Dane Cook: first major celebrity to talk to fans directly via podcast

If you don't already know Dane Cook, he's the hottest star in comedy today. Dane's latest comedy album, Retaliation, debuted at #4 on Billboard's Top Albums chart, the most successful comedy album debut since Steve Martin's A Wild and Crazy Guy in 1979. He has sold-out Madison Square Garden, hosted Saturday Night Live and performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. Visit danecook.com to hear clips, they're hysterical!

Dane's response when we first told him how to use Gcast: "Love this... I think this is going to be very cool." If Dane loves it, his fans will love it even more. This is one of the first cases of a major celebrity interacting directly, and intimately, with their fans, and in their own voice. Dane is planning the podcast to give fans regular behind-the-scenes updates on his life. Dane has also embedded the Gcast player into his MySpace page, and has sent the code to all his MySpace friends (over 1 million of them!) asking them to add it too.

This really shows the power of podcasting (and specifically, Gcast's easy "podcast-by-phone" feature) for enabling anybody to easily reach a broad audience. To listen to the Dane Cook podcast, click here. And as Dane says, "And if you don't like it well suck my html code."

Salme Dahlstrom scores big with commercial and publishing deals

GarageBand member Salme Dahlstrom is a natural-born triple-threat to the music industry. After becoming a musician in pre-school, she began a prolific songwriting career that eventually landed her as an in-demand record producer.

But music is more than a calling -- it's a business -- and that's where Salme says GarageBand has helped her move ahead.

Her song "G.L.S." has been in the Top 5 of GB's electronic charts for a long time, and Salme tells us, "It's been great exposure for me and my music. A lot of movie directors and ad agencies scan GarageBand for indie talent and I've gotten a good chunk of licensing requests through GB."

These requests eventually led to Salme's music being featured in commercials for Vodafone, Miller Lite and Quiznos. And her independent production and publishing company is busier than ever, with buzz building throughout the scene.

"I've been signed to a couple of major label deals, recorded and toured," she said. "That was a great experience and I learned a lot. Now that I produce my own music and pretty much run a one-woman-band, it just made more sense to go indie."

Salme pauses, possibly thinking about her recent success, and adds with a smirk, "Not to say I wouldn't sign a major label deal again..."