Transcripts: Extra Credit

James Cridland: 00:00:05

Transcripts is a really good example, actually, of something that works within the Apple ecosystem, if you want that, or somewhere where you actually have the control over them to actually change those if you want to.

When Apple announced this in January and I had a press briefing directly from the Apple Podcasts team, they were really clear to highlight to me that if you want to create your own transcript, then you can. And it used the podcasting 2.0 standard. It's always interesting talking to Apple.

If there's one thing that I've learned from them over the last two or three years, is that they think very, very carefully about the way that they implement things to make sure that they are the right thing for the users. They want to make sure that whatever it is that they do, they will do forever.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:00:59

Welcome back to Podcasting 2.0 in Practice. I am very pleased to be back with James Cridland. Hi, James.

James Cridland: 00:01:09

Hey. Hey.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:01:10

You will have already met James if you've been doing as you're told and listening in order. However, James, do give us a quick re introduction.

James Cridland: 00:01:21

Well, as you'll remember, as you'll remember from earlier, I write a daily newsletter which is about podcasting and on demand, which is for free at podnews.net which I've been doing now for the last seven years or so.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:01:35

Fabulous. I wanted to talk to you about.

It's again, it's a bit of kind of a reading around the topic episode because we've been talking about the transcript tag.

James Cridland: 00:01:46

Yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:01:46

And In January of: 2024

James Cridland: 00:02:04

Yeah. So what happened is always very interesting to answer in terms of what goes on in Apple because who knows what goes on in Apple, to be honest.

But there are a couple of things going on which I think led to transcripts. Firstly, Apple is all about doing the right thing for its users.

And one of the right things for its users is making sure that everyone can consume, consume a podcast in some way, shape or form. There are plenty of laws and things in the US and in other countries around making sure that any media that you publish is consumable by anyone.

And obviously if you have a problem hearing, then podcasts are quite difficult. And certainly if you have a problem with the spoken English word, then actually it's really handy to be able to see something written down.

January: 2024

Claire Waite Brown: 00:03:29

Yeah. And I think certainly the kerfuffle and confusion I heard among people was because Apple were going to be making the transcripts.

At least that's what we were being told. Whereas if we use the 2.0 feature, we make our transcripts and we're in control of them.

And I think people were worried that Apple's making the transcript. Is that how it works?

James Cridland: 00:03:52

So Apple makes a transcript for every single show.

But the brilliant thing is, when Apple announced this in January and I had a press briefing directly from the Apple Podcasts team, they were really clear to highlight to me that if you wanted to create your own transcript, then you can. And it used the podcasting 2.0 standard for transcripts.

So it means that if you can't be bothered to produce a transcript or to correct a transcript, then Apple will make one for you anyway. And it's a really good one.

But if you can, then that's great because that means that your sponsors are spelt correctly, the people on your podcast are spelled correctly. Two different ways of spelling, Claire, let's not forget. And so you can actually get all of that stuff. Right.

And also if you do your own transcript, then you can do things like write down who's actually speaking at any particular time, because Apple knows that there are different voices, but doesn't necessarily know who the voices are. And so that's something, again, that you can actually help with. So it was exactly the right, right thing for Apple to have done.

They came with an idea of we want transcripts to work and we want them to work really nicely. But then they went, we want to give creators the control if they want to. To be able to produce those transcripts for themselves as well.

And so using the open podcast namespace, using podcasting 2.0 was a really good move from them, so far as I'm concerned.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:05:29

Hiya. Namespace refers to a set of tags, and we'll learn more about those later in the series.

Do you think that means there'll be an acceptance of any other features going forward?

James Cridland: 00:05:47

I mean, that would be nice. It's always interesting talking to Apple.

If there's one thing that I've learned from them over the last two or three years is that they think very, very carefully about the way that they implement things to make sure that they are the right thing for the users. They want to make sure that whatever it is that they do, they will do forever once they've turned that on.

That's something that they do feel very strongly about.

I suspect that there are certain things that Apple will be adding to their podcast app in the future, which again, will come from open standards, where those open standards exist. I think that it's a real benefit for Apple to end up doing that. But, you know, I mean, the way that they do.

The transcript is a really good example, actually, of something that works within the Apple ecosystem, if you want that, or somewhere where you actually have the control over them to actually change those if you want to, or indeed turn them off, if you really want to turn them off, then you can do that on a episode by episode basis as well. So there's a bunch of different things that you can end up doing.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:06:56

Yeah. In your experience, as you've said, you have close connections with Apple, so are Apple doing anything else?

James Cridland: 00:07:04

So Apple's transcriptions are really interesting.

When you have a look at them in other modern podcast apps, then they take the information that you have put in your transcripts and they're very slavish to that. So if you have used.

