I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes.
You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTunes. Each song typically costs 2 credits a piece. However, if you click "play next," you can hear your song immediately for extra money. In other words, if you're at a busy bar and play your songs at 5 pm, it's anything but a guarantee you'll hear them by closing time. All that can be guaranteed is, whether you paid extra to hear a song "next" or went the old-fashioned route and didn't hear your songs, you're going to be wasting money.
In one sense, it can probably be said that TouchTunes is a brilliant business model. However, no matter how much money they may be reeling in, TouchTunes is a scam, pure and simple. While it may be effective from a business perspective, it's wrong in principle. Whether it be rush-hour traffic, at a movie theater, a concert, a campaign rally, in an airport, or at a restaurant, what do we all have to do? Wait in lines. It's first come, first serve. If a person is first at the box office, he/she will have the first crack at the hot ticket in town. That's how it's been in the past and how it should be in the present and the future. That's not the case with TouchTunes. Can you imagine if other businesses followed a similar model? If a new Star Wars film is premiering on a Thursday night, costs $10 per person, and die-hard fans have been waiting in line for hours on end, and people started arriving late to the party, only to get to the front of the line by offering to pay $20 per ticket, how could that be deemed ethical? No matter what some might say, money isn't everything; there are such things as morals and values; and due to my own morals and values, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes because of the TouchTunes scam. While I value music, I value principles more.
You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTunes. Each song typically costs 2 credits a piece. However, if you click "play next," you can hear your song immediately for extra money. In other words, if you're at a busy bar and play your songs at 5 pm, it's anything but a guarantee you'll hear them by closing time. All that can be guaranteed is, whether you paid extra to hear a song "next" or went the old-fashioned route and didn't hear your songs, you're going to be wasting money.
In one sense, it can probably be said that TouchTunes is a brilliant business model. However, no matter how much money they may be reeling in, TouchTunes is a scam, pure and simple. While it may be effective from a business perspective, it's wrong in principle. Whether it be rush-hour traffic, at a movie theater, a concert, a campaign rally, in an airport, or at a restaurant, what do we all have to do? Wait in lines. It's first come, first serve. If a person is first at the box office, he/she will have the first crack at the hot ticket in town. That's how it's been in the past and how it should be in the present and the future. That's not the case with TouchTunes. Can you imagine if other businesses followed a similar model? If a new Star Wars film is premiering on a Thursday night, costs $10 per person, and die-hard fans have been waiting in line for hours on end, and people started arriving late to the party, only to get to the front of the line by offering to pay $20 per ticket, how could that be deemed ethical? No matter what some might say, money isn't everything; there are such things as morals and values; and due to my own morals and values, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes because of the TouchTunes scam. While I value music, I value principles more.
The world is changing, my friend! This is reminiscent of the Disney fast pass and Zoombezie Bay zoom pass, where you can now pay extra to have less wait time in lines. So what does this teach our children? That money makes the world go 'round. I don't agree with it but it seems this is the direction that businesses are turning.
ReplyDeleteIt teaches our children that when one combines money with a cell phone and alcohol, morals tend to go out the window; that people are easily scammed; and that the "right now" generation needs to work on its patience.
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