orgelspieler's Journal: Patron-polling jukebox

So I had this idea while eating at a burger joint yesterday, but it seems like something that should exist already. If it does, I expect that the discussion will devolve into a Zune flamewar. If not, I hope to harness the sheer nerdpower of /. to make it happen.

When you go into a restaurant or other place of business, wouldn't it be nice if they were playing music that most of the people there enjoyed? It would make sense to have a music probe. I imagine it should check all the portable music players, cell phones, laptops in use, etc. and a) tally up what types of music were the most common, b) what genres and songs are liked the most, and c) see if there are any songs that are absolutely hated by any current patron in the facility. Perhaps it could be run in conjunction with one of those web music services that is good at predicting what people will like based on what they already like and dislike. This might also be useful for DJs at small events.

Obviously some people will cry foul, saying that it's an invasion of privacy. So there would need to be a way for those people to turn off the sharing option. There is also a problem with part c) above. Most people will delete a song from their portable player if they hate it. The biggest technical problem would be getting all the device manufacturers to agree to support a polling protocol.