Use Big Box as a jukebox

[Gab Power]

Through the years I've tried a whole lot of free Jukebox software that could work well with my arcade cabinet or touch screen and never found something I REALLY like. They always miss some crucial elements, are not visually appealing or are not easy to use. 

The major demands I had were :
- Easy to use for anyone
- Have a nice unclutered interface that shows the front cover of current song playing in big format
- Button or touch screen controllable
- A shuffle for all music
- Being able to play by genre only (ex.: Blues, Pop, Rock...)
- Not behing folder or album oriented, only singles
- Reads ID3 tags
- Usable with Windows

I started messing with Big Box a few months ago and now that I'm somewhat done with the configurations of my games (we're never really done aren't we?), It's time to add a jukebox to the cabinet for a quick entertainment boost when it's not in use. 
At the moment, Big Box cannot meet all my demands but it's pretty close and meets my basic needs better than the alternatives. I'll show you what I've done to get going with an easy jukebox within LaunchBox Big Box without using extra software. 
It may seems like a lenghty process but basically, you copy your music and cover art to Launchbox and add your music files as Roms. Adding M3U playlist files is even easier.
For those also using Steam, Steam's Big Picture has a Local Music category in Library and that would be good second option that's easy to use and configure with a cabinet. In fact, you can use both if you want. Just go into Steam Big Picture's settings and Music to set your source folder. You can also access YouTube from Steam's web browser.
I also tried Windows' Groove Music and it works really well for that mather. I can easily be used with an arcade controller, handles large libraries and read ID3 tags.
I have a huge music collection of over 75000 tracks in iTunes, all properly tagged and already have playlists of my preferred tracks for a party jukebox so I don't want to transfert all my music on my cab, just the best party music with a limit of about a few hundred tracks all in singles format.

Let's get going.

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- Disable Attract Mode
I really like Big Box's Attract Mode but since we don't want the music to stop by circling through your collection, we have to disable it. 
Go to Options > Attract Mode > Uncheck Enable Attract Mode
You can map a button to start Attract Mode manually in Options > Controller Configuration 

- Create a Jukebox Platform
Within LaunchBox, either right-click the left platform list or go to Tools > Manage Platforms. Click Add and create a new platform titled Jukebox. In the Parent tab, it should be at Root.
Add or make some artwork for that platform. Have a clear logo that says "Jukebox" in PNG format, Defaut Box, Fanart (works as the wallpaper of that category) and for those with multiple screens that shows the systems/game boxes/arcade marquees, add some Banners. I found mine on Google Images.

- Prepare and add your music files
You'll need to have properly tagged music files for that part to work. I recommend MP3Tag or MusicBrainz Picard if you don't have proper ID3 tags for your files (Artist, Title, Front cover...).
**Later in this post, I'll explain how to copy music file from a playlist to a new folder. You'll keep your original files intact.
**I'll also explain how to automaticly rename your files and extract the front covers with matching names later in this post.
So let's assume you already have a folder full of music ready to add to Launchbox and you have matching front cover files in JPG or PNG format. They have to be named exactly the same as their music files (but you can add -01, -02, -03... at the end of the name).
To auto-play music on shuffle : 
Copy your MUSIC files in Launchbox\Music\Background\Platforms\Jukebox\
To play music on selection and see artwork on your second monitor :
Copy your same MUSIC files in Launchnox\Music\Jukebox\
Copy your front covers into LaunchBox\Images\Jukebox\Box - Front\
To have both functions as Shuffle and On Demand, you need to copy your music in both directories.

- Add music files as Roms (if you want to manually select a song within LaunchBox)
Within LaunchBox, go to Tools > Import > Rom Files
Select all your music files from Launchnox\Music\Jukebox\ or Launchbox\Music\Background\Platforms\Jukebox\
Select the Jukebox platform. Keep the emulator line blank. 
When prompted to move files, select "Use the files in their current location".
Uncheck Search for game information online.
Don't search for online images (doesn't mather if checked or not).
The rest of the process shoud be unchecked. Then click Finish.
Your music will be imported like Rom files and you'll have matching artwork with that. 
Start Big Box and select your new Jukebox platform.
Simply selecting the song will start the music. You won't have to press play or start a new program.

- Add an auto-play music on shuffle icon
Just like individual music files, you'll need an icon to play all your tracks on shuffle using the background music feature. Since I might use Steam's Music Player once in a while, I'll add this shortcut as my Shuffle button. You can also use basically anything you want, be it a M3U file or any other program. You don't have to press play, just overing the cursor on it will start the music.
Since I want Steam to start in Big Picture mode, create a new shortcut wherever you want and set the destination as (variable) : "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -start steam://open/bigpicture
Within LaunchBox, simply follow the same steps as the previous point to add music files but instead of selecting all your music, only select that new shortcut.
Manually add artwork (Box Front, Banner, clear logo, arcade marquee), a title and a description like "Party music!".
Add it as a favorite to quickly find it.

