Podcast by Phone With Gcast

Posted on March 9, 2006

Gcast is a new free podcasting service from the people that created the popular GarageBand.com website. Streamingmedia.com reports that Gcast allows you to record podcasts over the phone.

To use the service, Partovi says, you sign up, call the 800 number, record the podcast, and press pound. You then embed the Gcast player into your blog and the podcasts update automatically when you save the recording. "By simply by cutting and pasting some html [for the Gcast player] into my blog, any time I update Gcast content, it updates the blog. You have to create account at Gcast and copy and paste code into your blog, but once it's set up, it automatically updates. I don't even have to touch a computer if I don't want to."
Partovi says that when most people think of podcasts, they think of 20-minute long-form broadcasts, but he envisions a much shorter form, perhaps only a minute for Gcasts. He says the long-form podcast is great for a commuter who has time to sit and listen for a sustained period of time, but for others, a shorter form could work better and could expand the medium. "What's out there is the tip of the iceberg because when you go to a shorter format and put the tools in the hands of anyone who wants to do it, you get broader types of content."

Tech blogger Chris Pirillo is concerned about the quality of Gcast.

But Chris Pirillo, a technology pundit who runs the Lockergnome family of Web sites and is himself a podcaster, says what Gcast is doing is not really anything new. They have just put a new name on it. "Gcast sounds interesting, but it's a new spin on an old tactic. Audio blogging has been around, and you can record by phone. It can be [convenient], but it sounds like voice mail," he says, and Pirillo says voice mail does not make for a high-quality broadcast.

Ali Partovi, the founder of Gcast, defends his service against Pirillo's quality argument by saying the ease of use will make the service worthwhile. He uses an example of recording his daughters' voice as a way Gcast could be a popular tool for personal blogs. Partovi said to Streaming Media, "I have a podcast for my two-year old daughter. It's her voice and the audience is family members. They can see the photos of her on my blog, but the most exciting part is the soundtrack, hearing my daughter's voice saying whatever cute thing she is saying."

Partovi has a good point. Even if the quality is not perfect there are many daddy and mommy bloggers out there who might love the ability to easily record their child's voice for the family blog.