Transcribing Audio - Essential Tools for Creative Business Owners
Do you know who your ideal customer is? If that conjures up a very definite image and description in your mind then congratulations! That definitely wasn’t the case for me until a few weeks ago.
I have been doing a series of interviews with the ideal customers for the Quilt n Learn events, having come to terms with the idea that it is not eight thousand people just like me. In a recent newsletter I offered $50 for an hour’s interview with members of my mailing list and sure enough a handful of people stepped up. I knew taking notes during the interviews would slow things down and stop the natural flow developing so I decided to record and take notes later.
I have seen a few people recently using AI that integrates with Zoom to make a recording of a meeting and then afterwards the software provides a summary of what was discussed and the resulting actions. Zoom seems to have a version of this available as an add on but one I have used before is Otter.ai. This is a useful tool that has evolved a lot since I first used it about 5 years ago purely for transcription of a recording. The free version is definitely worth a look but meetings are limited to 30 minutes so it wasn’t going to work for me in this case, plus I didn’t actually need a summary. I wanted ALL the words.
Photo of cuddly otters by Jim on Unsplash
A year or so ago I came across Aiko which is free and it has become my go-to tool for audio transcription. My flow is that I have the app on my phone. When I want to record something I use the Voice Memos app on my iPhone (or Android has something similar). Once the recording is complete I can “share” it using the 3 dots to the right of the recording. I find Aiko in the app list and click on it and then it automatically starts transcribing. I have found that if the recording is longer than an hour, Aiko will crash when I share it. I rarely have to transcribe things longer than that though so when I occasionally do I just split the original file and do it in pieces. I can copy and paste Aiko’s transcript straight into a google doc or note and can then edit as desired.
Aiko Icon
Pros of Using Aiko
Free
No ads
Works in 100 languages
IPhone and Android
Cons of Using Aiko
Will crash if your recording is more than an hour long
Does make your iPhone hot - there is an explanation for why this happens on his website.
Overall I really like it and would recommend you give it a try. When checking the link for the app I discovered the creater’s webpage has a number of useful tips to improve the output including FAQs. The tip on dividing the transcript into paragraphs is going to be very useful.
If you have a different app you recommend please let me know in the comments - thanks!
I’m a HUGE fan of Fathom for zoom calls. It records your zoom and at the end of your call will send you a summary and link to the recording you can share with the other participants if necessary.
The free version offers an organized summary of the call complete with action items. The paid ($15ish a month) offers you a full transcript as well as different summary options. Let me know if I can send you a referral link!