TouchTunes Tallies a Billion Songs Played on Its Digital Jukeboxes

LAKE ZURICH, Ill. (TouchTunes Music Corporation) - Digital-downloading jukebox pioneer TouchTunes Music Corporation has announced that its jukeboxes have downloaded and played more than one billion songs since the first units went online in 1998.

"To put the billion-plus figure in perspective, our 16,000 coin-operated jukeboxes have played more digitally-downloaded songs to date than Apple Computer has sold through its wildly successful iTunes Music Store," says John Perrachon, TouchTunes president and CEO. "And there are more than 42 million Apple iPods to play them on."

Perrachon also contrasted the billion TouchTunes jukebox plays with the 466 million legal song downloads sold by all online music stores during 2004 and 2005, based on data released by market tracking firm Nielsen Soundscan.

TouchTunes estimates that if usage continues at the present pace, patrons at bars, restaurants, and other leisure and entertainment locations will download and play as many as 450 million songs this year on its digital jukeboxes.

The first to introduce a digital-downloading jukebox, TouchTunes dominates the online jukebox industry with an estimated 75 percent share of the market, the company says. Its digital jukeboxes, manufactured in the U.S. to TouchTunes' specifications by the Bose Corporation, come in both floor-standing and wall-mount models. All offer the dual capability of broadband and dial-up data connectivity, so that a TouchTunes digital jukebox can be installed in any location with an electrical outlet and a phone jack.

By providing its own jukebox hardware, operating software, and music services, TouchTunes offers single-source accountability to its customers: jukebox operators and amusement machine distributors. Incorporated in Nevada, TouchTunes' North American sales and service headquarters are in Lake Zurich, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. The company's executive offices are in Montreal, Quebec.