TouchTunes Interactive Networks, the industry leader for interactive music and entertainment in 57,000 venues nationwide, enabled crowdsourced music at the 2013 frog SXSW Interactive Opening Party. Held at the Palmer Events Center in Austin, Texas, the annual celebration has built a reputation for being one of the best events of the festival because of the interactive experiences onsite encouraging guests to consider how technology impacts every day life. Over 6,000 guests in attendance were invited to "be the DJ" and vote on the next song to play by selecting music on the TouchTunes mobile app or by visiting one of the twenty TouchTunes smart jukeboxes at the event.
At the end of the night, there were over 10,200 total votes. PSY's Gangnam Style was the most voted song by TouchTunes mobile app users, while The Blues Brothers' Hey Bartender was the most voted song on the jukeboxes. The most voted artist overall was Austin favorite Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.
TouchTunes is known for creating shared, social experiences in-venue and putting consumers in control of the music on a pay-for-play basis. The TouchTunes installation at SXSW was an experiment in crowdsourced DJ'ing on a mass scale where the most voted songs ultimately made it to the top of the queue.
The frog and TouchTunes collaboration at SXSW was part of an on-going relationship in developing interactive products for venues. In 2010, TouchTunes tapped frog to help reinvent the jukebox with new interaction and product design. The result was the TouchTunes Virtuo, a digital music system that successfully captures the experience of vintage jukeboxes, yet has a modern interface for consumers' evolving digital expectations. Built as a multi-application entertainment platform, the Virtuo transitions from a music player to a digital photobooth and karaoke machine, giving consumers even more ways to connect socially.
The TouchTunes mobile app interplays with TouchTunes jukeboxes and has been downloaded over 1.3 million times for iOS and Android. "The app enables users to find TouchTunes locations nearby and control the music from their phones," said TouchTunes CMO Pat Shores.
