App Factory, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Planet, today announced at South by Southwest the launch of Jukebox Hero, an innovative new mobile app that transforms the personal music library on a user's mobile device into an interactive jukebox. Jukebox Hero is perfect for gatherings, private parties and group events. When friends or family use Jukebox Hero on their own devices, they also join the fun by viewing a host's music library, browsing songs, viewing other participants, and queuing up songs. Jukebox Hero is available today—for free—via Apple's App Store where it instantly debuted as a Top 10 app in the Music category
Jukebox Hero makes for the perfect interactive "playlist" in group settings like social gatherings, dorms, the office and even the home. The app enables members of a circle—friends, officemates, and family members—to take turns playing DJ, enhancing group interaction and fun via the universal language of music.
"Virtually every consumer now carries a personal library of thousands of songs which can be accessed at the swipe of a finger," said Woo Park, President of App Factory, an SK Planet company. "Just as the Instagram app enhanced smartphone cameras, we think that Jukebox Hero will improve the way that consumers interact with their own—and each other's—personal music libraries. We are thrilled to launch Jukebox Hero for both iOS and Android and are extremely happy to see the app being well received out of the gate."
How It Works
Each time the Jukebox Hero app is opened, a user is presented with the ability to either create their own jukebox or to join someone else's jukebox as a remote. Creating a jukebox immediately populates the song list with the personal music library housed on the user's iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Android device. Joining as a remote allows a user to log into a host's jukebox, browse the music library associated with that jukebox and immediately queue up songs to add to the virtual playlist. The app leverages the device's GPS to provide a list of nearby jukeboxes at any given time.
Jukeboxes in the Jukebox Hero app can be set up to allow anyone to join, or they can be made privately accessible via a unique PIN. A user that wishes to join a private jukebox must have the correct PIN to be able to log in, browse and begin queuing up songs. Jukebox Hero utilizes three different queuing options and a virtual credit system that sparks social interaction and queuing activity:
Add to Queue (Adds track to end of the queue) Play Next (Adds track to the front of the queue) Play Now (Interrupts whatever is currently playing and starts selected track immediately)
Each user is given a certain number of credits when they log onto a jukebox. The cost to Play Now or Play Next increases as the activity does with Play Now always positioned as the most expensive option. When users have used all of their credits, they can request more from the owner of the jukebox they have joined. The jukebox administrator sets the default number of credits and can easily grant users additional credits as needed.
The Jukebox Hero app has unique retro styling with modern touches that transforms the jukebox of yesterday's drive-ins, malt shops and burger joints into the interactive social music player for today's current generation of music lovers. Jukebox Hero has seamless integration with both Facebook and Twitter that allows users to share the party music experience with their friends.
