drm_protected (3007, HTTP 422) · TranscriptFetch API error

Example response

{
  "ok": false,
  "request_id": "req_…",
  "error": {
    "code": "drm_protected",
    "number": 3007,
    "message": "The source is DRM-protected and cannot be downloaded. Podcast links (Spotify/Apple) are supported via the publisher's public RSS audio; Spotify-exclusive shows have no public audio and cannot be transcribed.",
    "docs": "https://transcriptfetch.com/docs/errors/drm_protected"
  }
}

Every failure carries error.code, error.number, error.message and error.docs, plus at most one of retry_with (the request change that would succeed), details (structured specifics) or issues (validation problems). Family: 3xxx · this input cannot be served.

What it means

DRM-protected. The source is DRM-protected and cannot be downloaded. Podcast links (Spotify/Apple) are supported via the publisher's public RSS audio; Spotify-exclusive shows have no public audio and cannot be transcribed.

Shown to end users as: “This content is DRM-protected, so it can't be transcribed directly. If it's a podcast, paste the episode's Spotify or Apple Podcasts link instead.”

Why it happens

DRM-protected. The source is DRM-protected and cannot be downloaded. Podcast links (Spotify/Apple) are supported via the publisher's public RSS audio; Spotify-exclusive shows have no public audio and cannot be transcribed.

What to do

Permanent for this input: the same request will fail the same way, so do not retry unchanged. Failed requests are never charged.
AI transcription would not help here: the content itself is not accessible to fetch.

Retryable? No, this is permanent for this input. Every error response carries a request_id; include it when contacting support.

Related errors

unsupported_platform (3001), an input on a platform we do not serve at all

Next →All error codes