Feedback please: Podcast Transcripts?

[Matthew / BPL]

BPL has been thinking about whether it makes sense to transcribe our podcasts. It’s not cheap to do it well and using an AI bot would result in a loose transcription full of errors. That doesn’t feel right to us.

We’d like to hear some feedback on whether transcriptions of podcasts would be of value to you. Please share any thoughts you have here:

1. Would transcriptions of our podcasts be of value to you?
2. How might you use these transcripts?
3. Why do you think they would be useful?

Thanks in advance for any feedback you are willing to share!

[J-L]

Transcriptions would be useful (to me) after listening to the podcast. For example, I was trying to find a quote from the Henry Shires interview, and a transcription would have made this easy.

I’d rather have better audio than a transcription though. Of all the podcasts I listen to, BPL’s audio quality is near the bottom.

[William Chilton]

It would be useful for me. I often don’t listen to the podcasts as it can take a long time, or if my wife is reading, it can disturb her unless I wear headphones, which is a bit antisocial. But most particularly, it would be useful as sometimes I’m interested in art of the podcast but not all of it, and a transcript can be scanned and skimmed.

[PaulW]

I often skip the podcasts due to time, so  I would find a transcript to be helpful. However, what I would prefer is a clickable table of contents that would take me right to a section I’m interested in. Right now there is so much valuable information buried in the podcasts that is essentially inaccessible without a struggle.

[Matthew / BPL]

Thanks for the responses so far! Keep them coming please.

I wonder if there are any people that don’t think transcriptions would be useful at all.

[PaulW]

A clarification to my previous comment –

When I stated I’d like a clickable table of contents, I meant for the podcast, not for a printed transcript. Not sure if my meaning came across the first time.

 

[Brad W]

If it’s expensive I wouldn’t see the use for myself. I use the podcast and can go back and listen again if need be.

[d k]

I generally prefer to read (or skim) rather than listen to something.

[Chris K]

Matthew – count me in the opposite camp. I love listening to podcasts and it’s been nice to have the BPL podcast in the mix. There’s enough written content and discussion online as it is. I really think Andrew and Ryan are doing a great job with the audio stuff.

If there is room in the podcast budget, I guess I would consider spending on the production of new or more frequent episodes, and maintaining detailed show notes with links, rather than transcripts.

[Matthew / BPL]

Oh nice. That is an interesting dissenting opinion.

[JVD]

I usually don’t have time to listen to a podcast, even though the titles are interesting and the couple I have listened to were well done. Since I can read much faster, I’d find transcripts a lot more useful. Thanks.

[CS]

I have a use case right now where I’m looking for a rain jacket Ryan J talked about that had sections that zip off, I think the front or back, and it was one or two companies in Europe that make such jackets. That’s all I remember and I’m trying to find the products again, and don’t recall which episode it was on or where in the episode it came up.

So richer metadata might be a cost effective intermediate step before full transcripts. Like companies and products, and locations mentioned, and comments about them.

[Adrian Griffin]

Yes, I can read much faster than I can listen, so a transcript to read would be very useful.

[Matthew / BPL]

That is all good feedback and the use case is particularly helpful. Thank you.

[Bruce Tolley]

I prefer to read the transcripts.

 

[Bill in Roswell]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Transcripts are great for reference purposes. I used to date a transcriptor and it is nit cheap. But a good one can do 1 hour verbal surprisingly fast because they speed up the broadcast. 2 hours of verbal could be transcripted in way less than an hour, for example. I do listen to podcast on walks and enjoy them. But my old brain can’t remember the talks and all the valuable informstion presented. But texts are easily searched and referenced. Teanscripts would be a valuable service. As for how to pay for it, I have some ideas…..</p>

[Author]

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