History of the Jukebox

I think it’s a given that almost everyone has encountered a jukebox at one point in their lives and although many people don’t ever give them a second thought, there are quite a few of us in the world that a jukebox holds a special place in our hearts and we pine to own our own one day.

Many of us are all grown up now, we have families and we also have the means to buy a jukebox of our own that we can display with pride in our own homes. We can fill it with our favourite music spanning several decades from the age of The Beatles to some of today’s popular tunes; Jukeboxes will play anything we want when we want it. But what about the jukebox itself? Where did it come from and how long has it really been around?

The First Jukebox

To answer those questions, you need to know a little about the history of the jukebox itself and Home HiFi Music Systems is here to answer all of your jukebox questions. We all can’t possibly believe that it came to be when the first electric guitar was strummed or when rock and roll landed with a crash on our planet. No, the jukebox has much more humble beginnings; in fact, the jukebox as we know it was invented way back in the late 1910s by Hobart Niblack and it was based on much earlier designs of the 1890s.

Niblack’s design was the first automated machines that would change the records enabling listeners to enjoy more than one musical selection. His design eventually became the first selective jukeboxes introduced in 1927 by AMI. This selective automated record playing machine was then elaborated on by Justus Seeburg a year later and received the addition of a speaker and up to eight different records, still a far cry from today’s highly advanced jukeboxes with infinitely downloadable song lists but an improvement nevertheless.

As the years went on, many different levels of automation were introduced and the staid wooden boxes of yesteryear gave way to the automated light shows that the ’50s and ’60s introduced. Along with these adornments also came increased record capacity and better stereo sound and as records advanced going from the original wax cylinders to 78 RPM shellac and then finally, 45 and 33 1/3 RPM’s and eventually CD’s, videos, DVD’s and MP3’s, the jukebox became the advanced technical marvel that it is today.

Home HiFi Music Systems

Today’s jukeboxes often look like those of their vintage counterparts but with updated internals and digital sound systems that require much less maintenance and can provide greater functionality. Even with all of these changes over the short history of the jukebox, they will always play your favourite music no matter what medium it is on. For the best jukeboxes in the UK, remember to shop at Home HiFi Music Systems where you’ll always get a better deal.