Why Do You Need a Transcript for Your Podcasts and Other audios?

 Podcasts were initially used to allow people to distribute their own content or radio style shows to a wider audience. The clarity of a podcast digital recording has been ideal for a variety of media, such as interviews, teleconferences, lectures/speakers, oral history interviews, writers, radio broadcasts and more.

 

So why do you need a transcript if you have the audio?

 

1. A quality audio supported by a transcript will always generate more interest and a bigger audience than an audio on its own.

 2.  If someone is hearing impaired, their only option may be to read a transcript. A transcript can do for the hearing impaired, what books on tape do for the visually impaired.

 3.  Reading a transcript can also be helpful if voices on the audio are hard to understand. Having a back-up transcript can be helpful in such circumstances so they may be able to clarify any bits they did not hear clearly the first time around.

 4. Some people prefer to read content because it is quicker for them rather than listening to an audio file.

 5.  Some people may only want to listen to a small section at a time and without a transcript they would have to listen to the whole recording or spool back and forth in order to try to find the relevant part.

 6. Transcripts can be tweaked to ensure the search engines can find you by adding relevant hyperlinks and keywords.

 7. By providing all options for your audience, they will remember which audios are more user friendly than others.

 

Provide your audience with choices; they will thank you for it!

 

Next: How Can Speakers benefit by having a transcript?