Virtual jukebox adds customers’ favorite songs to venue’s playlists automatically

Rockbot is a virtual jukebox platform which adds its users' favorite songs to a venue's music queue as soon as they walk in the room.

Beacons are proving a useful tool for those retailers looking to engage with individual consumers through personalized offers. Earlier today we wrote about Carrot, which does just that, enabling local businesses in Michigan to make offers to participating passers by. Now, California start-up Rockbot is using beacons to welcome customers in an altogether more entertaining way — by automatically adding one of the customer’s favorite songs to a venue’s playlist when they walk in the room

Rockbot is a virtual jukebox for public venues, which customers can access via an iPhone app whenever they visit a participating location. Since launching in 2010, Rockbot has enabled hundreds of US businesses to create a customized catalog from Rockbot’s 13 million songs. Customers can then browse tracks, request music and vote on the queue via any internet connected device. Rockbot have now added a new feature called Anthem, which heightens social engagement between participating venues and their customers by automatically queuing up a song of the customer’s choice as soon as they walk in the room.

Rockbot have already distributed 400 beacons to registered venues. These connect with participating consumers, via bluetooth, when they arrive. Anthem finds the common ground between the venue’s music preferences and the customer’s taste and lines up a song. The app then automatically sends the customer a text message telling them that a song has been added to the jukebox queue on their behalf. Early adoption in venues has seen impressive increases in usage with 41 percent more check-ins per venue and 22 percent more song requests.

The Rockbot player costs businesses USD 299 and charges consumers USD 1 for ten credits, which can buy up to three song requests. Are there other fun ways for businesses to use music to engage with their consumers?