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What are you using these days as an alternative to YouTube?
Hi,
What platforms are you using in alternative to youtube (kinda like what tildes it to reddit)?
Peertube seems amazing and all, but the lack of a centralized index of videos kills it for me
Sorry, I'm going to take this topic and put a slight twist on it. I think as long as youtube is owned by google there will not be any viable alternative to youtube. I think the first step towards a good youtube alternative would be to break apart big tech, and then alternatives to youtube would have a viable chance.
I'm going to strongly disagree with you, and the main reason why is because your argument is far too nebulous. Youtube is different things to different people. There are many video streaming services, many of them are advertising-supported, and many of them have community features as well. Youtube isn't even the only service that offers to share advertising revenue.
I feel that if you split YouTube from alphabet, absolutely nothing will change with regards to their practices or market dominance.
I disagree. If YouTube was split from Google, YouTube would need to have a separate stock and would also be forced to disclose it's financials, something Google has not done, which makes some believe YouTube is pushing it's luck. (Although this is speculation.) Given this and the instability of YouTube relations with it's creators and advertisers means that YouTube could end up being one of the most unstable tech companies, which is great because it means people aren't certain about YouTube's health, which in my opinion could give competitors the opening they need to seriously grow.
This strikes me as overly optimistic. Alphabet doesn’t disclose YouTube’s financials because they don’t like outsiders being able to infer how the ad tech/data harvesting sausage is made. They’re not trying to conceal whether YouTube is unprofitable. If it doesn’t provide value for them, they will make it provide that value.
What might change is a stronger focus on subscription or ad revenue rather than just data harvesting/user profiling. But I’m not sure how that would really open up competition in the video-streaming space. The pre-conditions of a viable market of independent creators seems tough for hosting video. I think that golden age of any random person starting up a video channel like they’re ham radio operators might need a big monopoly to work. The only way would be to incorporate an alternative as a non-profit a la Wikipedia.
This seems perfect for the desktop - it's everything I basically wanted in YouTube but had to download billions of extensions to get working. Cheers!
I love Invidious. I just wish it wasn't so damn slow all the time.
I’ve tried a few and they’re still pretty slow. I considered setting one up for myself but after about three hours of wrestling with Digital Ocean and the invidious setup process, I jut gave up.
I recently got a Floatplane account, which is a new Patreon+Youtube alternative from Linus Media Group (aka Linus Tech Tips), and IMO it's pretty promising so far. The creator base is currently very very limited, since it's early days and creator accounts are invite only at the moment... but I imagine that the selection will grow with time as the platform matures and gradually opens up more.
Unlike Youtube, you have to pay a subscription fee to access the content of said creators, but since I was basically already doing that for Forgotten Weapons (one of my favorite YouTube channels) via Patreon anyways, I just migrated my donation from there to his new Floatplane channel and have been using that to access his content instead of YouTube. I'm hoping more of the YouTube creators I support via Patreon eventually make the move over to Floatplane too, so I can migrate their donations over as well.
p.s. For those curious for more info, here is their Beta announcement video:
Our Response to YouTube's Shenanigans - Floatplane is Finally Here!
Then it's not really an alternative as YT is free ;) Still i'll give it a look
IMO YouTube isn't really free, it's just that how you pay to use it doesn't involve a direct exchange of currency. But you do pay... by giving up your privacy, and by allowing yourself to be tracked and your behavior profiled, so that google can sell that data to advertisers who wish to better target you with their messages. So whether you know it or not, you are effectively paying to watch YouTube by renting out your headspace to google and said advertisers.
I would rather just pay for the content I want to watch in a more traditional way, and directly support those creators ability to continue to create said content in the process.... hence my use of Patreon, and now Floatplane. :)
/philosophizing ;)
100% agree, except I'd like to note that "traditional" corporate models that charge for these services almost invariably end up going the "steal your personal info for advertising" route, as well ... on top of the monthly subscription.
I frequently watch LTT and I think I watched that video, but I have a question for you as a Floatplane user. Is it like Patreon, in that you get access only to the content of the creators you support directly, or can you also access the content of others on the platform?
I ask because I watch a lot of YouTube (with an adblocker mostly) from many different channels. For my favorite channels I either buy for myself or ask for some merchandise as gifts. But if I had to give a dollar a month for each of those channels I'd be looking at $20+ monthly, which is much more than I think I could reasonably spend. I suppose that just means the trade to Google is worth it for me right now.
