Today we launched Gcast.com, a free service that makes it easy for any person to create, host, and share their own podcast. During our beta period, thousands of real people have already made a diversity of creations:
- Kingsley's Corner - a UK commercial radio DJ, finally free to create the show he always wanted
- Poopcast - a certain proud parent recording audio snapshots by phone
- Anne Heaton - a touring singer-songwriter leaving voice messages from the road
- Guess Who's Coming - questions answered by a sex-advice author

....and, as of today:
- ONE Campaign - Bono, Nelson Mandela, Chris Martin of Coldplay, & more asking you to join the fight against AIDS and poverty. Today is World AIDS Day, and we chose to launch today in partnership with an organization commited to eradicating AIDS and poverty in our lifetime.

Visit the podcasters' websites to listen. Read the full press releases below.

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MEDIA ADVISORY Contact: Meighan Stone, ONE Campaign
November 29, 2005 Phone: (202) 464-1345


ONE CAMPAIGN JOINS WITH GCAST TO USE PODCAST TECHNOLOGY
TO HELP FIGHT GLOBAL AIDS AND EXTREME POVERTY

First ONE.ORG Podcast with Bono of U2 and President Nelson Mandela
to launch on World AIDS Day

WASHINGTON, DC-- On December 1st, ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History will join with Gcast.com to launch the first ONE.ORG podcast. The World AIDS Day podcast will feature Bono, U2 lead singer and co-founder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade for Africa), former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela and Chris Martin of Coldplay, along with Christian music artists and other ONE supporters.
A podcast is an audio recording, from a 10-sec sound to a 30-min radio show, stored as an MP3 file that is easily downloadable through the internet. In addition to being provided to the 2 million current ONE supporters, the podcast will also be available for free on the one.org website.
Every day in Africa, HIV/AIDS kills 6,300 people, 8,500 people are infected with the HIV virus and 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth. New web technologies such as podcasting can help Americans raise their voices as ONE against the emergency of AIDS and extreme poverty, joining together to ask leaders to do more to save millions of lives in the poorest countries.

WHAT: World AIDS Day ONE Campaign podcast

WHO: Bono, U2 lead singer and co-founder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade for Africa)
Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela
Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay
Christian music artists and other ONE supporters

WHEN: 12:01am, World AIDS Day, December 1, 2005

WHERE: www.ONE.org

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Media Contact:
Brooke Hammerling
212-677-4835
brooke@brewpr.com




GCAST BRINGS PODCAST CREATION TO THE MASSES

World’s First Turnkey Service for Consumers to Create and Publish Their Own Podcasts



SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER 30, 2005 – Gcast (http://www.Gcast.com), a groundbreaking new service that breaks the podcasting process down into a few easy-to-follow steps, was officially unveiled today. Gcast, a sister service to GarageBand.com, enables anyone to create, publish, and share their own podcast, all for free.

Podcasting lets people get their voices heard, whether they’re recording an audio journal for friends and family, or sharing a playlist of their favorite new music. Thanks to Gcast, podcasts can now be made by anyone for anyone.

Gcast offers unlimited free hosting to all podcasters, as well as integrated access to the world’s leading podsafe music catalog. Gcast also enables anybody to record updates to their podcast via telephone calls, making podcasting even easier than sending email.

“Our original vision with GarageBand.com has always been to democratize the music industry by empowering musicians,” said Ali Partovi, CEO of GarageBand.com and Gcast. “However, our broader vision with Gcast is to democratize the broader media industry. By embracing user-generated content of all kinds, we are making personal broadcasting a reality.”

-more-

While there are other early services for podcasters, Gcast is the only solution that offers free hosting as well as easy access to the world’s largest library of podsafe music. Full Gcast features include:

• Free Hosting – Gcast offers free hosting to anybody who creates a podcast, currently with no limits on media storage. Gcast hopes to support this service with advertising, and will offer ad-free paid options in the future.

• Online Playlist Manger that auto-generates your podcast -- Gcast lets users point and click to organize and mix audio from a range of sources -- whether a phone recording, a GarageBand.com song, or an MP3 from their computer. Once a playlist is ready to be published, Gcast mixes the audio into one continuous MP3 file and transparently generates the RSS feed for the podcast.

• Podcasting by phone – Gcast introduces the easiest way to record a podcast. Podcasters can call 1-888-65-GCAST, enter a numeric ID and PIN code, and start recording, just like leaving a voicemail. Recordings can be published immediately from the phone, or can be saved to their Gcast account to be published later.

• Integrated access to the world’s leading podsafe music catalog, GarageBand.com. For podcasters that wish to include music in their podcast, Gcast eliminates one of the primary obstacles -- securing the necessary licenses from the copyright holders. Gcast is integrated with GarageBand.com, the leading provider of music for podcasting, so that podcasters can add music to their playlists with just one click.

• Ability to embed podcasts into any Web page for easy playback -- The Gcast player can be embedded into any web page or blog, giving instant listening gratification to anybody with a web browser. Fans can also check out past episodes and subscribe to receive future episodes automatically.

"By enabling anybody to get their voice heard, Gcast opens a vast new frontier for personal broadcasting," said Bob Kingsley, a former UK-based radio DJ whose podcast, Kingsley's Corner, is now available at http://www.bobkingsley.co.uk/ and major podcast directories. "I dropped out of commercial radio some years ago because I was increasingly frustrated by the creative restrictions that seemed to accompany it. All I ever really wanted to do was to play my personal choice of good music, have a chat about it, and give it the respect it deserves. Thanks to the Internet, GarageBand.com, and Gcast, I can do exactly that, freed from those old creative restrictions."