Can't output to alsa from madplay.

I've been trying out the new madplay 0.15 with alsa compiled in, I cannot
seem to get the output working though,

The thing is, when I start madplay it doesn't output any error messages
but it doesn't start to decode either, complete silence, when using the
"madplay -v file.mp3" to go verbose, madplay just stays at starttime:

MPEG Audio Decoder 0.15.0 (beta) - Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Robert Leslie
et al.
 00:00:00 Layer III, 160 kbps, 44100 Hz, joint stereo (LR), no CRC


trying to open the alsa device with another program while madplay runs,
in my case "ecasound", tells me that the alsa device is busy

"madplay --version" shows
 
madplay 0.15.0 (beta)
  Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Robert Leslie
  Build options: AUDIO_DEFAULT=audio_alsa ENABLE_NLS
 
`madplay --license' for license and warranty information.

I'm usually using madplay to pipe to ecasound to get 24bit percision support,
this still works flawlessy.

I'm no(t yet a) C programmer so I'm quite unable to resolve this problem
myself, if I've omitted some vital information I'd be glad to supply this.

/Thomas Eriksson