Yes, it's basically Patreon with a video delivery platform built into it. You have to subscribe to each channel if you want access to their content on Floatplane. However I don't think that the intent is to ever completely replace YouTube, and none of the creators there release exclusively to Floatplane anyways AFAIK.
E.g. Forgotten Weapons is still available on YouTube, his own website, and a few other video hosting sites like Full30... and I doubt that will change anytime soon.
I don't think any of the creators are really counting on Floatplane replacing YouTube entirely either, since as you said, subscribing to X amount of channels you watch at $3 each will add up quick. However for the channels that people are already donating to, this is a great alternative to YouTube and Patreon both (which are a bit iffy as platforms these days IMO, esp for firearms related content, E.G.). I suspect at some point people may release Floatplane exclusive videos, similar to how people do similar as a perk on Patreon, but I don't see going much further than that. Still, it's a nice option to have for people and creators IMO, and the site itself seems to run extremely well so far.
Separation is good, right? Because a monolithic site is the exact problem that has left us with YouTube. We're already paying YouTube with our privacy and watching advertisements... these smaller sites are just a different payment method. And if one breaks down, then it's not nearly as big a "loss" as if YouTube were to go.
Yeah, this reminds me of the argument about cable TV. "I don't want to pay for ESPN. I just want to pay for the 5 channels I actually watch." Then when each network came out with its own service, it was "I don't want to pay each service differently. Can't they put everything I want in one service?" Personally, I much prefer the a la carte method. I probably still pay less than I did with cable, and even if I don't, at least I'm not supporting stuff I'm opposed to and there's less crap to wade through.
You make a fantastic point, but it should be made clear that the owners of Floatplane have stated that it is not intended to be a discoverability platform. So in that sense, it does not replace a desireable function of Youtube. It is just a content delivery platform with sustainability (i.e. subscriptions) in mind.
I personally am pretty interested in what sort of content discovery services will develop with recent advances in machine learning. Ultimately I think we won't need to rely on the black box algorithms at youtube and netflix or their data, and instead just self-host something. Also, I believe there was a Tildes thread on exactly this subject if you are interested.
I think you have the wrong impression about what Floatplane is. Watch the announcement video and then read my other comment above. The creators there are not "separating themselves on their own little sites"... Floatplane is not meant as a YouTube replacement, and all the creators on Floarplane are still releasing their videos to YouTube and other sites for free... it's just an alternative/supplement to it that allows you to directly support the creators you want to support. It's basically just Patreon with video delivery.
sure, same goes with reddit, for me the policies are okish, but i rather find alternatives like tildes.
Now i'm looking for alternatives to Youtube. Centralizing power is never good ;)
You could use LBRY, but you run into the Voat problem where you have anime and free software people right next to political provacatours. Internet Archive is also a good place if you need to host video, but channel features are lacking.
Having tried a few YouTube alternatives, my honest thoughts on each.
Dailymotion - Used to be a good but rather obscure YouTube competitior. The site's undergone a redesign in the past year which has heavily promoted curated mainstream network content and removed the ability to comment on videos. I'd consider this the site's Digg v4.0 moment, because this is sure to kill off what little following the site still has.
BitChute - This is a decentralized video sharing site that uses WebTorrent technology. While this seems good on paper, I cannot ignore the total lack of video quality options. Videos look like complete ass on BitChute. The site also carved itself a niche userbase by catering to far-right and alt-right content creators that had been barred from YouTube.
Newgrounds - I wouldn't consider this site a YouTube alternative in the traditional sense. Newgrounds was once the king of Flash animation and games though the main niche it caters to is a dying medium that YouTube took years ago then killed off with its algorithm changes. While Newgrounds has been updated to allow non-SWF videos, art, music and HTML5 games to be shared, Newgrounds is far from being a YouTube competitor due to the many restrictions it still places on video content. In fact, the site has become impossible to sustain from ad revenue alone. There is one good thing going for Newgrounds and that's the fact that many Tumblr refugees signed up on the site after the porn ban.
DTube - This seems like the most viable YouTube alternative I've seen yet. It's a decentralized video platform powered by the STEEM blockchain that uses blockchains, decentralised file storage and cryptocurrency to fix problems with censorship and monetisation. Unlike BitChute, it isn't filled with crazy alt-right conspiracy theorists and unlike Dailymotion, it actually has a userbase.