 

2022 Edit : - M3U music playlists (the easiest and my prefered method)

You can add M3U playlists to LaunchBox and BigBox and it will start to play a random song as soon as you highlight it. I previously showed how to add individual songs but I don't really like the idea anymore after a couple of months of use. I much prefer having a playlist like "Rock" or "Party time" that will play a random song from that list and get to the next song when it's over.
First, create a M3U playlist : 
Select all your desired music files and open them with MP3Tag
Go to File > Playlist and save it on your desktop
Open the M3U with Notepad and save it using the UTF-8 format (this is for the handling of special characters) and name it something like “Rock Playlist.m3u”.
Put it in \LaunchBox\Music\Jukebox\
Drag that M3U file in LaunchBox making sure it’s in the Jukebox platform category

- Set Next track / Previous track buttons for shuffle mode
Map a button in Options > Controller Configuration to change currently played song.

- Start Big Box and enjoy your new platform!

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- How to export an iTunes playlist (or any playlist) into files
You'll need to have Notepad++ or any similar program in order to save time. Can also be done with Miscrosoft Excel.
In iTunes, select your Playlist, go to Files > Library > Export playlist and save your playlist in M3U format.
Open that M3U with Notepad++ > Edit > Lexico > Line Operation > Sort Lexico
Delete every line starting with "#". Only keep lines with a full path to you music.
Save your file as playlist.txt in C:\Users\YOURNAME\Desktop\
Create a folder C:\Users\YOURNAME\Desktop\MP3\
Start Powershell and execute the following : Get-Content C:\Users\YOURNAME\Desktop\playlist.txt -encoding utf8|Foreach-Object{copy-item -literalPath $_ -destination C:\Users\YOURNAME\Desktop\MP3\}
All the tracks from your playlist will be copied into that folder.

- How to batch rename music files and export cover art
A lot of your files might be named "01 - Title.mp3" and in order to have a clean music collection in LaunchBox/Big Box, you can use that method to rename properly all your files. You'll need MP3Tag for this and they need to have proper ID3 tags beforehand.
Select all of your music files and open them in MP3Tag. Make sure they are all selected in MP3Tag.
Click the "Tag - Filename" button and add the format string "%artist% - %title%". Everything will be renamed. You can also chose any other type of renaming patern, I just find Artist - Title more simple and pleasing.  
To export your cover art in batch, go to Actions > Actions > New > Name it something like "Export cover to filename" > Select Export Cover To File, Format string would be "%_filename%", check Export covers of type: and select Front Covers. Save it.
Select all your files, go to the Actions menu and select "Export cover to filename".
All your music files will have matching cover art in the same directory.

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That's all there is to it. It's easy to use and intuitive just like any other System category in Big Box. You don't even have to press Play to start songs.

I might overlooked a few required Big Box options since I configured it a good while ago and I make changes all the time but it should be an easy fix if it doesn't work right away. Feel free to comment if I missed something and it will be added to this post.

Big Box could be improved to add some jukebox features and I think it wouldn't be such a colossal task since it already supports music. 
- A "now playing" permanent screen would be welcomed while in jukebox including details about the track
- Disable Attract Mode while in jukebox
- Exclude Jukebox category from Attract Mode
- Include a YouTube or Spotify integration with a virtual keyboard (Steam's web browser could be a good alternative)
- Add a queue list like a real jukebox, when the queue is over it plays a random song

If you want more of those features, please vote for them here : 

https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/6388/add-a-persistent-now-playing-popup-or
https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/6419/customizable-background-video-and-audio
https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/1604/built-in-jukebox
https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/2802/jukebox-overview
 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Gab Power
Added M3U instructions

[Gab Power]

A follow up on this topic as I've been working on a arcade/jukebox for a friend of mine and some of you might also like the idea. He will mostly use it a jukebox for his garage and he's not a computer guy so the easier, the better. He won't have Steam on his machine so I looked for an alternative in case he wanted more control over his music and after trying a couple of music players compatible with a gamepad, I found Windows' Groove Music to be the most pleasant to use. The VLC UWP app was ok but it was not reading the ID3 tags correctly.

2022-04 Edit : 

- Added Groove Music recommendation

- Added easier M3U playlists (now my prefered method to add music to LaunchBox) : Simply drag an M3U file to your Jukebox platform and songs will play at random one after the other

- Added links to BitBucket tickets for desired improvements