A.I. Automation Tools for Indie Podcasters
A look at five AI tools to automate and save time as an indie podcaster.
As a podcaster, you understand the importance of creating quality content. However, the process of creating that content can be time-consuming. I had to put my podcasts on pause as I did not have the time to invest in editing and creating content from scratch to promote these podcasts and episodes.
As someone trying to build a business, how every hour is spent is critical. While I love making these podcasts and have gotten great feedback from listeners and guests, the time spent did not make practical sense.
While I am hesitant when it comes to AI and still have a lot of concerns, I need to be practical again. If there are tools that will allow me to continue making and marketing these podcasts without the immense time commitment, it would be silly not to use them.
This article will explore some of the A.I. tools I have tested for podcasters.
The Tools for Podcasters
As someone that is price sensitive, the first blocker is the cost of the tool. The tools below are a list of the tools that have a price point that is reasonably affordable for my needs. All of these have much more expensive and sometimes less expensive options.
Tool Pricing
Swell AI - $29 per month for five uploads.
Podium - $18 per month for 6 hours of audio.
Podcast Marketing AI - $30 per month for four episodes.
Dubb - $24.99 per month for 10 hours.
Listener.fm - $19 per month for four uploads.
Filtering down the options
While some tools, like Podium, allow you to try the service without signing up or providing a credit card (usually a good sign that they have faith in their product), others require you to at least create an account.
During this step, two tools were dropped from the list as they only offered to sign up with Google, Facebook, and Twitter. The remaining tools were Swell AI, Podium, and Podcast Marketing AI.
Swell AI
Add your audio
You can add your content to Swell AI from multiple sources.
Apple podcast
RSS feed
Google Drive folder
Dropbox folder
Zoom Cloud recordings
OneDrive folder
Youtube video
Upload a file
Using their API
I love that they have an API for this, which opens even more potential automation options. As I already have a number of podcast episodes out there and available on Apple Podcasts, I opted for this option when testing.
Access your content
Once the AI machinery has done its job, the next question is how easy it is to get the content from the tool and onto the platforms where I want to use it. Swell AI offers several options.
Dropbox folder
Google Drive folder
OneDrive folder
Use any other endpoint through a Webhook
Again, I love that the input and output here can easily be piped to another part of the automation pipeline if you ever want to. In addition to the sources listed above, you can also download the myriad of content generated to your local machine.
What does it automate?
From your podcast episode, Swell AI generates a transcript of the episode with editable speaker labels and timestamps. You also have access to a find and replace tool to easily fix up those instances where the AI got the spelling, name, or word completely wrong. The transcript is also available as an SRT and VTT file.
The next section is what Swell AI called the Ultimate Shownote. By default, this includes five titles, three summaries, timestamps at key moments with a suggested title, a detailed synopsis, quotes with timestamps, and a large list of possible keywords for the episode.
Next is the Perfect Socials. This includes a Twitter thread, five Twitter posts, a LinkedIn post, a Facebook post, Instagram and TikTok captions, a Youtube description (this one did not work for this episode), and a short email newsletter post.
Swell AI also generates a full article for the episode, separate timestamps, summaries, and ten suggested titles. Swell AI also added a new Agent (it used to be called Swell Chat), which allows you to generate more content using a chat-like interface manually.
Lastly, Swell AI offers a widget you can embed as an `iframe` on your podcast episode, which listeners can use just like a chatbot. Swell AI states the chatbot is trained on the transcript of the episode. I am not super keen on this last option, but I am sure many other podcasters would find this a great offering.
As you can tell, Swell AI offers a *lot* in terms of automation, and I am sure there is more I do not yet know about.
Podium
Add your audio
From what I could tell, the only way to get your audio onto Podium is by uploading an audio file. With that said, when signing up, you are asked for your podcast’s RSS feed (or feeds), so perhaps on some of the tiers, importing the audio from the feed is an option.
Access your content
On the free tier I am currently on; although it sounds like you get access to all of Podium’s features, the only option is to download a zip file.
What does it automate?
When you extract the zip file, it contains a transcript in SRT, VTT, and text formats. Highlight timestamps with a title and the duration of the highlight in seconds. The same timestamped highlights, but this time including the full text of the highlight. You also get a show notes text file with the following:
Episode keywords
Episode title suggestions (7)
Episode summaries (3)
Timestamped episode chapters with titles
Timestamped episode chapters with titles and short key points
Timestamped episode chapters with full summaries
From here, you can access PodiumGPT, which is exactly what it sounds like, a ChatGPT-style UI to generate additional content with some preprepared prompts for a Twitter thread, Facebook post, blog post, LinkedIn post, Email, and suggested titles.
Podcast Marketing AI
Add your audio
Podcast Marketing AI gives you four options to add your episode.
Upload the audio file
Paste an existing transcript
Apple podcasts (this did not work for me)
PodcastBuffs (Which I believe is a professional podcast editing service)
Access your content
For each piece of content that is generated, you have the option to download it to your local computer. As with the other tools, the transcript is available in a text format, SRT, and VTT. For all content except the transcript, you also have access to a nice what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSISYG) editor to edit the generated content. You are also able to open a ChatGPT-style UI to fine-tune the content using prompts. The UI also offers suggested style, emotion, perspective, and length prompts.
What does it automate?
This one is a little hard to answer. Podcast Marketing AI *does* automate the generation of the following:
Transcript
Show notes (I like that the tools also try to identify people and companies mentioned)
Episode description
Suggested titles
Email newsletter
Quotes that can be the exact quote or paraphrased
Social media posts
It is hard to answer this question because, while each of the above is generated, you must click to start the transcription process. Only when this is done can you click to generate the show notes, and so on and so forth for the remainder of the content types. For the quotes and social media posts, only one is generated initially. You can then generate more quotes and content for different social media platforms.
Conclusion
I really wanted to like Podcast Marketing AI, but the need for manual intervention at each step of the process and the high price point made it not an option for me. The same goes for Podium, but here the price is right, but the automation is simply lacking.
So, as automation is the primary reason I started to look into these tools, Swell AI (affiliate link) has to be my top pick, with Podium a close second. I hope this has been helpful. If you have found a tool that has improved your life as a podcaster, please share them in the comments.