The new podcasting tools

Podcasting made easy
I recently tried out a brand-new product from the company that makes the MixMeister DJ software. It's called Propaganda, and if you're interested in staging your own podcast but are fazed by the technical issues involved with doing so, it's exactly what you've been waiting for.

Propaganda capitalizes on MixMeister's strengths by letting you queue up a bunch of songs or other audio files, then letting you add your own commentary and perhaps a few sound effects. Enter the details of your podcast (your Web page, its audio directory, the title of your show, and more) into Propaganda once, and you're set from there on. After you record a show, all you do is click the Publish button, and you're done. If you're making a music podcast, you can even have the songs beat-matched and cross-faded automatically so that they flow together as if they were mixed by a pro DJ on two turntables.

	Select your songs, line them up, and add transitions and voice-overs. Or you can just hit record and start talking. When you're done, click Publish to upload your show. That's it.

Podcast to yourself
Propaganda's primary purpose is to allow for the creation and publication of podcasts, but you can also use it to automatically create a mix of tunes to listen to on your own MP3 player. I've been clamoring for an easy way to add cross-fades and beat-matching to portable playback for a while. For now, Propaganda and its sister software, MixMeister Express, offer the best answer. Both are free to try for 30 days and US$50 for purchase.

If you're looking for hours of fame (forget about Warhol's lousy 15 minutes!), this is money well spent.