Woe is me, Brightcove is no longer free

I just noticed that my Brightcove media players for Mad Dog Movies and Animatus are no longer working. Why? Because they’re discontinuing their free hosting services.

According to their FAQ, the announcement was made a month ago, then videos went offline January 31st. It’s possible they sent me a warning email, but it would have been to my Yahoo account, which I rarely check.

I’m not going to complain. They’ve got a right to make a buck, and their service is worth paying for… if you’ve got the cash. To find out the price, you need to call a representative. I don’t know what it costs, but you know what they say… if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

For me, however, I’m going to look around for another free service or start building my own Flash players from scratch.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have put all my eggs in one basket with Brightcove. But their media players were just so darn attractive, I couldn’t resist.

UPDATE: Since first posting this, I spoke with Caren Cioffi at Brightcove. Although the company doesn’t have a current option for small independents like me, that may change in the future. I’ll keep my eyes open.