But despite the gallons of ink devoted to various online music-on-demand services, there’s been another revolution, albeit a quiet one, involving digital music. However, this revolution isn’t about online services or file-sharing networks. Instead, it’s about a device that’s been around almost as long as recorded music. And, like today’s online music stores, this device specializes in delivering music on demand.

It’s the jukebox, a machine that has its roots in player pianos and has kept up with technology throughout the ages. After all, is there any other device that is more traditional, yet as modern as the jukebox, the music machine willing to serve up your favorite song in exchange for a little pocket change?

Today’s jukebox is but a distant relative of the machines that rocked the world in decades past. Instead of storing vinyl 45s inside the machine, modern jukeboxes keep songs on hard drives, and some accept payment via credit cards. If you don’t see the song you want to hear on the machine’s list of selections, many of today’s jukeboxes can download the song for you. Simply stated, this ain’t your father’s jukebox.

Just ask the folks at Rowe International, which has been making music-for-money devices for 97 years, from player pianos to today’s mechanical melody merchants, and recently celebrated its millionth device – Rowe’s digital NiteStar jukebox.

While Rowe makes the jukeboxes, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, AMI Entertainment, provides digital music content and Web-based management services for Rowe’s machines. Pollstar recently spoke with John Margold, Rowe’s senior VP of sales and marketing, who not only brought us up to speed on jukebox technology, but also gave us a glimpse of his industry’s past.

“I’m of an age where I think of the ones from the ’50s and nostalgically the big chrome and glass monstrosities,” Margold told Pollstar. “Of course, that wasn’t even the early days of jukeboxes. The early days were actually player pianos. They made coin-operated player pianos because the piano players that used to go to the bawdy houses were notoriously unreliable, and some of them had a fondness for drink. It became much better to have eight choices, and you put a nickel in and chose one, than hope the piano player was going to show up that night.”

We’ve come a long way from player pianos and eight selections. Jukeboxes once held about 100 45s, and if a 45 was a double-sided hit, all the better. When jukeboxes switched to CDs, 100 was still the standard figure. But with each CD containing several songs, a typical jukebox inventory might number about 700 or so hits. After those CDs were replaced by hard drives, the total number of songs available on a jukebox was only limited by the customer’s musical knowledge. And the amount of pocket change.

“That’s what makes it so exciting,” Margold said. “If it was just the 150 to 300 albums on the hard drive, what you have is a jukebox which is like a CD jukebox but probably has a more reliable mechanism that doesn’t get dusty and skip. That’s all you have.

“But the broadband connection to the file server farm, you can use DSL or cable, a customer can go up to the jukebox, and after looking at the 150 albums, he can go, ‘Gee, I’d like to hear something different for a change.’ He can hit a button that’s labeled ‘search.'”

At that point, the customer uses the machine’s qwerty keyboard to search by artist, song name or album.

“I can type in ‘Respect,'” said Margold. “And instead of hearing Aretha Franklin’s version, which I already know by heart, I can hear Otis Redding’s version.”

But jukeboxes are more than machines peddling tunes. Much like radio, a machine’s playlist is often determined by location and audience.

“The customer will call and explain the type of demographics in the venue,” explained Margold. “We have 16 pre-made hard drives. [the customer] may say he’s near a college and it will be mostly people who want alternative rock and a little classic rock. Or it’s a blue-collar factory town, where he wants it to be 50 percent country, 25 percent classic rock and 25 percent southern rock. And we’ll send him the hard drive that’s honed best to situate him in the beginning.”

But it doesn’t stop there. After receiving the jukebox, the client can then tweak the box and remove or add songs. This is accomplished by visiting his custom Web site, which is part of the AMI Entertainment.net site. There he can pick and choose songs as needed.

Another feature that wasn’t available back when teenagers gathered at malt shops and drive-ins is the ability to change the sequence in which the selected songs are played. In the past it was always first come, first served. Today it’s a different story.

“If there is a song on the hard drive you’d like to hear,” said Margold, “But you know there are plenty of songs in the queue in front of you, and you really want to hear it now. You can, for one extra credit, move that song to the head of the line.”

Which songs are popular on Rowe International’s jukeboxes? Margold said that last year it was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” This year the country fans’ top selection is Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar,” and for rockers it’s AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.”

How do jukeboxes fit in the overall big picture when it comes to digital music? After all, the devices, ranging from player pianos to today’s machines, represent the original pay-for-play music delivery device. Yet, the focus has been on MP3 players and online music services. While jukeboxes may not be as glamorous as iPods or iTunes, they still play an integral part in bringing music to the masses.

“It’s a good business,” said Margold. ” There’s a lot of folks who make their living in it. And we’ve entertained a lot of people who love to get out of the house and have a good time and play pool, play darts or just hang out with friends. It’s a great business. I’ve been in it 30-plus years and I love it. But it’s a small business, and I’m not at all slighted that the mass media think of all those MP3 players sitting in everyone’s pocket when they’re on airplanes, rather than jukeboxes.”