# Jukebox: $1.00 per song? Are you fucking HIGH?? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021 "2010-10-13T16:51:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/21 "2010-10-13T20:54:16Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > I saved up to 15% or more by switching to Geico brand jukebox music. I saved 15% by not tipping the jukebox. ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/22 "2010-10-13T21:12:18Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > I waded through all the crappy rap & modern dance (jeez, kids these days…) until I got to some REAL music: AC/DC. (First one on the list, natch!) You call that noise music. Everyone knows real music died with the last of the [megaphone crooners](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PlhJOzH0gY). ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/23 "2010-10-13T21:15:51Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > [@PlainJain](#): > > > > To the OP, what were doing out a restaurant anyway? You could saved a bunch of money by cooking at home. > > Home? Well, la-dee-da, Miss I’m-too-good-for-a-refrigerator-box! We used to dream of cooking in a refrigerator box. Lucky bastard! ---
**Author:** ![palacheck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e57/32.png) [@palacheck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palacheck)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/24 "2010-10-13T21:21:00Z")
When I was but a wee lad $1 would buy your meal AND several songs… ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/25 "2010-10-13T21:33:21Z")
That you’re in the bar indicates that you don’t mind overpaying a bit for short-term entertainment. Food and alcohol are available (many times much cheaper) elsewhere. Why would you eat/drink at a bar then complain about _other_ overpriced short-term entertainment? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/26 "2010-10-13T21:34:11Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Also, most modern jukeboxes don’t let you play the same song consecutively. They’ll let you pay for the same song 6 times, but just play it once. Well, in that case, you alternated between “The End” and “When the Music’s Over”, back and forth ad nauseum. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/27 "2010-10-14T00:48:05Z")
[The Best Meal I Ever Had](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj-UtlMkP4c&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/28 "2010-10-14T01:14:16Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > > [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > > > Also, most modern jukeboxes don’t let you play the same song consecutively. They’ll let you pay for the same song 6 times, but just play it once. > > Well, in that case, you alternated between “The End” and “When the Music’s Over”, back and forth ad nauseum. 😛 No, I think you just get each song once then. The programming assumption is that if the same song is punched in more than once, those are different people and playing the tune once delivers to everybody who’s paid for it up to that moment. To hear it again, you need to pay for and request it again _after_ it’s played. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/29 "2010-10-14T01:25:22Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > No, I think you just get each song once then. The programming assumption is that if the same song is punched in more than once, those are different people and playing the tune once delivers to everybody who’s paid for it up to that moment. To hear it again, you need to pay for and request it again _after_ it’s played. While I’m not going to agree with the OP that the price of modern jukeboxes is a rip-off, the scenario you and **Jackknifed Juggurnaut** describe is. If the program is smart enough to identify that situation, it’s also smart enough to ask if you want to play the same song again or plug in a different tune. Or dump a metric shitload of quarters into the coin return. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/30 "2010-10-14T01:42:58Z")
The OP should visit a Johnny Rockets. Old-fashioned tabletop jukebox selectors, only one nickle per song. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/31 "2010-10-14T02:13:23Z")
They charge extra for non radio tracks to keep people from trying to be all “unique” and show off by letting everyone know that they only listen to deep cuts from popular CDs. Not the radio tracks. If you want to show your hipster side it’s gonna cost you because the rest of the bar doesn’t want to listen to your deep cuts you hip motherfucker. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/32 "2010-10-14T02:34:50Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Exactly. Plus, from the jukebox owner’s perspective, if people are still continually playing songs, you’ve probably set the price too low. On the other hand, the jukebox is continuously making money AND your customers are happy (hey, cheap music!), meaning they might stay longer and spend more on food and drinks. Unless they are the OP, in which case you need to remember that there is nothing to gain by pleasing the tightwads. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Presidente](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c2a13f/32.png) [@El\_Presidente](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Presidente)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/33 "2010-10-14T05:32:25Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > Someone had left 7 credits on the machine, so I waded through all the crappy rap & modern dance (jeez, kids these days…) until I got to some REAL music: AC/DC. (First one on the list, natch!) > > Based on what happened next, I’m positive that the bar owner must have inserted those credits intentionally, to lure gullible fools like me… > > After AC/DC finished playing, I decided to insert a few spare quarters for another rockin’ playlist. Insert 25c – nada. Another 25c – nada. Another 25c…and that’s when I bothered to look at the display telling me the price: **“$1.00 = 2 credits. $5.00 = 12 credits.”