Electric Jukebox is finally launching it’s music service after support from Robbie Williams & Stephen Fry
British music streaming startup Electric Jukebox are finally launching their first product almost a year since it’s expected release.
Electric Jukebox was co-created by Rob Lewis the founder of Omnifone and was created as a plug and play music streaming service. Electric Jukebox carves it’s niche in the industry as it’s streaming service is built into it’s own device, rather than being an online based service.
It’s been over a year since it was first announced since when the release date was pushed from it’s pre-Christmas date to this Easter, and then delayed again. Now Electric Jukebox will finally go up for sale this Wednesday says the company behind the streaming service, Magic Works.
Lewis explains that the delay was caused by the most common of obstacles, acquiring the global streaming rights to music. Whilst they are still planning a US launch as well it has been put on hold until next year when they plan to release it alongside new devices.
Electric Jukebox will give users access to 29 million songs ad-free, connecting to the TV similarly to Google Chromecast. For those concerned about audio quality when using it with TV’s there is also a 3.5mm line-out port for external speakers. It’s not the traditional music streaming method but Lewis isn’t trying to appeal to traditional music streamers with Electric Jukebox.
The idea was spurred by Lewis after giving his parents a Sonos speaker and a subscription to Spotify for Christmas. He quickly came to realise that the technology was beyond his parents capabilities and “that was the lightbulb moment”. Lewis says: “I set the team a challenge. Can we make something that comes in a box, affordable for most people, open the box, and two minutes later you’ve got a jukebox with all the worlds music.”
It’s true that despite music streaming’s giant growth in popularity in recent years there is still a generational gap between younger listeners who have adopted the platforms, and older listeners who may not even know they exist. This is why despite the competitive state of the music streaming market isn’t concerning Magic Works. “I’m not after the Spotify customer, I’m after everyone else.”