It's been a tough summer for machine operators in the pub sector. The abysmal weather has kept customers at home and when they are at the pub the smoking ban has kept them outside. So it's perhaps surprising to find there's one pub machine out there that's been taking in excess of £500 a week since May - and that it's a jukebox.
The machine in question is installed at the Purple Turtle in Reading, Berkshire. Licensee Stuart McNaught was looking to upgrade the existing digital Sound Surfer jukebox and replace it with something that would better meet the requirements of his music-savvy clientele. The answer was the new Milestones in Music AV from Sound Leisure, supplied by machine operator Arrow Amusements.
"The Purple Turtle is what I call a heavy music site," says Arrow's Duncan Campbell. "It's a young crowd, lots of students who are really into their bands.
"As soon as I saw Milestones, I knew it would be ideal because the music range is near enough infinite. On the first night we had the box on site, there were queues of people waiting to use it. In fact, we had to take some selections off as people were larking about with obscure tracks!"
The temptation to test the capabilities of the system are understandable. Milestones comes fitted with the Official Chart Package from Soundnet - a database of tracks that goes back to when the UK charts first began in 1952.
They can be accessed by entering any date, so customers can, for instance, check out what was number one on the day they were born.
Sound Leisure has recently added video to the system, and coupled with Soundnet's video chart package, which includes every UK top 10 hit with a video since 1980, that adds up to more than 5,000 videos and what claims to be the most comprehensive archive of UK music video history available anywhere.
The Purple Turtle took a 37-inch screen as part of the deal, and, as a style-conscious pub, went for the more expensive Nostalgia cabinet that mimics a traditional jukebox. It seems to have been worth it."The revenues haven't really dropped off through- out the summer," says Duncan. "I think one week it might have gone down to £425 but then it went up again because of the Reading Festival. We downloaded a special playlist from Soundnet of the bands featured at the festival and that was received extremely well."
Duncan is so pleased with the results at the Purple Turtle, that he has persuaded another music-led pub, the Snooty Fox in neighbouring Newbury, to take one."I told the licensee to have a look at the one in Reading and he came back and wanted one, in a Nostalgia cabinet as well," he reports. "It's been on site for six weeks now, with a 42-inch screen, and the cashbox is doing just as well. But I wouldn't consider this investment for every venue," he adds. "It has to be the right kind of pub."