Digital downloading jukebox system with user-tailored music management, communications, and other tools

A method of playing music at an out-of-home pay-for-play establishment in connection with a portable electronic device located at an out-of-home pay-for-play establishment and operable by a user to play music selected from a catalog of songs, the method comprising:

• enabling the user to execute a login operation to indicate that the user is present at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;
• in response to the user selecting a song, facilitating collection of a number of credits in exchange for the selected song being added to a queue of songs to be played back at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;
• sending, for display via a display of the portable electronic device, information indicative of at least a portion of the queue at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;
• and
• enabling reception, from the user, of one or more votes in connection with one or more songs in the portion of the queue;
• wherein songs from the queue are played back at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment in dependence on the queue,
• wherein the portion of the queue, at least some of the tallied counts of votes, and an indication of a currently playing song are displayable on the display of the portable electronic device the user used to execute the login operation,
• wherein the catalog of songs is restrictable such that only a partial subset of songs is available for selection by logged-in registered users at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment, the catalog of songs being restrictable through specification of respective amounts of music for a plurality of genres, and
• wherein the partial subset of songs is selectable by a proprietor of the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment.

A digital audio reproduction system operable to play music in an out-of-home pay-for-play establishment from a catalog of playable songs, the system comprising:

• an interface configured to receive data from a plurality of user devices present at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;
• and
• a processing system including at least one processor coupled to a memory, the processing system being configured to at least:
• enable a plurality of users to execute respective login operations to indicate that the respective users are present at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;
• in response to a logged-in registered user selecting a song, facilitate collection of a number of credits from the logged-in registered user in exchange for the selected song being added to a queue of songs to be played back at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment, at least a portion of the queue being made visible to logged-in registered users;
• receive from logged-in registered users votes in connection with one or more songs in a displayed portion of the queue, wherein tallied counts of votes placed by the logged-in registered users are also made visible to the logged-in registered users via their respective user devices;
• cause songs from the queue to be played at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment;
• and
• prevent other users who are not logged-in registered user from placing votes,
• wherein the catalog of songs is restrictable such that only a partial subset of songs is available for selection by the logged-in registered users at the out-of-home pay-for-play establishment,
• wherein the processing system is further configured to at least influence the queue based on the tallied counts, and
• wherein the processing system is further configured to cause an indication of a currently playing song and an identifier of a user who influenced play of the currently playing song to be displayed.