How to transcribe an MP3 file

Roughly once a week, I have the following conversation:

Someone: Hey Peter! How can I transcribe an MP3?

[Peter begins to cry]

Somehow, I cannot find the perfect simple tool for this. ¹

For now, I recommend Fireflies. It works, but it does not bring joy.

Update 2025-10-20: Jason Hoelscher-Obermaier has pointed me to MacWhisper. First impressions: ❤️. I'll continue testing and update this post in a few days.

Footnotes

I finally cracked and made the perfect simple tool for my own use. But it's not public yet. If you'd like to use it, email me. Or, vibe-code your own using Codex and AssemblyAI. ↩