There are a number of different formats for transcripts, but if you've used the standard VTT or SRT formats, those normally will give a sentence at a time, and so it will highlight a sentence at a time. If you're listening in most modern podcast apps, Apple is cleverer because what Apple does is it actually matches word by word by word.

So it's a much more fluid experience, even if they're using your own transcripts. So they've ended up doing a very nice experience.

And one of the reasons why they've done that is Apple is very nervous about spam and very nervous about people misusing its technology. So if it doesn't see the words in your transcript actually existing in your audio, then those words never show up anyway.

So they've done some very good and clever work there to make sure that it's both a really nice experience, much better than any other podcast app out there, but it's also very difficult to do anything nasty with and to fill with spam and other things. So I think they've done a very good job there.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:08:27

So when you see it, it's like the subtitles on telly that it lights up the word.

James Cridland: 00:08:34

Yes. So every single word, it can light up.

If you're using the Apple Podcasts app on your phone or on your iPad, then you can scroll through the transcripts and just click on a word, and it'll start at that word. So it does some very, very clever, smart things.

And I think it just goes to show that Apple have done this in a really good way, but in a really responsible way as well.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:09:00

Yeah. And in your opinion, then, what's the best way to produce transcripts for Apple?

James Cridland: 00:09:07

Well, there are two different ways of producing transcripts.

Well, actually, there's a number of different ways in the podcasting 2.0 specification to produce transcripts, because the Podcasting 2.0 specification wants to make lots of different methods and means available to you. Apple accepts two different versions. It accepts a file called an SRT file or a file called a VTT file.

You don't really need to know an awful lot about either of these two files. But the one thing that I would say is, if you have the opportunity, use a VTT file rather than an SRT file. Why would you say that, James?

Well, I'd say that because a VTT file is a cleverer file format. It's a bit like, you know, Microsoft Word format or a different word processor format. It's just a different format of how you get your.

Your transcripts to Apple. But a VTT file allows you to name the speakers. So I do a show with a man called Sam, and Sam and I will say things at different times.

If you look at our transcript while it's playing in the Apple Podcasts app, it will highlight what James says and what Sam says. You can only do that if you're producing your own transcripts, and you can only do that if you're producing them in a VTT format.

So if you want the very best experience, then end up doing that. And by the way, chapter points, if you end up using Chapters in your podcast as well, those also go into the transcript as well.

So it ends up looking like a really nice rich experience. If you end up doing your own innovation file. Yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:10:45

So if I do my own innovation and I put it in my hosting company because they accept transcripts, do I need to do something with Apple Podcasts Connect or something to say, use my transcript, not your transcript?

James Cridland: 00:11:01

Yes, there's a little toggle in Apple Podcasts Connect. That's the bit of Apple Podcasts that you log into as a creator, and that's also where you can actually turn them off.

Although I would say, please don't do that because firstly, that's illegal and secondly, that's not treating people very well. But yeah.

So just log into Apple Podcasts Connect and you can very easily essentially opt into your own transcripts there and make sure that that works.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:11:33

I've put a little extra credit homework episode together being released at the same time as this one to show you how to find that toggle and ask Apple to use your 2.0 transcripts instead of their own. On the matter of legality,

in: 2021

So, as James says, not only is providing transcripts the right thing to do, so you don't exclude anyone, but by doing so you are also protecting yourself from possible legal complications. Now, I'm sure I've already done that because I'm sure you told me to do that in January when this happened or whenever this happened.

But I'm going to go and check.

James Cridland: 00:12:29

And the one thing I would say is, again, coming back to Apple wanting the best thing for the user is that if your transcripts aren't very good, if maybe you've got an automated thing to produce your transcripts and actually it needs a bit of correction, which most transcripts do, then Apple might not actually accept them automatically. So they need to be good transcripts, Apple's own are good.

So they need to be basically as good as, or if not better than Apple's existing ones for Apple to actually take those. And that's on an episode by episode basis.

So I produce my own transcripts every day and I would think that probably 1 in 10 aren't accepted by Apple for various reasons. And that's probably a good thing because it means that Apple are doing the right thing for the audience, which is a good thing, really.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:13:24

Wow. I'll have a play with that then. I didn't know that. Interesting. Thank you so much, James. How can people connect with you so.

James Cridland: 00:13:33

You can find out more,

in fact, there's a whole article all about Apple podcast transcripts and things on the Podnews newsletter, which is podnews.net if you want to sign up to that and go and have a look at the articles section in there and that's where you can find out more information about me and how to get in contact.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:13:53

Brilliant. Thank you so much.

James Cridland: 00:13:55

Thank you.

Claire Waite Brown: 00:13:57

Visit creativityfound.co.uk/podcasting to find out more about my guests and access lots of useful podcast resources.

If you'd like to get in touch, you can send a boost, but if you haven't got to that lesson yet, feel free to reach out to me on my Instagram account Podcasting2.0.InPractice.