Term of the Moment
hybrid mobile app
Definition: jukebox
A storage device for multiple CD-ROMs, DVDs, tape cartridges or disk modules. Using carousels, robot arms and other methods, a jukebox physically moves the storage medium from its assigned location to an optical or magnetic station for reading and writing. Access between modules can take several seconds. Jukeboxes were popular when CD-ROMs and removable cartridges were widely used prior to the commercial Internet. See digital jukebox and vinyl record.
Tape Cartridge Jukebox
A Real Jukebox Was For Music
Overland Data's Data Vault integrated a robotic loading system with a stationary magazine that held 3480/3490 tape cartridges. (Image courtesy of Overland Data Inc.)
Although music players with multiple turntables were introduced in the late 1920s, this 1930s Wurlitzer model played twelve 78 RPM single-song records by extracting the platter onto one turntable. The name jukebox came from "juke joint," a place where people danced, drank and gambled, primarily in the southeastern U.S.