How to find downloads

maxgal · Post by **maxgal** » April 19th, 2020, 11:06 am

Hi everyone,
Is there a way to find out how many times a particular LV catalogue item has been downloaded?
And...
Is there a way to find out when a particular LV catalogue item has been downloaded?
Thank you! ... LJB

Post by **TriciaG** » April 19th, 2020, 11:37 am

Is there a way to find out how many times a particular LV catalogue item has been downloaded?

Not really. You can get an idea from the number of "views" over at the Archive page for a project, but:
- This may be inflated due to the cover images. If you go and see 10,000 "views" on a week-old project, it's not accurate.
- This only counts "views" that use Archive as their source. YouTube uploads, shares of downloaded files, etc. don't count.
- This depends on Archive's definition of a "view". Does it count a 3-second preview of a file? How does it count listening to one chapter, then coming back 4 hours later to listen to a second chapter?

Is there a way to find out when a particular LV catalogue item has been downloaded?

No.

maxgal · Post by **maxgal** » April 19th, 2020, 11:42 am

TriciaG wrote: ↑April 19th, 2020, 11:37 am
Is there a way to find out how many times a particular LV catalogue item has been downloaded?
Not really. You can get an idea from the number of "views" over at the Archive page for a project, but:
- This may be inflated due to the cover images. If you go and see 10,000 "views" on a week-old project, it's not accurate.
- This only counts "views" that use Archive as their source. YouTube uploads, shares of downloaded files, etc. don't count.
- This depends on Archive's definition of a "view". Does it count a 3-second preview of a file? How does it count listening to one chapter, then coming back 4 hours later to listen to a second chapter?

Is there a way to find out when a particular LV catalogue item has been downloaded?
No.

Wow... and here I thought "everyone" knew except non-tech I.
Thanks Tricia!

Post by **knotyouraveragejo** » April 19th, 2020, 11:45 am

Sort of...if you go to the Internet Archive page (linked on the LV catalog page) for the item and look at the number of views, you can get a rough idea. One view equals one download, but it can be the whole book as a zip file or m4b, the cover, or one or more individual chapter files. A lot of listeners use other sources of our files like apps or other online sites that host LV file, YouTube, etc. or listen by streaming the file on their device without downloading. These don't all link directly back to the original uploads at IA. Looking at the number of views at IA will give you an estimate of how popular a particular recording is over time (e.g. 50,000 vs 100 views for example), but not hard and fast numbers.

Cross-posted with Tricia...

maxgal · Post by **maxgal** » April 19th, 2020, 11:54 am

knotyouraveragejo wrote: ↑April 19th, 2020, 11:45 am Sort of...if you go to the Internet Archive page (linked on the LV catalog page) for the item and look at the number of views, you can get a rough idea. One view equals one download, but it can be the whole book as a zip file or m4b, the cover, or one or more individual chapter files. A lot of listeners use other sources of our files like apps or other online sites that host LV file, YouTube, etc. or listen by streaming the file on their device without downloading. These don't all link directly back to the original uploads at IA. Looking at the number of views at IA will give you an estimate of how popular a particular recording is over time (e.g. 50,000 vs 100 views for example), but not hard and fast numbers.

Cross-posted with Tricia...

Double-wow, way over my Luddite head.
But I get the gist.
Thanks Jo!