In a step forward toward making podcasting less opaque to brands and more appealing to ad buyers and brands, the podcast database company Podchaser has beta-launched an updated API that will allow developers to retrieve transcript files of episodes from the top 5,000 podcasts.
“Today brings us the next phase of podcast discovery and accessibility,” the company says in an announcement. “Utilizing cutting-edge, human-in-the-loop transcription techniques, we not only transcribe the content of the episode, but also advertisements and promotions. These transcripts can help products and services make podcasts more accessible, power media monitoring platforms, track media trends, and much more.”
Podchaser Head of Product and Marketing Dave Keine expects the feature will primarily be used by marketing apps and services that track media mentions in podcasts for brands who will now be able to access the transcripts via their API.
“Brands want to know when people talk about them, so they use media monitoring services to alert them when something is said. There are services like this for TV and Films, and what our transcripts allow someone to do is to extend that service to podcasts,” he explains. “When coupled with Podchaser's advanced metrics like reach and power score, they can also know the impact of those mentions.”
Last week Acast announced it was buying Podchaser in a deal valued at as much as $34 million. The acquisition will give Acast a pipeline to metadata that it will be able to leverage for advertisers and podcasters.
Acast has not yet said whether it plans to make show transcripts available via the Podchaser API, but Podchaser CEO Bradley Davis said last week to expect the two companies to leverage what they do best as they integrate.
“What you willsee is an acceleration of Podchaser’s vision. This new chapter is supercharging our efforts to build discovery tools that help listeners, creators, and brands/advertisers get the most out of podcasting,” he said in an open letter last week. “While Podchaser will remain operationally independent, we will utilize the data and expertise of Acast to push the envelope even further. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on,” said Davis.
While Podchaser tracks sponsor data on the top five thousand podcasts, the site today tracks more than 4.5 million podcasts, 17 million host, guest, and crew credits, and hundreds of thousands of ratings and reviews – with over 1.7 billion total data points.