2.5 million podcast episodes now have transcripts
The Podcast Standards Project, a coalition of platforms dedicated to fostering open standards in podcasting, is thrilled to announce a significant milestone: 2.5 million podcast episodes now feature creator-supplied transcripts, which enhance accessibility and listener engagement.
This achievement was largely made possible by popular podcast hosting platforms that support the new <podcast:transcript>
tag: Blubrry, Captivate, RSS.com, Transistor, Buzzsprout, RedCircle, Spreaker, and Libsyn. The introduction of user-supplied transcripts not only improves accessibility but also ensures accuracy and the inclusion of speaker labels, providing a superior listening experience.
“We are immensely proud to witness the adoption of the <podcast:transcript>
tag,” said Sam Sethi, Communications Director of the Podcast Standards Project. “This proves that it’s possible to innovate on top of an open standard, like RSS.” Support for the transcript tag was a key feature of version 1 of their certification. In the future, the Podcast Standards Project is planning on adopting new features for podcast creators, like Host & Guest credits and Podroll, a simple way to recommend podcasts to their listeners.
Recently, Apple Podcasts was the first major listening app to support creator-submitted transcripts and the <podcast:transcript>
tag. “Having Apple Podcasts support the transcript tag in RSS feeds is a big win for the podcasting ecosystem,” says Justin Jackson, CEO of Transistor. “We’d love to see platforms like Spotify, Pocket Casts, and YouTube follow suit.”
There are nearly 51,000 podcasts with the RSS transcript tag in total. This number would increase dramatically if Spotify for Podcasters (formerly Anchor) enabled users to add VTT or SRT transcript files as part of their hosting service. It’s estimated that their platform hosts nearly 2 million podcasts.
The Podcast Standards Project remains dedicated to advocating for the open podcasting ecosystem. By promoting RSS-based distribution, we ensure that podcasts remain a free, open medium accessible to all creators and listeners worldwide.
As we celebrate this milestone, we invite all podcast hosting providers and listening apps to join us in implementing the <podcast:transcript>
tag!
For further details about our standards and how to participate, please visit https://podstandards.org/.
this post was written by Justin Jackson, Transistor