Digital juke maker Ecast closes doors, shuts down music

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Digital juke maker Ecast closes doors, shuts down music

It's being reported that today Ecast, a top manufacturer of digital downloading jukeboxes and a copyrighted music content provider has suddenly closed it's doors and gone out of business. This leaves Ecast jukeboxes on location going all dark after a few more days as the juke's computer will no longer be able to "phone home" to report it's copyright billing.

Here's the story from Replay Magazine:

Ecast Inc. Closes Its Doors, Shuts Down Music Network
(Posted March 1, 2012 -- 5PM)


It's a sad day for the jukebox biz.

Ecast Inc., the first company to introduce broadband music for the digital jukebox, has closed its doors for good. The shocking move leaves their operator base, which some say numbers near 7,000 units on the street, scrambling to find a replacement source of music for their locations. All 55 employees of the company have also been let go as of today.

Scott Walker, who served as VP at Ecast, said the company has been in ongoing negotiations with outside partners as well as competitors to strike a deal that would keep the doors open. However, nothing came together before time and money ran out. "This was not our intention," said Walker, speaking on behalf of the company earlier today. "We tried everything we would to avoid this happening. We regret the position this puts many of our loyal customers in."

Ecast's network has also gone dark, meaning operators can no longer access music on the server or any of other features of Ecast Central. Credit cards processing is also disabled.

Walker said the local music on individual jukebox hard drives will remain available for location patrons "for a limited period of time," but Ecast is encouraging operators to act quickly in making arrangements for another source of music. Ecast execs called as many distributors and customers as possible, but news of the shutdown came suddenly and so some customers were not officially notified.
 
That means 7,000 jukeboxes that are instant boat anchors now. Some of the jukeboxes in low grossing locations may continue to operate up to 14 days from today, but after that, all the Ecast jukeboxes will shut themselves down due to not being able to connect to the network to obtain copyright clearance.
 
That really sucks. I don't think I ever used the platform, but I feel bad for anyone who bought into it. I wonder what kind of hardware runs in those, how difficult it would be to install windows for home use.
 
All is not lost for Ecast operators or the equipment (sucks to all those hoping for an eBay/Craigslist flood of dirt cheap touchscreen jukeboxes to start hacking)


From Vending Times a couple of days ago:

" AMI Entertainment Network Inc. announced that it has become a secured creditor of Ecast. The announcement was made today by AMI president and chief executive Mike Maas during a press conference he hosted in California.

Ecast Inc. shut down its jukebox music network on March 1. Ecast's board of directors approved an immediate shutdown after the company reportedly failed to raise enough capital to continue operating. | SEE STORY

As a secured creditor, AMI will have access to certain Ecast assets. This will allow the music and videogame company to access existing Ecast jukeboxes and provide Ecast operators with short- and long-term solutions to restore their digital music services. Among these is a plan that will enable Ecast boxes to access AMI's jukebox music catalog. AMI is also restoring Internet services to these jukeboxes.

The new service is expected to become available on Thursday, March 8.

"For clarity, AMI did not acquire the business or operations of Ecast and did not assume any of its obligations to creditors," Maas said. "Currently, AMI is exercising its rights as a secured creditor of Ecast."

AMI said Ecast operators will able to subscribe to the AMI transfer plan online. The company will have a subscription form online this week. AMI standard rates, 20% revenue-share, will apply. Some Ecast operators might experience lower rates with AMI, he said.

"The percentage decreases with unit volume, from an initial 20% down to 16% for our biggest customers," Maas explained. "Operators will get the rate based on their combined count of AMI and Ecast units, which for some will automatically lower their rate."

Maas said AMI is making the transfer plan as seamless as possible.

"Essentially, we are restoring the jukebox capabilities substantially as they were a week ago, but with a catalog from AMI," Maas said. "Operators will be able to access the customer support team at AMI to help with their Ecast jukeboxes."

While offline, Ecast jukeboxes can continue to play music stored locally on hard drives (150-200 albums).

Long-term, AMI is developing a software upgrade path that will enable AMI's jukebox client software to run on Ecast hardware. This means that AMI will transition the machines from AMI content over the Ecast network to using all AMI services and software. Maas said AMI plans to replicate key Ecast functionality in the AMI software to preserve the Ecast experience.

"The power of this announcement is that shortly operators will have an immediate, simple option that allows them to keep their entire existing Ecast footprint intact," Maas summarized. "The crisis will be resolved, the existing music catalog improved, and operators can return to normal long-term planning."

At its peak about four years ago, Ecast had some 10,000 jukeboxes online. That number might have declined about 30% or 40% over the past three years. At this point, the jukebox manufacturers do not have enough inventory for an immediate replacement market of 6,000 or 7,000 units. "
 
Wonder why they folded. It certainly couldn't be a lack of bar patrons.

Maybe people don't see the value in a jukebox anymore? How much is a song these days?
 
NSM is also providing kits to connect to their network. Beware though as NSM lost a copyright infringement lawsuit in the UK for failure to pay copyright licenses a couple of months ago.
 
The juke industry is still strong. Touchtunes is by and large the most popular mainstream provider.

I'm glad to see AMI step in to help operators out. That would have hurt the ecast clients big time if they didnt.
 
The juke industry is still strong. Touchtunes is by and large the most popular mainstream provider.

I'm glad to see AMI step in to help operators out. That would have hurt the ecast clients big time if they didnt.

AGREED. Touchtunes jukeboxes have easily TRIPLED the amount of intake a CD Jukebox used to make. Jukebox industry has never been stronger.
 
Some locations around here removed the downloader jukes because the locations were actually making LESS money than they were with cd jukes.
 
I like the CD and Record style better.

Watching the disc load up and hearing the gears move into place is like a little experience in itself that you just don't get on an iPhone.

Probably the same reason pinball never fully made it on consoles.
 
The Ecast jukboxes that have not been taken over by AMI Entertainment are now shutting down. It is now reported in Replay Magazine:

Ecast Jukeboxes Begin To Go Dark
(Posted March 28, 2012 --11:30PM)

At least one former Ecast operator from the eastern region of the U.S. says his Ecast jukeboxes have ceased providing music and have become inoperative. Virginia operator Charles Rowland said his units went dark on Thursday. Ecast ceased operations at the close of business on the last day of February.

"We already replaced some boxes and had the TouchTunes boxes in house for the last three so as they went down we replaced them," said Charles. "At one time we were 50-50 TouchTunes and Ecast. But last year I started changing them over as Ecast support for the old "View" (conversion kit for Rowe CD jukes) and Rock-Ola boxes became non-existent."

In the aftermath of Ecast's closure, AMI Entertainment stepped in to assume control of the network, offering former Ecast operators the chance to opt-in with their older jukes (with AMI taking 20% of the cashbox each collection). An AMI executive said recently they had signed up more than 75% of the former Ecast units.
 
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