nex t month
A fte r fo ur iss ues, we fee l co nfide nt th a t m st
peo ple in th e coi n amuse m e nt industr y rea lize
we' re here to sta y. T o prove o ur d etermin ati o n,
we' ve ex pa nded o ur sta ff so m ewh at by adding a
West Coast edit o r a nd a tec hni cal edit o r , two
ca pable writ ers a nd kn ow ledgea ble m en in th e
music a nd games busin ess.
G e ne Be ley . a n o pera to r in Arc adi a, Calif. , a nd a
UCLS jo urn a li m graduat e, first a pproac hed u
ho rtl y after o ur first issue, enthu siastic th a t
so m eo ne was a tte mptin g a na tio na l publicat ion
ai m ed at the juke box a nd game indu try. Situated
in th e hea rt o f th e video ga m e industry, he offered
to cover th e Pac ific bea t fo r us a nd ho w co uld we
re fu se?
Perry Smith , a free -lance digita l elect ro ni c
e ngin eer and publi he r o f a newsle tter in th at field,
begins a ho pefull lo ng a nd be neficia l a oc iat io n
with us this m o nth with hi first co lumn o n
" Technical Topics," Play \/fe/er's first att empt at
giving th e
indus try s e rvice m e n a co ntinu us
torum- for di cuss ing th ei r proble ms with an ex p ert
in th e ir field.
T o complement our d epartm e nt al news, we pl a n
to d edic ate th e April issue to wh a t pro mises to be
th e visual-mu sic a l-gam es spectacular o f th e yea r,
th e film of th e British roc k o pera, '/"om my.
Deaf, Dum b and Hlind Boy will be a full -co lor
a nd wo rd s preview of the Columbia Pictures m ovie,
direc ted b y Ke n Ru sse ll and ta rring Peter Town-
shend, th e Wh o, Elto n J o hn , Ann-Ma rgr et, Tina
Turn e r, Eri c Clapton, R oge r Da ltrey and o th ers.
Loo k ill til e Mirror will de lve int o th e impac t of
th e mov ie, th e five-c ha nn el o undtrac k a nd Bally
Ma nufact uring s new flipp er game in ho no r of it all
will have o n th e mu sic a nd games industry.
In additio n. th e " Mu sic Programmin g" sec tio n
will review th e Po lyd o r-re leased so undtrac k, talk
a b ut th e hi st ry of T o mmy and disc us it '
a uth o r, Pe te Town he nd.
th er feature th a t pro mi e info rm atio n a nd
ent erta inm e nt in nex t mo nth ' PI,y Meter include :
'/"ales of th e Lock , a n in-d epth view o f th e
ec urit y ide of th e bu iness a nd what kind of
equipm e nt i ava il able to kee p e mploye ho nest
a nd pro tec t your ea rnin gs a nd piece .
Coc ktails, A ll yo lle? West Coast Edito r Gene
Be ley's repo rt o n th e burgeo ning coc ktail ta ble-
vid eo ga m e m arke t a nd the inroa d th e du a l
purpose ta bl e arc m a kin g int o new loca ti o ns.
We' ll a1 0 be re porting to yo u o n th e Wurlit.:er
Ivlwmmy, Whirlpoolin.f! to S lI ccess, an intriguing
to ry
f th e German-ma nufact ured Wurlitzer
ph o nogra ph s a nd their mounting success sto ry in
re-e nt erin g th e U.S. ph o nogra ph m ar ket.
(Continued From Page -4-4 )
BARTON: I'm sure it's affected us. But we can't
feel it right now.
PLA Y METER: Do you think phonograph prices
will undergo another increase like last year?
BARTON: That's really a hard question to
answer. It depends upon the spiral of inflation
tapering off. I would certainly hope that it's close to
the end. I don't think anybody can predict when the
end will come. I think that's been one of the big
problems the operator has been faced with-the
shock of a big increase they were given from all
phonograph manufacturers last year.
I don't think it would have been such a big shock
if the cost had been passed through several models
like the games manufacturers do. They produce
four and six models a year with a slight increase
with each model. With the introduction of the 1975
phonographs, however, it came all in one blow.
PLAY METER: What's your opinion of the
future of the phonograph market?
BARTON: I think the jukebox will be around long
after all of us are gone. It's definitely part of the
American way of life. I think it's been more or less a
flat market for us. In a number of years, though, I
think you'll see some growth. That's one product
you can't find one person who doesn't like it-that's
music.
62
PLAY METER: What do you think the
phonographs of the future will be like? Will they
change much in the coming years?
BARTON: What we're actually doing is manufac-
turing a vehicle that primarily gets hit tunes to the
public almost as soon as they happen. Anything that
we do as manufacturers would be predicated on
what the producers of the tunes do.
You hear all this talk about switching from a
seven-inch record to tape or albums. Really, any
manufacturer could make a quality machine that
could handle any type disc or any type tape, but it
would be premature to produce such a vehicle
before the product is ready to sell. We are in a
position to where we react to a situation like that
rather than force the situation into changing to
eight-track tape or what have you. We always have
been the purveyor of a hit tune.
If a hit tune is on a seven-inch disc, well, we'd
better make a machine that'll handle that
seven-inch disc so that we can move on it with
dispatch. Naturally we continue to improve sound,
improve technology. There'll be more solid state,
not for the sake of technology, but actually because
it's become less expensive.