Storyphile | Your life. Your story. For the people you love.

Audio-Recorded Interviews

Audio-recorded interviews are the starting point for most of Storyphile’s life story packages. They are the most economical way to preserve your stories for all time.

They are also the most flexible way. You can record your complete life story from beginning to end. You can select significant events or important milestones to focus on. Or you can capture particular chapters of your life.

Recording someone’s full life story typically takes between 6 and 15 hours of recorded interviews, but it’s different for every person. Some life stories can take up to 100 hours to record. There’s no way of knowing until you actually get started.

The letter of agreement you sign with Storyphile sets out the number of interview hours you’d like to do. Our standard package is based on 10.5 hours of recording time. If additional time (or less time) is needed, we make adjustments over the course of the project.

How audio interviews work

Interviews are your opportunity to sit back and share your stories and reflections on life. Remember, you’re the star of your story. You just need to relax and enjoy your own starlight!

Your interviews with Storyphile will feel like chatting with a friend.

We’ll prepare questions to guide our discussions, but it definitely won’t feel like an interrogation. You’ll find the experience enjoyable and rewarding.

Throughout our time together, you’ll maintain complete control over what you want to talk about and what you want to say. If you happen to say something you later wish you hadn’t, we can delete it from your interview recordings.

Where we’ll meet

Our story-gathering interviews with you can take place at any comfy, quiet place you choose. (Your kitchen table might be just the perfect spot.)

What we’ll talk about

In your interviews with Storyphile, we can talk about anything you like. We believe that anything you might wish to share about your life is interesting and important.

Storyphile will come prepared with questions and a general plan for each session, but then we’ll let the conversation go wherever it leads us, in a natural way. Allowing for a free flow of topics lets us pursue important areas that might otherwise be missed.

You can talk about any topic you like and digress as much as you care to!

How often we’ll meet

We typically schedule 90-minute sessions for your life story interviews. You decide how often you’d like to meet.

For a full life story, we recommend 2 or 3 interviews per week over a 4- to 6-week period.

What you’ll need to do

  • Get started. (You’ll need to sign a letter of agreement and pay a 50% deposit.)
  • Work with us to develop an interview plan.
  • Sit for interviews. (It will be fun!)
  • Review a first draft of your audio files and let us know if there’s anything you wish to delete.
  • Approve your final revised audio files.
  • Enjoy your recordings and share them with your dear ones!

What you’ll get

  • We’ll submit your final MP3 and WAV format audio recordings as a download link.

What it costs

  • Interviews and recordings for a complete life story start at $2,700 (plus GST/HST).

How long it takes

The time it takes to complete your life story interviews depends on

  • your schedule
  • how often you’d like to meet
  • how many interviews you’d like to do

Ten to 16 weeks is typical.

Deposits and payments

The deposit is 50% of the total fee. The balance is invoiced over the course of the project. Final payment is due when you receive your final, approved audio recordings.

Your interview recordings can be the final step in your project. Or just the beginning.
Storyphile can advise you on procuring AI-generated transcripts of your interviews. AI transcripts aren’t perfect, but they can be 80–90% accurate. And they’re far, far cheaper than transcripts produced by professional transcriptionists.
Storyphile can also help you turn your interview recordings into a beautiful heirloom book.


Listen to audio-recorded interview examples.