Apple to add transcripts for every podcast

• Apple Podcasts is to add transcriptions for every podcast in the Apple Podcasts app on the next version of iOS and iPadOS, to be made available later in Spring, says the Californian company.

  • In the first major adoption of a Podcasting 2.0 feature by Apple, creators will be able to submit their transcripts via the established podcast:transcript feature, which is already supported by a number of podcast apps and hosts. Apple will also produce transcripts automatically for every episode released on the platform. Transcripts work for shows in English, French, German and Spanish.
  • We’ve spent the last twelve hours working on a full, detailed FAQ for the feature, including a video of it working, and all your questions answered.

• A case brought by the National Association of the Deaf against SiriusXM for a lack of transcripts in its app is scheduled to start in court on Feb 29, and will run into May. The legal action started in December 2021.

• Spotify announced “time-synched transcripts for more podcasts on the platform” at the end of September. While you can opt-in to this process within Spotify for Podcasters (and we have), we can only find it active for a few Gimlet shows. Podcasters can’t edit transcripts or supply their own.

• Amazon Music announced that it was adding transcripts to its app in November 2021. It was limited at the time to Wondery shows; Amazon told us that podcasters couldn’t edit or supply their own transcripts. We can’t find transcripts for any shows in the Amazon Music app today (we tried a number of Wondery shows and other large shows on the platform).

• The Apple Podcasts Connect terms of service have been updated. There are two new clauses: 8b, which lets Apple make transcripts; and 11e, which lets Apple give certain data to companies like Linkfire.

Tips and tricks - with Patreon + Spotify

• Whisper is a free download for the more technically advanced which will produce automated transcripts for you to edit further: open podcast platform Castopod wrote a blog post on how to install it. There are a number of free VTT editor programs online.

• Hindenburg Pro is one of a number of audio editors which does transcripts - and lets you edit using the words. You can also export the edited transcript in the format Apple Podcasts wants, if your podcast host supports uploaded VTT files. Just right-click on the manuscript view, and select “Export”.

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The Podnews Weekly Review looks at the Digital Markets Act, and what this new EU legislation might mean for podcasters. We also take a listen in to Libsyn’s The Feed, which claimed that Apple Podcasts doesn’t support any Podcasting 2.0 feature. That comment got old quickly…

Our show New Podcast Trailers contains trailers from new shows every day, and is perfect to help you decide what to listen to next. (And, thank to the way it works, podcasters see the downloads on their own numbers, too!) Get it on your podcast app for your next road trip.