Tool for journalists: TapeWrite, for adding text and image cards to your podcasts

What is it? A place to host audio for free and add text and images around it to illustrate the package or summarise the content of a podcast.

How is it of use to journalists? As the appetite for podcasts is growing, creators are looking for ways to make audio more shareable. TapeWrite wants to do for podcasting what Medium has done for blogging – it aims to make listening to audio a more social experience by packaging each track into a 'tape', a combination of audio, text and images.

Also like Medium, TapeWrite lets users follow their favourite writers or podcasters to stay up-to-date, and discover new audio and topics that fit their preferences.

You can sign up to TapeWrite with a Facebook, Twitter or Google account, or just an email address. Once you've uploaded your audio, you can add text, quotes or images to cards placed at selected times throughout the track.

Listeners can comment on individual cards, share them to Twitter, Facebook or email, or bookmark them – as well as sharing the entire 'tape'.

The format "makes people come for the audio but stay for the network," Borja Rojano, one of TapeWrite's creators, wrote on Medium back in October.

Here's what creating a tape looks like, using the latest podcast from Journalism.co.uk as an example:



The cards attached to our podcast point to additional information about tools mentioned throughout the package, but you could also use the space to highlight interesting quotes from the podcast or add visuals to the mix.

There is no TapeWrite app at the moment, but the mobile web version of the platform still enables listeners to tune in and read on the go.



While you can share 'tapes' on social media, you cannot embed them into other articles like you would a Soundcloud track for example.

But TapeWrite is currently in beta, so additional features are likely on the way.

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