Views vs "likes" on Youtube....

Colo Springs E

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Something was shared and it showed up on my facebook feed. A local artist has a new song and video, and a fellow musician who I'm connected to, posted the other artist's post and youtube link. The post said they had 10k views in 48 hours--which I will say, sounded pretty impressive to me for a local artist with no national following-- and actually, I don't think much of a local following either.

I watched the video and listened to the song. Song was pretty nondescript to me, the video wasn't bad--did look to me like it was done professionally. But I'm probably not a good judge of that type of thing.

While the song didn't connect with me, it certainly wasn't terrible compared to other stuff out there. I could definitely see how others might like it.

When I clicked on it, it had 12,000 views and.... 21 likes. No comments. And it doesn't appear to me comments are disabled.

Do people typically not 'like' even if they like something? (I usually do click 'like' if I like it) If you're a pro, would you be a little disappointed? Or just more pleased w/12k views, to heck with the 'likes?'
 
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Festofish

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I don’t unless I’m supporting a creator and then rarely. I watch YouTube on my tv. It doesn’t seem optimized at all. You can’t comment. You don’t even see comments. Good for them though.
 

ClashCityTele

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I watch a lot on YouTube, but very rarely post comments or hit 'like'.

I once left a comment on that vid of a guy playing a dimed 150W Bugera amp on an airfield.
Two years later someone replied to my post which set off a frenzy of activity. Some even arguing with me about my post. I couldn't even remember what I'd said!!! I was getting notifications every day. There were well over 100 replies. It was driving me nuts!

So...no more YT comments.

Edit:- Just checked. My comment was 2019 & last reply was Nov 2022. Total 111. At least it was positive.
Apparently, all I said was 'you can play in a bar with a 15W amp'. Light fuse & stand back!!!
 
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Kandinskyesque

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I watch YouTube mainly on my browser and I very rarely sign into Google, unless I'm downloading photos taken on my phone for editing and filing. After which I'll sign out and blast CCleaner through my pc.

You can't watch YouTube and hit like on a video without being signed in, so I never "like" anything I watch.

I'm not entirely sure how the views counter works, I'm not sure if they register unless signed in either.
 

Skully

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I "like" on YouTube as a bookmark if I can't think of a place for it in my playlists.

I'll muddy the waters . . . I uploaded a video to YT just so I could post it here. I set a celluloid pick on fire. It has 1365 views and 18 likes.



Ha! I've worked on things for weeks and weeks that didn't get nearly as many views or likes. Maybe I should include "fire" in the descriptor next time.
 

Colo Springs E

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I'll muddy the waters . . . I uploaded a video to YT just so I could post it here. I set a celluloid pick on fire. It has 1365 views and 18 likes.




Haha, I liked it for you!

But you're kind of proving my point too... less than 4000 views, and 19 likes? That's a WAY better view-to-like ratio than the video I was talking about.
 

StoneH

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Haha, I liked it for you!

But you're kind of proving my point too... less than 4000 views, and 19 likes? That's a WAY better view-to-like ratio than the video I was talking about.

Here's another possibility. I think a posted original music video tends to end up in someone's "feed" a little randomly. On the other hand, I once posted a "How to" on replacing the lock on a BMW Z3 glove box. When I took it down, it had 8000 hits, a lot of likes, and several positive comments . . . people found it because they searched for Z3 stuff, and they liked it because it helped them.

I would only like a music video if it knocked my socks off.
 

421JAM

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You have to look deeper. YouTube shows you an average length of view. That’s the real indicator of whether people like it.

This is what I was curious about. How long do you have to watch for it to count as a view? There should be some sort of threshhold. I tend to believe most people watch a few seconds of a typical music video and then move on and never return. IMO, if that counts as a view, then the viewer numbers are meaningless.

If someone hit the like button, that means they either watched it long enough to form an opinion, or they're friends of the creator. 21 likes out of 20,000 (mostly fleeting, and probably not even intentional) views seems like a realistic number of people who were actually engaged with the content.
 

StoneH

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This is what I was curious about. How long do you have to watch for it to count as a view? There should be some sort of threshhold. I tend to believe most people watch a few seconds of a typical music video and then move on and never return. IMO, if that counts as a view, then the viewer numbers are meaningless.

If someone hit the like button, that means they either watched it long enough to form an opinion, or they're friends of the creator. 21 likes out of 20,000 (mostly fleeting, and probably not even intentional) views seems like a realistic number of people who were actually engaged with the content.
I looked it up.

"YouTube wants to make sure that video views are coming from real people. That's why a YouTube view is only counted when the following two criteria apply:"

  1. A user intentionally initiates the watching of a video.
  2. The user watches it on the platform for at least 30 seconds.

There is some other algorithm for shorter videos.
 
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