How to Build a DIY Touchscreen Jukebox for Your Home or Bar

A touchscreen jukebox is one of the most rewarding things you can build from an ordinary Windows PC. Put a screen on the wall or in a cabinet, load your music, and anyone in the room can tap through the albums, search for a song and add it to the queue - while you decide what they may and may not touch. This guide walks you through the whole build with Digital Center: choosing the screen, setting it up in landscape or portrait, locking it down so guests stay out of your settings, making it start by itself, and letting guests pick songs from their phones. For a feature overview, see the jukebox page.

What you need

• A Windows PC. It does not have to be new or powerful for music: a small desktop or a mini PC is enough for a music jukebox. Films, music videos and big cover effects on a large screen like a bit more graphics power.
• A screen. A touch monitor, or a TV you steer with a mouse, a keyboard or a game controller (more about that below).
• Speakers or an amplifier, connected to the PC like any other sound output.
• Your music, in folders on the PC, on an extra drive or on a network drive. Digital Center plays the common music formats, such as MP3, FLAC, M4A, OGG, WMA and WAV.
• Digital Center, installed on the PC.

Step 1: Pick the screen and how guests will touch it

There are two good ways to build a jukebox, and Digital Center works with both.

A touchscreen. This is the classic jukebox feel: guests tap a cover, swipe through the albums and type on a keyboard that appears on the screen. Any touch monitor that works with Windows as a normal touch screen will do, because Digital Center uses the touch input Windows already understands. Larger screens are easier to use for several people at once, and a screen mounted at chest height is more comfortable than one on a table.

A TV or monitor without touch. If you already have a big TV, you can use that instead and steer the jukebox with a wireless mouse, a keyboard or a game controller. This is often the cheapest way to build one, and it suits a living room or a games room where people sit back on a sofa. A remote-style keyboard with media keys works too: play, pause, next, previous and stop go straight to the jukebox.

Whichever you choose, guests can also pick songs from their own phones (Step 6), so the screen does not have to be the only way in.

Step 2: Choose landscape or portrait

A jukebox can stand either way. Landscape suits a TV on the wall. Portrait, a tall screen, looks more like a classic jukebox cabinet and fits narrow spaces.

To use portrait, turn the screen on its side and set the display orientation to portrait in Windows' own display settings. Digital Center follows Windows: every cover effect on the front page and in the music center works in both landscape and portrait, and the screensaver, the players and the menus lay themselves out for the shape of the screen. If you use your own look (a skin), it can even carry a separate background for each orientation.

When the screen is up, go to Administration and open Controls & touch. Under Interface size, choose a larger size if people will read the screen from a distance. Larger sizes fit fewer covers on the screen at once, so try them out and pick the one that suits your room.

Step 3: Set up the controls

Still in Controls & touch, set the jukebox up for the way people will use it:

• Touch screen (hide mouse) hides the mouse pointer on a touch screen, so guests do not see an arrow sitting in the middle of the albums. The mouse keeps working in Administration.
• On-screen keyboard decides when a keyboard appears on the screen for searching. Automatic shows it only on a touch screen, Always on shows it everywhere, and Off never shows it - for a cabinet with a physical keyboard.
• Keyboard navigation lets a keyboard move between items and open them: arrow keys to move, Enter to choose.
• Control the kiosk with a game controller lets a controller steer the whole jukebox, not only the games: the D-pad or stick moves, the fire button chooses, the second button goes back and the shoulder buttons turn a page. It works like the keyboard, so Keyboard navigation must be switched on as well. This is ideal for a cabinet without a touch screen.

You can also pick the look of the cover browser. On the front page, open Setup, choose Effects and try the cover effects, from a flat grid to a carousel - or set one permanently in Administration under Effects.

Step 4: Lock it with Party Mode

A jukebox in a room full of people needs a lock, so nobody wanders into your settings or deletes your playlists. That lock is Party Mode, and it comes with Home and Professional.

1. 1

   Set two passwords

   In Administration, open Users. Set the Party password (for guests, if they may reach the front page) and the Admin password (yours alone, the key to every setting).
2. 2

   Switch Party Mode on

   Open Party Mode and switch it on. A password is now needed to get to the front page and to Administration.
3. 3

   Decide what guests may do

   Party Mode only locks the jukebox. What guests may do is set on each playlist: in Administration, open Playlists, pick the playlist and turn on Available In Party Mode. You then choose whether guests may pause, skip, change the volume or delete songs, and how many songs may wait in the queue at once.

For an unattended jukebox, you can also turn on Hide back button for guests while Party Mode locks the kiosk and keep the jukebox on the music center. Guests can browse and queue, but cannot leave it. To get back in yourself, press and hold the top-left corner of the screen for a few seconds.

Go through Kiosk & security as well. Disable system keys blocks the Windows key and the other shortcuts that would let a guest leave the jukebox. Exit on Esc and Show Exit on the front page should stay off on a public jukebox, so nobody can close it.

Step 5: Make it start by itself

A real jukebox is on when the power is on. In Administration, open Startup:

• Turn on Start Digital Center automatically when Windows starts, so the jukebox opens every time the PC starts and you sign in.
• Keep Start in fullscreen on, so it fills the screen like a dedicated machine instead of opening as a window.
• Under Start in center, choose Music, so the jukebox opens straight on your music instead of the front page.
• If you want music playing before anyone touches the screen, choose a center under Start playlist at startup, and its selected playlist starts on its own.

In the same spirit, the Screensaver page decides what the screen shows when nobody is using it, such as the song that is playing with its cover, or a clock when it is quiet. Return to the first page when idle takes the jukebox back to where it started after a while, so the next guest always finds it the same way.

To let Windows sign in by itself after a power cut, use the sign-in options in Windows. Digital Center starts when you are signed in.

Step 6: Let guests pick songs from their phones

Phone remote control is in every edition. In Administration, open Phone remote and check that Phone remote control is on. On the front page, open Setup and choose Remote: a code appears, and guests scan it with their phone camera. A jukebox page opens in the browser - nothing to install - where they can search, browse and queue songs, within the rules you set for the playlist.

The phone and the jukebox talk over your WiFi, so both must be on the same network. Turn on Show the remote on the front page if you want the code on its own tile, always ready to scan. For weddings and parties, see how to let guests request songs from their phone.

Step 7: Coin and card payment, and business use

If the jukebox goes into a bar, a cafe or a rental business, you need Professional. It is the edition licensed for business use, and it adds:

• Credit Mode, where guests pay to have songs played - with a coin acceptor, or a card and mobile payment terminal. The jukebox keeps a strict balance and locks itself while a paid playlist plays. See how to turn your PC into a coin-operated jukebox.
• Your own logo instead of ours, on the screen, the screensaver and the phone page. See white-label jukebox software for rental businesses.
• Statistics, a record of what was played, day by day.

For current prices, see the pricing page. The free demo includes every Professional feature, so you can test Credit Mode on your own hardware before you decide.

Hardware tips for a jukebox that lasts

• Keep the PC cool and out of reach. Inside a cabinet, leave room for air to flow. In a public place, put the PC where guests cannot reach the power button or the cables.
• Use a wired network if you can. A cable is more reliable than WiFi for a library on a network drive. Guests' phones still use the WiFi for the remote.
• Plan the sound. A jukebox is only as good as its speakers. Measure your songs' loudness in ZenPoint Media Manager, then turn on Consistent music loudness under Sound & playback: loud songs are turned down so the volume does not jump between tracks. See how to rip CDs to MP3 and tidy your music tags.

Read more on the jukebox page, compare the editions on the pricing page, or start with the free 7-day demo.