LibriVox Forum

I was wondering if there is a way (as a reader and/or listener) one can view the stats on how many times a book or project has been downloaded. For instance, when searching for a good book to listen to, I have often wanted to know what are the more popular books based on a download count and try one of them.

-FabulaeAudi

If you go to the Archive page for a book it has a download count for it , and the main Librivox page at Archive will show you all the books in order of download - I think Return of the Native was the most downloaded last time I looked. The figures are Archive figures and the pages have the files as separate files and 1 per book , so the figures are not exact.

Anne

Thank you!

~FabulaeAudi

I wouldn't choose by download count alone, though. Often newer recordings have much lower counts than ones that have been available for four or five years. What I consider to be my best recording by far has only a couple of thousand downloads, whereas one I did a couple of years ago has 80,000.

You might also like to look at an independent catalogue that includes LibriVox audiobooks, like http://www.audiozero.com where you can browse by genre and see snippets of the book summaries at a glance.

Ruth

Ruth,

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to check out audiozero soon for some good books.

~FabulaeAudi

I am unclear as to where I can find the number of times a particular Librivox recorded book or project has been downloaded.

I read the comment: "the main Librivox page at Archive" but I don't know where that is. A specific link would be helpful.

I admit I am curious to see if any of the stories I've recorded were ever downloaded by anyone (other than the Proof Listener.)




Vanity of vanities, thy name is...me"

The main LV page at Archive is here, Frank: http://www.archive.org/details/librivoxaudio (the most downloadeds for this week and all time can be seen on the right there.)

If you do a search at archive.org for the stories you've recorded, it should list a project-specific page, which shows the direct downloads at the very bottom of the page. Note, this doesn't show downloads from other places (torrents, Gutenberg.org, other mirrors of archive), just what's been downloaded from the LibriVox catalogue or directly at archive.org. And if you've contributed to a collection, you'll only see the number of times one or more files from the collection has been downloaded, no way to unpick individuals from there.

Plus, the counters break from time to time. So, I'd suggest treating them as entertainment rather than solid fact.

Oh also, in my experience anyway, fewer is better in some ways. The recordings I've done which have very few listeners have also received some really kind feedback notes and have been used in completely brilliant pieces of music. My most popular recording in terms of download numbers has never received a single piece of feedback, at archive.org or here (as far as I remember.)

On every catalog page there is a link to the corresponding archive page. At the bottom right hand corner is the number of downloads as well as any reviews you may have.

This is your catalog page. Click on any project, then click through to the archive page.

Esther

i had no idea! There's a book we just finished less than a month ago that has 16,000 views already. I really had no idea. Of course, we probably can't distinguish which of these are bots..., right?

A view doesn't mean a down-load, either. Personally, I don't download anything to read it, I read on-line. Maybe that's not a safe practice? Any thoughts?

Czandra

A view doesn't mean a down-load, either. Personally, I don't download anything to read it, I read on-line. Maybe that's not a safe practice? Any thoughts?

I don't know what you mean by "safe". Technically, if you read something online, you ARE downloading it (or at least, part of it) to your computer. It gets stored in the memory so that you can view or listen to it. When you navigate away, it might stay in memory for a while, or it might be discarded.

Thanks Tricia. I wonder if downloading all means I can close the browser. My sense is that as long as my browser is open, I'm more vulnerable to being hacked. Maybe that's old school.

Cz

The main perk of downloading in my opinion is just to have off-line access, say if you want to listen to an audiobook through your laptop while having a picnic, to answer Cz's question. (Classic picnic activity, listening to audiobooks.) I don't think there are any risks associated with just having an open browser window, it pretty much depends on the websites you visit.

To get back to the question that started off this thread, though -- it looks like Archive.org no longer has a "downloads" stat. Just "views."

Does anyone know if librivox admins have those statistics? I imagine since the works can often just be accessed in their basic audio link format, the answer could quite possibly be 'no.'

But, I'm curious.

As far as I know - there has never been a download count available even in the beginning when it was all on a personal server. IA's "download count" did change slightly a long time ago but it never been an answer to who listens, it is views. There have been numerous discussions from various users from various different people not only us which seem to have disappeared and there were explanations given of the things that counted as views which I can't find.

Anne

gardenvariety wrote: ↑April 11th, 2024, 9:22 pm (Classic picnic activity, listening to audiobooks.)

Love the image of picnickers lying back in the grass and on red gingham/ plaid, straw between teeth, cloudwatching to "the sailor's wordbook". That'll be me when I'm 85.

Thanks for your thoughtful thoughs.

Czandra