Surprising discovery

[jetpack_monkey]

When I post vids, I usually only offer streaming. I have occasionally posted a file link because someone requested it of me, but the streaming has always been the important part. This year after Vividcon, anoel hounded me after my vid posts went up about when a file download link would be available, so I put one up for all three new vids.

I'm pretty invested in my viewing statistics and I was disappointed to find that the streaming Vimeo embeds weren't getting that many views. However, on a whim, I checked my Apache logs and found that the download numbers for all three vids were far above and beyond what the streaming view statistics were (sometimes by a factor of 10).

So, I ask you, Internet -- do you prefer downloading your vids? Why? Should I go back and provide downloads for all of my vids?

Comments

[jetpack_monkey]

My reasons are largely personal. A lot of my vids on Youtube have my real name on them, because I made them originally for my horror film website, where I also use my real name. When my horror site came to a close, I started making a larger effort to separate my real name from my fannish identity. However, I can't replace my vids on Youtube with new versions with my fannish name without losing several years of comments, likes, and view statistics. So I basically just abandoned that pasture for one where my vids are just my vids.

On a more service-related note, while Youtube is much cooler about copyrighted materials now that they have deals with all sorts of providers, it still means that ads show up on my vids, which makes me uncomfortable. For instance, if an ad shows up on my Evil Dead vid because the music is the B-52s, the B-52s' record company gets that revenue. However, since Youtube hasn't recognized the video (yet), Sam Raimi doesn't see any of the money. Frankly, I'd rather nobody was making any money off of it.

Also, you can't view 75% of my Youtube stuff in Germany or on a device like an iPad or even my PS3, because of the copyright issues.