Why I otter...

Hey, reporters! I’ve been holding off on trying Otter, mainly cause I just don’t work with audio all that much. But HOLY COW.

Otter is an audio transcription tool (the latest of many, if we’re being honest). You record or upload a file and it spits out some text. Figuring I should finally try it out, I uploaded part of a City Council meeting - and boom!

I was shocked to see my text just sitting there, before I could even figure out how to start transcribing. It did take a few minutes to finish the rest, but it was a 9-minute piece of audio. And the transcript was quite accurate, as far as these things go.

Accurate + Fast + Cheap tends to be the “You can only choose one” triangle for audio transcription tools, but Otter very nearly hits them all.

You get 600 free minutes per month, which, I have to admit, made me immediately start checking if they’re selling my data. (Verdict: they’re not, necessarily, but nothing is stopping them, either.) But this is a shockingly good tool, even with that in mind. Transcribe your interviews, reporters!

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