Vimeo - Feels like it's catering exclusively towards professional video creators rather than the YouTube crowd.
I'm not sure I get DTube. It appears to just have a bunch of YouTube embeds? What exactly is decentralized about it? Nothing I actually see on the website lines up with your description or the about page...
From their about page:
Here's their github.
There's a lot of YouTube embeds but there is also hosted content too.
The unique aspect of this site is that there is almost zero censorship (the site allows NSFW content, even porn) and seemingly hasn't fallen into the trap of having every alt-righter deplatformed from YouTube flock to it.
If there was more of a userbase, it could be a very viable competitor to YouTube. It already offsets a lot of the hosting and censorship issues plaguing YouTube.
What specifically do you use YouTube for? I don't use YouTube at all unless someone directly sends me a link. I know some people use it specifically for music, others for gaming content, others for science and tech stuff, and many of my friends have subscriptions to the pay service they offer (YouTube Red? I think?). I use for-pay music streaming services for music (AppleMusic specifically), podcasts for science/tech/nerd stuff, and Netflix, HBO, Apple+, and iTunes for TV shows and movies.
Along the lines of not-actually-a-replacement: RSS.
Just subscribe to Youtube channels with your favorite RSS reader. Rest of the internet (including Tildes) seems to be able to handle the discovery of new channels just fine.
It has kind of been all over YouTube in the last couple of months, but I am seriously considering joining Nebula, which is, as they claim, a subscription-based service created by YouTube creators for YouTube creators. They have some serious names, including CGP Grey, Philosophy Tube, Kurzgesagt, and Knowing Better.
If anyone has got more information or knows why joining could not be worth it, please do post a comment.
Wendover has been advertising it quite a lot, especially their cross promotion with Curiosity Stream.
This is a documentary that's a Nebula original, about Saint Helena's airport. Maybe it helps you figure out the quality of their stuff.
https://youtu.be/5-QejUTDCWw
For me, I've tried Nebula and perhaps others, but I end up going back to YouTube/Netflix.
I wouldn't say I'm a massive YouTube fan, I think the quality of content has gone somewhat downhill with all sorts of bad actors trying to abuse the system for profit (see ElsaGate). Not only that, but the amount of time misinformation that can spread and proliferate on YouTube is pretty awful. As much as I would like to, I no longer trust amateur video creators making factual videos due to the issue of accountability. Add in the algorithm trying to get everybody to pump out stupid amounts of content at the risk of their own mental health and I'm pretty much deterred from it.
Netflix seems to be the opposite of that - accountability, creators making decent money that they wouldn't make anywhere else, and due to the volume of content on Netflix (regardless of how interested I'm in each thing) it definitely seems creators on there aren't abused silly like YouTube. So I tend to gravitate to that for actual factual content - although I need a break every now and then as it feels like there's something new to get outraged on with Netflix (a bit like Twitter).
There is a gap that YouTube occupies that no other streaming service seems to be filling in - random video blogging or just random content creation. I do find myself going back on YouTube, but often for those random videos/channels about cat/dog owners filming crazy antics of their pets. YouTube grew from people randomly blogging about their lives, and I still think that's valuable content to a lot of people - in an increasingly lonely world, people want to reach out and see how other people live their lives.
Also, lets not discount those one-off tutorial videos - I know I made a big flap about YouTube's factuality, but I went to a job interview this week, and I learned how to do a full windsor knot tie thanks to a 2-5 minute video on YouTube. If other platforms have videos that help people to tie a knot or set the pressure on their boiler etc, that would help in growing that platform.
I just get my subscriptions through RSS and play them with mpv + youtube-dl.
Not sure if that counts, but I'm not giving them traffic and analytics this way (I think).
I consider using peeertube, but lack of content is what is big problem. Everything is on YouTube, it's hard to beat it even though I'd prefer to use decentralized service more YouTube prevails in the amount of content it has.
I've been thinking about this issue. Maybe we should all start ripping all our favourite YouTube channels and upload their videos illegally to PeerTube (and D-Tube and wherever else we can upload them to). Piracy was one of the things that made YouTube popular back in the day.
That would get more content and more users for sure, but would it be problematic for admins of peertube instances ? Also peertube could add option for playing only audio, invdious.us has that.
I don't use it much but floatplane.com just went into beta and is starting to have creators.