Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - (The Hosting News) - December 1, 2005 - A new service has been launched which enables anyone to create, publish, and share their own podcast, all for free. The service, which is named Gcast, also includes unlimited free hosting and is available at www.gcast.com.

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.

According to Ali Partovi, CEO of GarageBand.com and Gcast, ''Our original vision with GarageBand.com has always been to democratize the music industry by empowering musicians. 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.''

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 Manager 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.

Bob Kingsley, a former UK-based radio DJ commented on the new service, ''By enabling anybody to get their voice heard, Gcast opens a vast new frontier for personal broadcasting. 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.''

To learn more about this new service, please visit: www.gcast.com.