Provide your own Apple Podcasts transcript

Decide when to supply a transcript

Apple can generate transcripts for eligible episodes. Supplying your own makes sense when the wording needs editorial review. Imagine an episode about a local instrument maker. Listeners should be able to search for the maker by name and jump to the moment they describe their first instrument. A misspelling can defeat that search even when the timing is right.

Start with the audio master approved for this edition, including the introduction, credits and any fixed sponsor reads. Confirm permission to publish a searchable text version of guest remarks and excerpts. Use the public master for the public feed and the full subscriber master for the subscriber upload, including its bonus material. Keep the files for each edition together and label them separately.

Review against the audio people will hear

Import the final audio in Polyglot on an Apple Silicon Mac and create a source-language draft. After the model download, processing runs locally. Listen to each cue. Check the guest’s spelling against the approved credits, replay interruptions and confirm that the closing credits are present. If you already have a timed transcript, keep an untouched copy before importing it for edits.

For the instrument-maker example, write down three test phrases from the approved recording. Choose the introduction, the maker’s name after the break and a line from the credits. Record the approximate time of each. These give the producer a quick way to spot a wrong edition or a timing change halfway through the episode.

Choose the text file your host accepts

Export the reviewed track as WebVTT or SRT according to the host’s requirements. Use an episode-specific filename such as ep12-public-en-r2.vtt. Open the export and check the first and last cues against the master. Keep the local project so a correction can be made against the same audio later.

If the show needs Apple’s structured speaker display, finish the speaker annotations in a suitable VTT editor after export. Polyglot exports plain cue text and timing. Typing a name in the cue produces visible words. Keep the annotated delivery master separately because Polyglot flattens presentation markup on import.

Deliver to the right episode

For a public RSS episode, use a host that supports transcript files. Attach the export to that episode and select the option to display creator-provided transcripts in Apple Podcasts Connect. In the published feed, find the episode item and open its podcast:transcript link. For WebVTT the type is text/vtt. Open the linked file and check the revision, language and last cue.

For a subscriber episode, upload the VTT or SRT in Podcasts Connect for the corresponding media. Keep subscriber-only text inside the approved delivery channel. Apple displays transcripts only for episodes distributed through its catalog. Check Apple’s current language list before planning a transcript delivery.

Check the transcript after the feed refresh

Open the episode as a listener. Check that the transcript credits your show as the provider. Search for the maker’s name, tap the passage and listen. Repeat at the opening and the closing credits. If an old typo remains, compare the hosted file with the reviewed export, check the episode setting and allow for Apple’s feed refresh.

When a host inserts different audio for different listeners, Apple says the changed segments may be omitted from the transcript display. Check a stable passage on either side of an ad break before moving any cues. If the actual program edit changed, review the transcript against the replacement audio and keep a new revision. Acceptance means the intended edition, words and playback positions agree in the listener’s app.

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