Apple Podcasts transcripts - explained and made easy! (Visual episode - find video in description)

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Welcome to this emergency

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podcast of the Podmaster, where

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we're talking about a massive

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development in Apple Podcasts app.

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Stick with me.

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I'm going to tell you everything that

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you need to know

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Are you creating transcripts for your

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podcast episodes?

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I know, I know you've heard all

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about this for ages and ages.

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Now, of course, the way that

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doing transcripts have been sold to

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you in the past have been the

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benefits for your podcast SEO.

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Well, I'm here to tell you, there

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are shady parts of the podcasting

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space, including these transcription

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companies, who actually are lying

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to you about the benefits of SEO.

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There is no such benefit

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from creating a transcript for your

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podcast.

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In terms of the SEO, it just

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doesn't exist.

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Never, ever has a podcast.

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transcript ever ranked on Google,

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and it won't do yet.

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Feel free to correct me if you've seen

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evidence of that in the wild, but I

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can tell you right now, it's simply

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not the case.

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The only way that a transcript benefits

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your podcast.

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SEO is if you repurpose that

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by copying the transcript,

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changing it into something else,

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like an article.

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Or a blog post or any other kind

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of content, then it might help

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your podcast SEO.

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In fact, it will help your

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podcast, SEO, but no transcripts.

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Their biggest benefit is

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accessibility.

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It's so that people that are hard of

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hearing can still enjoy your content,

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even if they can't fully listen to it.

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So, the great thing about this,

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Spotify, obviously, a few months ago,

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they introduced transcripts on

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their platform.

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So a lot of episodes now are getting

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automatically transcribed.

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In fact, you can't add your

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own transcript in Spotify, it does

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it all for you.

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Now, let's not get into an argument

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of why that's not such a great

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thing, and why what Apple Podcasts are

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doing is a great thing, later.

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For now, what you need to

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know is this.

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Apple Podcasts has your back.

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Now, I would definitely encourage

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you to create your own transcripts, but

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if you forget, or maybe you don't have

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the ability to get transcripts at the

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moment, budgetary reasons, time,

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whatever it is, then Apple Podcasts

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will automatically generate a

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transcript of your newest

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episode for you.

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Now, here's an important point

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about why you should make the effort

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to create your own transcripts.

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Not to mention, of course, the blog

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posts, the site, the website that you

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have for your podcast,

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and how great it is to offer that

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as an option on your website.

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But on top of that, specifically for

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Apple Podcasts, I mentioned a

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few episodes ago.

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On, the episode where I talked

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about podcast SEO, a lot of people

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didn't believe me.

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They thought I was talking pie in the

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sky at the time.

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But I told you, Apple podcasts

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have been running AI transcription

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behind the scenes for over a year.

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And bigger shows have been

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benefiting from it.

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In fact, Apple podcasts have

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been using their own transcription

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service as a better way to gauge What

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your content is about, so it knows

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whether to surface it in search

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results or not.

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So why wouldn't you want to do

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a better job of giving them a more

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accurate transcript for your episodes?

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That way, if you want to rank for

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certain keywords, you can make

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sure that they're spelled correctly,

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or that they're sharp at all.

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You know, these tools are not 100

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percent effective, certainly when

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they're using AI.

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So my suggestion to you is to take

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that extra time, even though Apple

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Podcasts offer to create the

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transcript for you, do it yourself as

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part of your normal workflow, hopefully

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you've been doing that up until now

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for accessibility reasons anyway,

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but then add the transcript manually

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to your RSS feed.

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Now, there are a few hosting companies

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that offer the transcripts tag

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in the namespace, Captivate, who I'm

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a subscriber to and I use for all of!

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my client podcasts.

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You've also got RSS.

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com.

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They allow you to add transcripts in

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the transcript tag and Buzzsprout.

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As far as I'm concerned, they

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also do it.

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One company which, sadly, bad timing,

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has actually said that they are

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not supporting transcripts at

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the moment because fewer than 1

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percent of apps actually support

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them, Libsyn, who have very publicly

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said they're not doing it yet.

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I have a feeling they'll change

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their minds on this very quickly,

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but for now If you're hosting with

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Libsyn, you cannot take advantage of

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this feature yet.

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All right, enough talking about why

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you'd want to do it.

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Let's show you how you actually do it.

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I'm going to share with you.

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My Apple Podcast Connect screen.

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Well, there you go.

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As you can see, it's all pretty

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much the same.

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Show information, availability,

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subscription, rating, and reviews.

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Nothing new there whatsoever.

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But, if you go to availability,

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you will see now that they have

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added a section, Transcripts.

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That's what's new.

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And you got two options,

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only display auto generated

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transcripts, or display

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auto generated transcripts if I

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don't provide any.

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You want it selected on that, if you

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are adding your own transcripts.

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Now, how does this work?

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Well, if you go into episodes, and you

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click on the latest one, you'll see,

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down here, audio and transcripts,

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and at the moment it doesn't show it.

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And I'll get to that in a moment, but if

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you click on that, it gives you the

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option to either auto generate or use

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the provided one.

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You want to use the provided one, click

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edit, make sure that

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you're using a custom setting

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for this episode, display transcripts

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I provide.

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The other option is only display

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auto generated transcripts and

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don't display transcripts.

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I have no idea why you'd want to

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choose don't display transcripts, that

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would be insane.

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Display transcripts I provide is

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what you want to have selected.

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Okay.

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Now how this will look in the

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wild is let's go to the podcast

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hosting platform.

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And have a look at where this

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comes from.

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Okay, so, I'm going to now

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share with you my hosting provider

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Captivate's screen.

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And as

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you can see, the latest episode.

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So if you're with Captivate,

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this is obviously relevant to you.

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If you're not, if you're with RSS.

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com, consult with the user guides

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on how to add transcripts in

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that platform.

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And the same with Buzzsprout.

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As I mentioned, Libsyn doesn't

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currently offer this, so No

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dice there.

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We

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want to scroll down to where it says

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transcription and discover ability.

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And as you can see, you could

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edit that and

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you can add your own transcript in

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whichever format.

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You can either do it in notepad form,

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copy and paste into the window, or you

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can add it as an S.

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R.

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T.

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Attachment file.

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Okay, now, so that is how That.

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works.

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Here's the caveat.

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Okay?

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This is not yet available to us.

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You will see a lot of people

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talking about this and sharing

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screens and videos mostly journalists

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in the space.

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The reason for that is they have paid

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for a developer account And they

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have access, early access, to a lot

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of the tools and features that people

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like Apple Podcasts roll out in their

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latest updates.

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I'm told we've got to wait until

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probably either the end of February

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or the very beginning of March

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to see this in our podcasting apps.

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To see this in Apple Podcasts

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when we're playing our shows in app.

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So you've got to be a little

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bit patient.

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But what I'd say to you is this.

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Make sure that you include

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transcripts in your podcast publishing

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workflow now.

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The reason being, once it finally

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does roll out, they're going to

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take your back catalogue episodes

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and they're going to

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pull from any transcripts that

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you've already uploaded as you've

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deemed them.

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to.

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As in, Not also generated exactly

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as you wanted them displayed.

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So it's well worth making sure you

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take the extra time and add those

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transcripts manually into Apple Podcast

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Connect through the episode.

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Hope that helps.

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Let me know how you get on.

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If you get

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any problems with

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this part of the publishing workflow,

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reach out to me.

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You can see me on LinkedIn, DM

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me there, or go to podmastery.

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co and click contact.

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Until next episode