The Seeburg 1000 background music system and its' unique vinyl records

I'm posting this in Audio Hardware because it's mostly about a music hardware system.

I wanted to make a post about the Seeburg 1000 background music system that was primarily used in the 1960'a and 1970's in stores and restaurants to provide background music. I just think it's a cool little system. It uses proprietary 9-inch records that play at 16 and 2/3rds RPM.

Here's the Wikipedia page with an overview:

Seeburg 1000 - Wikipedia

Here's two great videos about the system (the hardware and records)



Seeburg 1000 BGM Part 2: The DIY version

This website has online streaming of some of the records and you can buy the music on CD and LP too. I haven't ever ordered from them but the product looks very cool.

Seeburg 1000 Background Music Radio | seeburg1000.com

 

love techmoan videos, and this one is no exception. Always interesting learning about these random music systems.

 

There is a streaming site where you can listen to the actual records 24/365:
Seeburg 1000 Background Music Radio | seeburg1000.com

 

I thought I knew a lot about proprietary phono formats, but this one is new to me. And the tunes are superb. I'm buying the CDs.

 

Fortunately I have a BMS2 and over 50 records, including a christmas set, so I get to enjoy it first hand. Although everything is in mono, yes it was superb, well done music. Much of the music was recorded at Capitol Records by an assemblage of L.A. studio musicians. One of the guys who was part of the so-called "Wrecking Crew" , Don Randi, arranged, conducted and played on the recordings.
The actual records pop up on eBay regularly. There was a home version called the Encore and the records had different music on them than the commercial BMS records.

 

If anyone wants to strap themselves in for nearly 10 hours of background music nirvana, i transferred a full box of 7 discs, you can find them at this archive.org link.