Rolling Your Own Jukebox System?

Nurgled asks: "I've been tasked with implementing a client-server jukebox-like system using normal bits of PC equipment. The general idea is to have a central server with all of the music available and then one or more clients which have a kiosk-type interface for browsing the available music and enqueueing it on the central server, all connected to a normal ethernet network. It's important that none of the kiosks should be able to perform any operation other than enqueue new tracks, but it would also be handy if there was a separate administrative console where tracks can be skipped, which would then be available to the venue owners. The kiosks don't have very fancy hardware and most don't have touch-screens, so ideally it should support both mouse and keyboard-based operation. Is there any software already out there that can do this, or am I going to have to write my own? I'd prefer an integrated solution, but I also wouldn't mind separate client and server software as long as I can tweak both to make them work together. Any ideas?"

Comments

XBox works best

[illumin8]

I have to say that an Xbox paired with XBOX Media Center works best as a Jukebox. Even better yet, you can set the dashboard to XBMC, and lock it down so that all they can do is listen to music or even watch Music Videos (or Divx). It supports almost all formats under the sun, except DRMd ones like iTMS AAC, but it even supports normally encrypted AAC. You can use a joystick as the controller, or the infrared remote.

Not only that, in newer versions you can even get weather forecasts, and listen to Internet radio. Xbox Media Center truly does rock. Keep all of your music/media on a central server and just mount it with SMB.