Want to create content fast? Use a transcription service to turn audio into written documents:
- Interviews
- Podcast transcription
- Speeches
- Book content
- Blogs
- Thought capture
Recently, I “debriefed” myself on an important meeting using the native voice recorder on my iPhone, thinking I would use the recording to create a “highlights” document from the 7-minute recording. Then, I had a better idea: use a transcription service!
After a few minutes of research on Google, I decided to try out the Rev and Temi apps, both owned by the same company.
Rev— upload a recording and have a human transcribe it for $1 a minute (first 10 minutes free) within 12 hours. A transcription is sent in Microsoft Word.
Temi-a newer service that does machine transcription for 10 cents a minute, within 5 minutes. Right now it is a free service (Beta), although I could not upload directly from my phone as I had recorded in another app, (but you can record in the app). I had to go to Temi.com and upload at the website (I had uploaded the audio to Dropbox from my phone). When you get the file, you can do edits on their editing too.
My Rev file came back in 25 minutes and the Temi file came back in a minute. I was impressed with both. The Rev transcription had mostly correct capitalization and punctuation and only one spelling error (“regents advisors” instead of “region advisors”). The Temi file was slightly less accurate.
Save yourself some time and capture written records of audio!