LibriVox YouTube channel (official)

Comments about LibriVox? Suggestions to improve things? News?
BengtW
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Post by BengtW »

Background:
I have since 2017 running a YouTube channel with the goal to upload all the complete works on this site.

I have so far uploaded more than 5000 books, all with chapter selection, full description, attribution and links the original LibriVox page.

I have a HTPC that encodes the videos as a background task and it can typically do around 10-20 books in a day. Slowly catching up to the total amount of available books on the site.

The channel is doing well with more than 600 000 minutes of view time over the last 28 days.

Link to channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCsHiFXTYJrc6ZKK_HJMX6jA

Discussion:
Would it be possible to make it the official YouTube channel for LibriVox? I would love to run it as such and it could help the site reach out to more people. What do you guys think?

I also greatly appreciate any feedback making the channel better so please share those as well.

Thanks for reading.
plaidsicle
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Post by plaidsicle »

this is pretty awesome and useful work you're doing to share LV productions in a new way.

since LV is all run by its volunteers and there's not much of an "official" official decision-maker when it comes to these things, there's nothing stopping you from putting the LibriVox name on the channel and re-cycling the book summaries and other metadata from the catalog. plenty of others seem to do that with apps and other third-party tools. nobody owns a trademark on "LibriVox" or anything.

that said, you may not want to count on having everyone's official blessing, or expect support from every single volunteer or admin (not that it sounds like you would need much additional support anyway). the philosophy around here is "If you want to do it and it doesn't muck up the prime directive of making PD audiobooks, then go for it." does that make sense?
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JayKitty76
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Post by JayKitty76 »

This sounds pretty cool. I've YouTubed LV books before, and I hardly get any audio books there, so this sounds great! You may need to get permission from the admin team to make it the official channel, but I agree with Plaidsicle.
Great work you're doing, keep it up :)
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mightyfelix
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Post by mightyfelix »

JayKitty76 wrote: ↑February 16th, 2019, 11:41 am You may need to get permission from the admin team to make it the official channel, but I agree with Plaidsicle.
Actually, there's no need to get permission from anyone. I think that was part of plaidsicle's point. Everything in our catalogue, book summaries included, is in the public domain, so no one needs permission to use it. As for the "official" bit, there is no official anything, really. There are a multitude of LibriVox mobile apps out there, for instance, but not a single one that is run, managed, endorsed, or maintained by LibriVox.org.

It can cause some confusion, yes, but that's kind of the nature of the loose type of organization we have here. So if you wanted to call yourself LibriVox Audiobooks on YouTube, there would be no reason not to, and no one to stop you from doing it.

I'd also agree with what plaidsicle said about possibly having a lack of support from all volunteers. I have seen comments from a few readers from time to time who've become upset upon finding a LibriVox recording on YouTube, because they assume that the YouTuber is just using it to make money. (Which is perfectly legal, but may or not be ethical.) I personally don't see a problem with it. And in fact, I think that putting these audiobooks on more platforms just expands our work to a wider audience, and I don't see how that can be a bad thing.
BengtW
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Post by BengtW »

Thanks for all the feedback so far. More positive than I though and it makes me more eager to continue.

About the official part what I really would like with that is the fact that all books published here also automatically (by me) gets uploaded to YouTube. I don't want any links to the YouTube videos, I believe the links only should go in the opposite direction as of today.

What about the Twitter page, this is official I assume?

Regarding money making I know this page has always been ad free and I also have no ads on the YouTube videos. This could be changed if anybody in charge of Librivox financials has a Google adsense account and I could connect it to this person. But there is very little to be made I think. I rather keep it ad free as it is more in line with this site.

Are there logo types that can be used if rebranding of the channel would be done?
mightyfelix
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Post by mightyfelix »

BengtW wrote: ↑February 16th, 2019, 1:09 pm Thanks for all the feedback so far. More positive than I though and it makes me more eager to continue.

About the official part what I really would like with that is the fact that all books published here also automatically (by me) gets uploaded to YouTube. I don't want any links to the YouTube videos, I believe the links only should go in the opposite direction as of today.
I don't see a problem with that, but I hope you realize how much work you'd be taking on. Taking a look at this thread, it appears we've been averaging something like 80-90 new catalogued works each month.
What about the Twitter page, this is official I assume?
We have a Twitter??? :shock:
Regarding money making I know this page has always been ad free and I also have no ads on the YouTube videos. This could be changed if anybody in charge of Librivox financials has a Google adsense account and I could connect it to this person. But there is very little to be made I think. I rather keep it ad free as it is more in line with this site.
Yes, I had a hunch that was probably the case with you. Another thing I've seen people get upset over is when youtubers (and others) fail to mention LibriVox, direct back to it, or give any credit to it. Again, that's not what you're trying to do. And, once again, let me be clear: Even these things are legal, they just make people mad sometimes. :wink:

Also, there are no LibriVox financials, persay. We're hosted by Internet Archive, and sometimes people have donated to IA in support of LV, but that's about it.
Are there logo types that can be used if rebranding of the channel would be done?
Yes, there are!

https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=CD_Covers#Use_the_logo
annise
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Post by annise »

It's great you are spreading the audience - I agree with the opinions above but I don't really understand what you mean by "an official channel". In what way would it differ from what you are doing now?

