages. The JBOS system that we developed has been the foundation of all our products and services since and plugs into our Live Access portal to allow a vast amount of remotely accessible system control, data metrics and customisation.
We launched the Spectra jukebox at EAG 2020, featuring a larger portrait screen, more modern design, enhanced music discovery features, and programmable lighting, followed by the Phoenix in 2023, with which we reconditioned older JayBox cabinets (as a Phoenix from the ashes) with a more contemporary front end and programmable lighting, allowing us to deliver all the new features of JBOS and the Spectra for incredible value for a market which had become increasingly price sensitive in the aftermath of lockdowns.
Most recently, expanding on the same consciousness of price sensitivity we started development on the VIBE in late 2023, aiming to develop a product which almost entirely eliminated the expensive hardware from the jukebox equation, while still delivering the depth of features and rich music selection our customers have come to expect, at a tiny fraction of both the purchase price and operating cost of a traditional wall box.
Coinslot: What were the motivations for starting the business – did you have a vision or dream?
Graham Bolderson: Starting out as dissatisfied jukebox users ourselves, we wanted to build something that users would enjoy and that offered more than the CD jukeboxes that were in most pubs in the early 2000’s, so our entire focus has been on providing a great user experience and wide music selection.
Coinslot: When did you produce the first Jay Box juke, what model was it and do you recall where it was sited?
Graham Bolderson: The very first JayBox v1 that we manufactured was sited on 12th September 2006 at a local pub called the Globe Inn in Carlisle, and the jukebox is still running today, although in a different venue.
Coinslot: What were the features of your first juke box and what were the USPs?
Graham Bolderson: They’re incredibly reliable, with many of the earliest boxes we made still going strong in 2025. Our other main USP has always been our music selection, with particular thought given to providing not only as much music as possible, but also that the music is relevant to the users.
To facilitate this, all of our jukeboxes allow end users to request new tracks to be added to our library, and when we do our weekly music updates, we first add any new music from the charts, and then choose everything else in the update out of the most user-requested tracks.
This approach has built us a real connection with end users, as we aim to ensure that music options are always current and what the users are asking for.
Coinslot: Have you still got customers who have been with you since the start of your journey?
Graham Bolderson: Yes, virtually all of them – we are very proud of the loyalty we’ve built across the years.
Coinslot: What have been the biggest challenges facing the pay to play music sector?
Phil Bolderson: There have been a few big challenges for the industry during our time in business. Shortly after we launched the company, we saw the double whammy of the smoking ban and recession hit the pub sector incredibly hard in 2008, with as many as 50 venues closing per week for a time. More recently obviously the big one has been the effects of the pandemic and lockdowns, which we are still feeling the after effects of.
The price sensitivity of pubs, combined with lower footfall and reduced spend by patrons is what directs our strategy for P2P music currently, where the challenge is providing the same high level of quality, while making the entire package cheaper and easier to use for everyone from operators to landlords, to patrons: this is exactly what led us to develop the VIBE virtual jukebox.
Coinslot: Do you believe the role of music in terms of attracting and retaining pub customers is recognised and if not, what can be done about it?
Graham Bolderson: It is potentially substantial – we must provide a great delivery, choice and experience for users at the right price, and keep users engaged. We can see this with our track request feature, where jukeboxes that make heavy use of the feature have the same users logging on again and again and tend to have higher takings than jukeboxes where the feature is used less often.
Coinslot: If you appeared on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs what would be your eight tracks, the book and the luxury that you’d take with you?
Phil Bolderson: That’s a tough question to answer, my taste in music is too eclectic! I’d pick a mix of upbeat tracks to keep me motivated: Mr. Blue Sky by ELO, Make it Bun Dem by Skrillex & Damian Marley, Plug in Baby by Muse, Harder Better Faster Stronger by Daft Punk, Nobody by Skindred, Whiskey in The Jar by Metallica, You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon, and Waltz of The Flowers by Tchaikovsky.
The book would have to be The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. It was the first book I ever read on my own when I was six, and it’s my literary comfort food. For the luxury that depends on whether I can have power. If I can then it would be my laptop. If not, as much wine as I’m allowed to take with me!
Coinslot: What was the first record you played on a juke box?
Graham Bolderson: Wow, that was a long time ago – It might have been Faith by George Michael or Elton John – I’m still standing.
Phil Bolderson: I have no idea, probably something to irritate my mates. I remember playing Witch Doctor by the Cartoons a lot on the box in the rock bar I drank in when I was 18.
Coinslot: Do you know the first record played on a Jay Box juke?
Phil Bolderson: It’s most likely to have been something played for in-house testing off the first album we added to our music library – Greatest Hits of ZZ Top
Coinslot: What’s your vision for the company over the next decade?
Phil Bolderson: To continue growing our music offering to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and expanding our ease of use and remote configuration features to enable customers to tailor their music experience for a variety of different tastes and venues.
We’ve almost completed an exciting new development that significantly expands the BGM functionality of the VIBE, and our plan is that this will open up several new markets for us where P2P isn’t viable because the customer requires a more curated music experience. We hope to be able to talk to you in a bit more depth about this soon!
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