I've been developing a jukebox program since August of 2005. Originally it was for my own personal use-- I wanted to turn an old computer in my basement into a dedicated jukebox. Once I realized how enthralled people became with my software, I decided to polish it into something worth selling. I actually knew nothing at the time about any other jukebox software... it wasn't until I eventually found this forum through google that I found out about some of the other programs out there. I've stopped back here periodically ever since, and I've looked forward to posting my work on here eventually. It's been encouraging to know that there are people out there who enjoy this type of software as much as I do... thank you!
there's also screen shots, faq, and contact information.
Truthfully-- whether or not it ends up going up to $50 is up in the air. It's difficult to price something like this without having any kind of stats on how other similar software is selling. I'm also new to the industry, though I've done my homework.
I do know that having it at $39.95 right now makes it competitively priced as far as commercial jukebox software goes, and this is commercial jukebox software. I've checked out some of the other popular jukeboxes and I think most of them are very good... I have nothing but respect for the authors and their work. I know that my software is as professional as anything available, and I'm confident that it is different enough that a good deal of users will find it to be better suited to their needs than anythign else out there (just as some users will find that other software is closer to what they are looking for than mine is). This is my ideal pc jukebox software, and I honestly believe it's worth every penny.
I'm still feeling this out, so any and all feedback is truly appreciated, and that is not just limited to the development of the software-- it includes pricing, marketing, anything constructive. A lot of the people on this forum are real mavens when it comes to this sort of thing, so if you have input I'm all ears.
I like the layout and simple design of your jukebox software, very modern looking. A fellow Pittsburgher also, good luck with your software!
My opinion is the free alternatives are much better and offer touchscreen support, dual monitor support, and better skins.
I have to say I really like the design of your software very much.
Skins is dosen't need, when you have so such of a clean design of it (pretty much SK Jukebox).
And no, Nowtro Jukebox seen wasen't needed to been designed to use with touchscreen, hince it not a option to support that.
Dualscreen is also not a option too, since it dosent have video support, and was not designed to been a video jukebox.
The only real downside it, it only support MP3 files. Where is the other formats, like ogg and flac? You may want to use bass.dll (or such engine) as your engine, since it support many extensions.
Devospeed-- Very nice to meet you... I'm actually sitting in Schenley Plaza in Oakland at this very moment... free outdoor wifi Thanks for the kind words, I put a lot of thought into the design. Simple/understated is best for this type of software IMHO. I've been in touch with some papers around here so you might be seeing some coverage of my software in the local press soon (hopefully).
leapinlew-- Thank you, I appreciate the encouragement and honest feedback. As I said, I recognize that some people will download my software and think it's exactly what they are looking for, others won't. I'm okay with that. My software is designed to be controlled by a keyboard/keypad, so I'd rather do an outstanding job at that than try to be everything to everyone. Personally, I prefer buttons/keys over touchscreens because it feels more like using a real analog jukebox. One thing I am adding support for: I am definately going to make the keys re-mappable for the next release, which will hopefully be within the next couple of weeks. I'd love to see my software in use on someone's homemade jukebox cabinet.
Space Fractal-- It means a lot to me to see that another jukebox programmer understands where I am coming from with this software... thank you very much. You are right about the reasons that touchscreen and dual monitors are not supported.
I actually use wmp.dll right now, so I could easily add support for WMA and a few others. However, I don't think it supports ogg or flac. I have heard good things about bass.dll, so I was planning on looking into it.
My only issue is this: As of right now, when importing someone's music library, Nowtro Jukebox looks at each file's ID3 tag and file name, as well as the existing list of artists, and tries to automatically detect the artist name and song title for that track. This allows people to import their music library as quickly as possible while keeping it highly organized. If I started supporting other formats without embedded information like ID3 tags, I think it would very difficult to automatically detect the names of the artists and songs for users who do not use the C:\Artist\Album\Song.ogg structure (which is probably a lot). So, these people would have to manually enter the information for all of their music files, which would be a terrible chore.
WMA files and M4a files both have readable tags... i don't know about ogg and flac. WMP.dll should play everything if you have the right codecs installed, it will just be the tag reading that's an issue.
flac and ogg files can also both been tagged to, but it use a another system than id3. I do have seen some bad tagged files, wich have tagged them as uppercase instead in lowercase, wich cause some apps not to read them (if i remember correct).