Record Phone Interviews Effortlessly

There are a lot of people who get flustered when they have to record phone interviews. I recently met a journalist friend who was in tears when she heard the recording of her telephonic interview with a writer. She’d forgotten to wait for the beep of her iPhone before going ahead with her interview.

If the thought of explaining this to the busy writer, who was off on a book tour was scary, facing the wrath of her editor was scarier. Though there are many apps and features for recording phone calls, a surprising number of journalists end up with recordings that sound like unintelligible conversation between aliens in space.

Have an iPhone? Recording is as easy as 123

• After calling the interviewee press the + button and call your number.
• You will be directed to your voicemail. Wait for the recorded message to end and start your interview after the beep.
• Retrieve your recording from the voicemail box and download it using any open source software.

You are just 3 steps from a clearly recorded Skype interview

• Install call recorder for Skype. There is a free demo version available for a week.
• When you launch Skype after installation, it adds a small record button to the menu. You have the usual record, pause and stop options.
• It records automatically when your phone rings and saves your files as QuickTime files.

Recording using Google voice

There is just one downside of recording using Google voice. It records inbound calls alone.

• Call Google voice from another phone line and answer your google voice account.
• Press 4 to commence recording and call up your interviewee.
• Join both the calls and retrieve your recording from the ‘recordings’ folder.

Also keep in mind ……..

• To record your phone interview in a quiet location as no amount of software can help a noisy recording.
• To call up your interviewee and inform the recording procedure beforehand. You don’t want them to sound clueless and lost during the interview!
• Send across the recording to your interviewee or mail across the transcript of your phone interview.