Digital juke maker Ecast closes doors, shuts down music

"Muzak" is still around but they went into bankruptcy in early 2009 and seem to emerged two years ago.

here in NYC they gave up the last of their ancient FM SCA subs about 7 years ago and are now internet, proprietary CD or Satellite distributed. As a side note, Muzak once owned NY's Fm 101.9 in the fifties but sold it to the NY Daily News in '63 but still used the SCA till recently. In the 50's they used the main carrier and with 50Hz trip and cue tones to fire commercials for the OTA signal that regular listeners would hear, in stores these tones muted the dedicated receiver until another was sent at the end of the stopset.

About four years back a Muzak rep approached one of my large locations in Queens. He noted that we had a radio tuner as fill-in and made his pitch. The owner (a Greek) put up his hand and said "we have a jukebox, why do we need to pay for music."

Years ago the guys down on Tenth Ave mentioned that they'd "heard" of the mafia having a hand in the operation.

There was a video online about MUzak that I saw a few years ago. It was old footage and the people they interviewed at the central office were genuinely creepy.

Rob

First off, I have nothing against Italians..... love 'em, and the food too.
I worked as a DJ in an Italian-owned "club" here back in 1979, and they had a Muzak tape machine in the DJ booth.
It was used for those "off times" when a DJ or band wasn't scheduled.
The dude from Muzak that occasionally brought in new tapes was a typical "guido" type.
Did I spell that right, ya know, the greaseball type wop.

Well, according to the latest story from Vending Times, Rowe/Ami/Merit (a.k.a. AMI Entertainment) will take over the ecast music network. Starting on March 8 and with operators who fill out and sign the required paperwork, the internet addresses for the ecast network will redirect to AMI Entertainment's secure internet addresses and music library. That will take care of the short term needs and eventually the software & hardware will be replaced with AMI Entertainment equipment. Oh, yes, and what is in it for AMI? Why only 20% of your cashbox!

I ran across this thread in a memorial search about the fate of a company I worked for long ago and still think about. I was notionally employee number 4 (started in spring 1999), and left almost exactly 9 years ago. Almost nothing in this post squares with my memory:

My 2 cents... I saw an Ecast jukebox in Las Vegas around 1998-99. It was a modern space age looking cabinet. I had been in the business almost 20 years, and I wasn't sure it was a jukebox till I got close to it.

That would have been no earlier than fall of 2000. I installed that jukebox at The Stratosphere. I own a slightly later version of that juke and its matching countertop unit--they were nice parting gifts from Ecast. They were hand built semi-prototype boxes and cost $25k or so each to build. The first one was more like $250k from the famous industrial design firm frogdesign.

Ecast didn't get far with it so they partnered with the best at the time (ROWE)

Rockola, to name just one, made a much better box at the time. Rowe was stuck in the 1970s and their head audio designer (Paul) was stuck in the 1960s. But Rowe had excellent distribution and choked off everyone else.

and basically put the Ecast system in a Rowe download box.

No, they used our computer stuff--or rather what we specified--and software along with the "Extremely Cool(tm)" audio system and hilariously "Back to the 80s" control system they were just getting ready for the market at the time.

The downside was broadband only, which wasn't as plentiful then.

It was harder out in the boonies, but we could get a connection nearly anywhere. Cost sometimes made it not worthwhile.

Then Ecast sold their system to other jukebox makers, which Rowe didn't like,

No, that's backwards: Rowe was working on their own AFAIK. That was a bit after I left, but I know some of the people on both sides of Rowe's project.

so Rowe changed to their own system.

They wanted their own system from the start but they were hopelessly clueless and needed us to jump-start them. Not being dummies, they wanted the whole system to themselves.

Bring back the 45 rpm records and machines.

No argument from me!

Thanks for the real facts, not what I could remember... the year 2000 and the Strat sounds about right... I would like to have the cabinet now....

NSM is now getting involved and is promising to provide kits to access the NSM Music Network. However, one has to remember that just a couple of months ago, NSM was involved in a lawsuit in the UK for not paying music licenses on their network. Here is the story from Vending Times:

http://www.vendingtimes.com/ME2/dirmod. ... ABD01C18AF

The bigger question; is it a viable business model to charge $1-1.50 in the era of free and portable music?

My answer: No.

Rob/NYC

Hi Rob,

We have all said the days of paying for music is long gone, bars over there in the USA and pubs here in the UK should be greatful that anyone is coming into their premises with the cost of drinks these days.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

According to Replay Magazine, all the Ecast jukes have now shut down and become inoperative:

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. 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 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. An AMI executive said recently they had signed up more than 75% of the former Ecast units.