** > > What the BLOODY FUCK??? Now let me get this straight. Someone had mistakenly left 7 unused credits on the machine, which you cheerfully used, but your still whining about paying $1.00 per song??? How is that a bad deal for you? Or is it that the bartender put 7 credits in to lure you, yet somehow despite the shitty selection in music, you managed to not only use them up, but wasted more money putting in songs? The story doesn’t compute. 12 credits for $5 is a pretty fair deal, based on inflation, btw. The only common ground I will find with you is I think paying extra to bump someones song is a bad idea. Great way to start a bar fight. And yeah, the songs that are 12 for 5 sheckels usually are the shitty hit songs, and to dig deeper into the album you have to pay extra. I also find that annoying, however, I can also tell you I’ve paid extra for songs by artists that you would never find on any jukebox, so to me these Internet jukers are a wash. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/34 "2010-10-14T13:42:03Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > No, I think you just get each song once then. The programming assumption is that if the same song is punched in more than once, those are different people and playing the tune once delivers to everybody who’s paid for it up to that moment. To hear it again, you need to pay for and request it again _after_ it’s played. This is what happens and it is a rip-off. It’s especially unfair because these jukeboxes intentionally don’t show you the number of songs that are already lined up and they don’t show the song titles already requested. There could be 50 songs lined up, and if you don’t want to pay the extra credits to hear your song next, you could be waiting for hours. At least in good faith, they should alert you when a song you request is already lined up. Instead they gladly take the money for providing nothing. In some cases, such as a commuter bar or “meeting place”-type bar (where people may gather for pre-gaming or waiting for a train), jukebox users _never_ hear the songs that they played, and are stuck listening to the playlists of patrons that already left hours ago. OTOH, playing the same song (or 2 songs) repetitively can be pretty irritating to the other patrons, who might decide to move on to someplace less annoying. Preventing someone from playing their favorite song over and over again is a good thing. The last thing I want after settling into my seat, sipping my whisky and watching the game, is to be forced to listen to “Fireflies” over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/35 "2010-10-14T15:36:14Z")
I worked at a pub in the 80s, and we always showed it was time to go with to “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” - the favorite sing-a-long song of our regulars. To get to it, I would go back to the controller for the juke and start hitting the reject button (there in case of a scratch on the CD) until Sir Meatloaf came on the speakers. This was at end of night (11:25 PM - close was 11:30), so nobody to piss off. We listened to the rest of the queue as we cleaned up the pub. Another favorite bar of mine back in the states removed our favorite sing-a-long (Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver). The owner got tired of us singing along to it after a few pitchers. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/36 "2010-10-14T15:44:00Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > In some cases, such as a commuter bar or “meeting place”-type bar (where people may gather for pre-gaming or waiting for a train), jukebox users _never_ hear the songs that they played, and are stuck listening to the playlists of patrons that already left hours ago. This sounds a lot like Socialism to me. Damn librul bastards! ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/37 "2010-10-14T15:54:46Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > The OP should visit a Johnny Rockets. Old-fashioned tabletop jukebox selectors, only one nickle per song. Even better, all the songs are from 1982 or earlier. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/38 "2010-10-14T16:06:19Z")
Never mind the songs… how could you tell I was _high_? ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/39 "2010-10-14T16:24:43Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Never mind the songs… how could you tell I was _high_? Because you kept on getting more baskets of fries, and talking about how GOOOOOOOOOOODDDDD they were. Then you spent 10 minutes trying to fit a Monopoly $20 into the machine so that you could call up the entire Bob Marley catalogue while eating your fries. That you forgot about. That you then remembered were so GOOOOOOOOODDDD. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021/40 "2010-10-14T16:26:00Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Never mind the songs… how could you tell I was _high_? The OP title wasn’t a reference to you. It was a reference to a line in one of the songs by one of the OP’s favorite bands, AC/DC. You know, _All Lit Up_ 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jukebox-1-00-per-song-are-you-fucking-high/557021.md?page=3)