February 2012
The more things change, the more they don’t –– that is one of the themes running throughout this month’s issue with its focus on street route promotions. No doubt, today’s operators are facing a combination of obstacles that would make their predecessors grateful to have practiced the trade in a different era. Yet some of the core challenges are timeless, and we see those themes arise even in our contemporary coverage of the industry.
Price-per-play is a prime example of such a long-standing dilemma facing operators. More than 30 years ago, the national AMOA spotlighted the price-per-play problem in its ultimately unsuccessful federal court case against the U.S. Copyright Tribunal, which had increased the jukebox license fee from $8 to $50.
“During the 40-year period from 1940 to 1980, the average price per play on jukeboxes had not increased at a rate commensurate with the inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index,” the court noted, however, in AMOA v. U.S. Copyright Royalty Tribunal.
During the course of those early ’80s proceedings, several jukebox operators also testified that “the continuing decline in the number of jukeboxes in operation was attributable to both operators’ inability to increase price per play in line with inflation and to the loss of prime jukebox locations due to socio-economic changes, such as urban redevelopment and the replacement of jukeboxes by other means of entertainment.”
Sounds familiar? Unfortunately, these trends continue to this day.
Elsewhere in this issue, we have re-published excerpts of an interview from two decades ago with jukebox exec John Margold, who serves as AAMA chairman today, but at the time was promoting redemption at Betson Distributing and advocating raising prices. In commenting on the interview two decades later, Margold acknowledged that operators continue to struggle with the issue but stressed that those who are promoting and bringing in patrons who also purchase food and drink wield considerable bargaining leverage in a down economy.
“A location can always find a vendor who won’t ask for more, but finding one who brings people to the location through leagues, prizes, season banquets, etc. is more valuable today than ever before,” Margold stressed. “I’m not walking in the operator’s shoes, and I know it’s not easy. But raising prices can help keep an operator healthy and profitable, which helps the location in the aggregate if that operator is drawing patrons to the location.”
Ultimately, the operators we talked to for this month’s issue said it best: promotion in the form of leagues, tournaments and bringing the best equipment and the best service remains the only answer to the vexing difficulties of past and present. More than just a solution to multiple problems, promotion is the core product amusement operators offer their location customers, while the games and music and prizes are the essential tools of that trade.
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