Recommended Podcasting Transcription Service November 1, 2006
Posted by Jeff in Podcast Accessibility, Podcast Transcription, Podcasting.trackback
Update: http://jdfrey.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/podcast-transcription-service-update/
After my post yesterday about podcasting transcription services, I was emailed by two transcription services (one that I had on my list, and one I did not). I decided not to contact the one that I didn’t review after browsing their website, but I did actually talk to the one that was already on my list. I found it interesting (take note all you advertisers, companies, and self-promoters) that they monitor search engines for articles, blog postings, and news related to their business so that they can react to trends and respond to what people are saying. Their reaction to my post was positive, but they were wondering if I needed a demo account or could point them to a podcast so that they could ‘prove our worth.’ It wasn’t needed because I already had dealings with them and though they are on my list, they’re not on top. Who is?
CastingWords
There’s something to be said for the cost… more than $1.00 less than the rest of the services. How so cheap? They employ average people to do the transcription (see their application for employment on the website). Also, though there are restrictions on the types of files, audio quality, number of speakers, etc… they fit with what a typical podcaster is already doing… and those restrictions help keep the cost low as well. I think the cost is well worth the accessibility aspect of the service. I refer back to my podcast accessibility post from a couple days ago to prove that point.
Jon Udell recently talked about CastingWords, saying “I’d rate the quality of the transcription as very good.” He also did a follow-up post where he talked about his ongoing experience with the service:
42 cents per minute, 620 minutes of audio, 260 dollars. That’s just astoundingly cost-effective, and the quality of the results is excellent. I submitted the order on August 3, and the work was done on August 9.
I have to agree… cost-effective quality. Every once in a while there is some clean-up involved with some word or term that needs corrected, but those are worth the decreased cost that you pay with this service. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of your transcripts which can be edited and then released to the public.
Number 2 on my list? enablr who has a product/offering called transcribr. Besides good personal experience with the company, I like the business model and the ideas that they have about their pro versions of things. They will eventually subscribe to your podcast and turn the transcription around within a few days… charging you the per minute fee associated with your podcast. I’m anxious for the new offerings so I can send people there and see what they think.
Stay tuned… at the end of this week I’ll fill you in on how to easilty create our own transcription.
[...] I promised a day devoted to podcasting transcription services, so I’ve listed the narrowed down services here in no particular order. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you which one I recommend for podcast transcription and why (click here to find out). I have used, or have friends / clients using, five of the nine companies listed here. If you have an experience with any of them (or another one), feel free to email me (or comment) so I can update this entry. [...]
[...] For the rest of this post, I want to focus on video captioning. Yesterday I talked about transcription services and and how transcripts can be made for audio/video podcasts. [...]
Jeff,
I see that you included our company in your list for podcast transcription but it was lacking some information. We have been doing podcast transcription for over two years now and are currently producing more than 6 hrs of podcast transcripts per day. Our rates typically start at 50 cents per audio minute for long turnaround jobs and goes upto $1.20 per audio minute for 24 hr TAT. This includes most file types ( speeches, 1-1, 1-2 interviews etc.). I would like to address your comment about ‘negative’ experience provided you can give us more information. I feel proud to say that we generate most of our new business through word of mouth. Needless to say, we have a long list of happy, paying customers.
Sincerely,
Ashish Saboo
CEO
Tech-Synergy
I changed the post from the previous day with the pricing details. I also changed the text of my notes on that post from the vaugue ‘negative’ experience to the real issue being that he had to make multiple changes to the text file to reflect what was actually said (spelling/grammar). On the upside, $0.50 / minute is over 50% less than most other services, so dealing with a bit of changes isn’t so bad if needed. Thank you for the extra information.
Podcast Transcriptioning is an extremely price sensitive decision for podcasters. Also, Casting Words seems to be gathering a good reputation in this arena for being low priced . But,the MTurk mechanism of decentralized transcriptioning takes a toll on quality too. Their service was tested to transcribe Sydney Observatory podcast. The podcast recording was of broadcast quality but still, a numerical error was found in the final transcript. However if you choose an outsourced podcast transcription company, you will get the benefits of low costs and quality, with the additional benefit of data security mechanisms in place.
I have been working for Casting Words almost from when they started with MTurk, as a high-grade transcriptionist. My opinion probably is from the ‘other side of grass’ but let me tell you they never reward a grade ‘10′ to anyone. I have got grade ‘9′ which is the second best, several times and even asked for the corrected version of the final transcript of some of my files but they just refused to provide with…lol. Hell, I can tell you they’re pretty much quality conscious people. I still work for them thru MTurk and would admit that since they make the payments to turkers pretty smoothly, turkers like me don’t have much problem working for them.
Transcription Services do not seem to come under the umbrella – you get what you pay for – In my experience I have paid £1.80 / min and a £1 a minute and to tell the truth they both are of the same quality. I agree a small transcription service appears to get a better service- I can call them talk directly to the people doing it and adjust my transcript as needed. Great! Using casting words in the US is a problem for us in the UK – the strong accents pumps up the price – and lowers the quality. The casting words equal in the UK Transcription Services market place – top divas!
Click Here…
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Thanks for this info. I posted an extensive listing of transcription services, including a column for UK or AM accents. Let me know of any that are missing…