Anne
JayKitty76
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Post by JayKitty76 »

mightyfelix wrote: ↑February 16th, 2019, 12:15 pm
JayKitty76 wrote: ↑February 16th, 2019, 11:41 am You may need to get permission from the admin team to make it the official channel, but I agree with Plaidsicle.
Actually, there's no need to get permission from anyone. I think that was part of plaidsicle's point. Everything in our catalogue, book summaries included, is in the public domain, so no one needs permission to use it. As for the "official" bit, there is no official anything, really. There are a multitude of LibriVox mobile apps out there, for instance, but not a single one that is run, managed, endorsed, or maintained by LibriVox.org.

It can cause some confusion, yes, but that's kind of the nature of the loose type of organization we have here. So if you wanted to call yourself LibriVox Audiobooks on YouTube, there would be no reason not to, and no one to stop you from doing it.

I'd also agree with what plaidsicle said about possibly having a lack of support from all volunteers. I have seen comments from a few readers from time to time who've become upset upon finding a LibriVox recording on YouTube, because they assume that the YouTuber is just using it to make money. (Which is perfectly legal, but may or not be ethical.) I personally don't see a problem with it. And in fact, I think that putting these audiobooks on more platforms just expands our work to a wider audience, and I don't see how that can be a bad thing.
The whole 'getting permission' thing-- I worded it wrong. I meant there might be a very low chance that you might need to get permission (I see now that's not the case) but I support the idea.
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BengtW
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Post by BengtW »

mightyfelix wrote: ↑February 16th, 2019, 1:35 pm I don't see a problem with that, but I hope you realize how much work you'd be taking on. Taking a look at this thread, it appears we've been averaging something like 80-90 new catalogued works each month.
I started in 2017 when there were about 11000 books and it's pretty much automated and those 11000 are in a queue to be encoded and uploaded. When complete I will continue with all the books made since then and in the end when catched up I will implement some feature to trigger encoding when a new book has been published auromatically. I expect to catch up sometime next year.
Awesome thank you, I will check it out to see what best fits as YouTube formats.
BengtW
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Post by BengtW »

annise wrote: ↑February 16th, 2019, 5:13 pm It's great you are spreading the audience - I agree with the opinions above but I don't really understand what you mean by "an official channel". In what way would it differ from what you are doing now?

Anne
It would be rebranded as Librivox YouTube channel with logos and more information about this site. I can post here or in another thread statistics from the channel views, viewtime, viewer demographics etc that might interest our community. I can use this forum for feedback on how to run and improve the channel. I do not expect everyone's blessing but I do think it is a good way to grow this community to exist on a big platform such as YouTube. I know the channels content itself can be fully automated and only needs moderation.

YouTube is integrated in a lot of other platforms and audio books fits the format well since YouTube supports video continuation and saving videos in favoutites nd view later playlists.

The day I catch up and all videos are made maybe there could be a link to the channel next to the Twitter link. I am still curious who runs the Twitter as I have to feeling the site is run by everyone and no one.
annise
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Post by annise »

Someone started twitter, they stopped, later on, someone else took it over, We also have members who run a facebook page,
We've had members who add Wikipedia links, the Librivox app was designed by a member, at one stage until iTunes would not accept them any more a couple of members were uploading our files there, but none of this was official, we don't need to give permission to people to use something we have given away.
And I apologise for anyone I have left out :D

Anne
BengtW
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Post by BengtW »

Understood, I will rebrand it then then I share its progress on these forums as long as I can keep running it.
ColleenMc
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Post by ColleenMc »

Thanks for making a YouTube channel! There are multiple YouTube channels that repost the LV books in various ways (some divide into tinier chunks, some do long continuous ones, not everyone acknowledges sources etc) and I think the more the merrier!

I especially appreciate it because that's how I found Librivox -- I had bad insomnia for years and used "boring" videos to fall asleep, which led me to ASMR and recorded college lectures and also to Librivox audiobooks. Especially non-fiction ones in history and science that were just interesting enough to keep my brain from drifting to whatever anxiety/worry/bad feelings would keep me awake, but not soooo interesting that they would keep me awake--or that I'd feel like I missed out if I fell asleep and didn't pick back up in the same place later.

From there I eventually followed the oft-repeated invitation to check out this site, "or to volunteer" and now I'm pretty dang passionate about both promoting Librivox and volunteering through recording and prooflistening, and hopefully one day soon BC-ing!

So thanks to you for creating a route for more people to find Librivox!

Colleen
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realisticspeakers
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Post by realisticspeakers »

-- I had bad insomnia for years and used "boring" videos to fall asleep...
I'm still going to do my best. :lol:
Truth exists for the wise, Beauty for a feeling heart: They belong to each other. - Beethoven
Disclaimer:
"Kind reader, if this our performance doth in aught fall short of promise, blame not our good intent, but our unperfect wit."
schrm
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Post by schrm »

realisticspeakers wrote: ↑February 21st, 2019, 8:22 am
-- I had bad insomnia for years and used "boring" videos to fall asleep...
I'm still going to do my best. :lol:
:lol: please do
ColleenMc wrote: ↑February 21st, 2019, 7:56 am From there I eventually followed the oft-repeated invitation to check out this site, "or to volunteer"

So thanks to you for creating a route for more people to find Librivox!
yes...and suddenly, i registered...
:D

after all, thank you realisticspeakers for volunteering on youtube!
:wink:
cheers
wolfi
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