Born in 1871, Justice Percival Sjöberg left his homeland of Sweden in 1887, at the age of 16, to travel to the United States. His father who had been a prosperous merchant had fallen on hard times and the family was broke. Sjöberg intended to find his fortune in the New World.

He settled in Chicago, were changed his last name to Seeburg and after completing an apprenticeship in the Smith and Barnes piano factory in Chicago he started his first job at the Markette Piano Company. Eventually moving to the C. S. Smith Piano Factory and then to a position as superintendent at the Cable Piano Company where he started renting or operating in his own right. He tested piano players in several locations throughout Chicago and soon built up a considerable client base. Eventually he resigned from his job at the Piano Company and in 1902, providing his own small starting capital, formed his own company using his own name.

The J.P. Seeburg Piano Co. soon became the premier maker of Orchestrions in the United States. These automatic pianos had several instruments inside that could sound like a complete band. Seeburg continued with this line of instruments until 1927 when he discontinued the manufacturing of pianos and retooled for making the new coin-operated phonograph.

Seeburg was one of the first manufacturers of a multi-select jukebox with the introduction of the "Audiophone" in 1928. This wide-body, eight-selection box had pneumatic control valves making it half nickelodeon and half phonograph. This model was a reasonable success, but sales never reached huge numbers. By the 1930s other manufacturers had entered the market and were actually selling more jukeboxes than Seeburg. The next model, the Selectophone, was an engineering disaster. Warped spindles made operators mad and this mistake almost put the company under.

In 1934 the 60 year old Justus handed the reins of the company to his son Noel Marshall Seeburg, although the creator of the company remained an active part of developments until his death in 1958, aged 87.

N. Marshall Seeburg had been brought up around the electrical innovations of his generation and the company received a much-needed shot in the arm. Seeburg proceeded to produce successful models of jukebox, including the 'Gem', the 'Crown', 'Plaza', 'Casino', 'Regal', and 'Classic'. The new director in turn brought in new talent: M. W. Kenney, an engineer, Nils Miller, an industrial designer and Henry Roberts, sales manager. Furthermore, in the mid-1930s, Meyer Parkoff who was a Wurlitzer distributor in New York moved over to Seeburg.

At the 1938 Jukebox Convention in Chicago Seeburg unveiled their new machine - the 'Symphonola'. Miller had been experimenting in translucent plastics for the casing and had come up with the first light-up jukebox. The plastic panels had low wattage bulbs behind them, lighting them up and making the phonograph "glow". This design approach was such an instant success that many of the other companies at the convention returned to their new machines and changed the casing.

But it was the year 1949 that would prove to be the year Seeburg would change the face of jukebox history when it engineered a mechanism that could play both sides of 50 records, a true 100-select jukebox. This mechaniam was so reliable that it nearly put all other manufacturers out of business. In 1950 Seeburg introduced the M100B, the first jukebox to play 45 rpm records. During the 1950s Seeburg enjoyed a dominant place in jukebox production, and in 1955 introduced the V-200, the first 200-select jukebox.

During the mid 1950's Seeburg fell foul of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, due to their closed network of operators and distributors. The case was lost, but the company was still profitable. The seeburg family sold up in 1956, perhaps disillusioned by the lawsuit, but the company still continued to make jukeboxes well into the seventies. In the late seventies King Musical Instruments was sold off in a last ditch effort to save Seeburg, and for a short time the company did well. When CD's hit the market the company was unable to keep up with the change in technology and closed its doors forever.