The most-watched video on YouTube just hit 10 billion streams

Madeleine Amosin
Digital Video News

Which music video has the most views on YouTube? You’re probably not going to like the answer, but nor will it come as much of a surprise.

The inescapable titan that is “Baby Shark Dance” by Pinkfong! continues to be the most-watched music video on YouTube. It’s just hit 10 billion streams.

The infuriatingly catchy song and accompanying cartoon has been number one since November 2020. Not only is it the most popular video set to music, but “Baby Shark” is also the most-viewed video on YouTube ever.

“Baby Shark” is the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views. Capitalising on the success of the animation, there’s also been a Nickelodeon TV show and merchandise based around the song.

But the South Korean children’s tune hardly counts as a traditional mainstream music video. The second most-viewed music video – and, if you’re a stickler, the music video with the most views, is “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee, with 7.7 billion views and 47 million likes.

“Johny Johny Yes Papa” by LooLoo Kids is number three, helped by going viral on Twitter due to its sheer strangeness; Mozart would be aghast. At number four comes Ed Sheeran’s relentless earworm “Shape of You.” “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth is number five, a tribute to the late Paul Walker.

What makes a music video a runaway success? There could be factors like the catchiness of the song, the production values of the video, the popularity of the artist, and seemingly random viral popularity driven either by the bizarreness of the video or the content’s comedic value. As well as generating royalties for the artist, streams of YouTube videos also count towards official music charts like Billboard.

Please do enjoy the top five most-viewed music videos on YouTube below, and gift them even more streams.

1. “Baby Shark Dance” – Pinkfong!

2. “Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee” – Luis Fonsi

3. “Johny Johny Yes Papa” – LooLoo Kids

4. “Shape of You” – Ed Sheeran

5. “See You Again ft. Charlie Puth” – Wiz Khalifa

We all remember when “Gangnam Style” by Psy held the top YouTube spot, dominating for over four and a half years. What will be the next viral sensation to climb the YouTube charts – and will it be a slickly produced music video, or another cheesy cartoon?

Get your music onto YouTube with RouteNote for free, and start making money from your music today.

YouTube bans a Joe Rogan episode with references to Nazi Germany and COVID-19 misinformation

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Joe Rogan

YouTube have removed an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience for violating community guidelines, while Spotify leave the episode up.

Episode #1757 of The Joe Rogan Experience with Dr. Robert Malone, an American virologist and immunologist, was removed from YouTube within hours of upload. The episode was posted by a third-party, as Joe Rogan’s exclusive contract with Spotify does not allow full episodes to be uploaded to YouTube.

In the episode Dr. Robert Malone compared the current U.S. public health climate to Germany in the 1920 and 1930s, pointing to “free-floating anxiety” in both environments and noting that this anxiety was addressed and channelled in Nazi Germany by a leader with a singular message. Malone claims he invented the mRNA technology used to develop the COVID-19 vaccines.

Our government is out of control on this, and they are lawless. They completely disregard bioethics; they completely disregard the federal common rule, and they have broken all the rules that I know of that I’ve been trained on for years and years. These mandates of an experimental vaccine are explicitly illegal.

Dr. Robert Malone, #1757, The Joe Rogan Experience

YouTube haven’t addressed the deletion of the episode directly, but following the link shows the video was removed for ‘violating’ their community guidelines. YouTube, like many other social media platforms, have implemented no-tolerance policies on the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.

Texas congressman Troy Nehls submitted a transcript of the banned episode to Congress.

Since signing The Joe Rogan Experience exclusively to Spotify in 2020, the streaming service have faced scrutiny on both sides for the removal of older controversial episodes and the refusal to remove newer episodes such as an interview with Alex Jones. The episode with Dr. Robert Malone remains available on Spotify.

How to watch TikTok on TV? Head to your doctor’s office

Madeleine Amosin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: TikTok

A new deal between TikTok and content company Atmosphere means that TikTok could soon be coming to a waiting room TV near you.

Tired of getting a crick in your neck from flicking through TikTok on your phone? Now you can stare up at TikToks on a mounted TV instead. A new deal between the social media platform and video content company Atmosphere means that TikTok might be on TV in your local hospital.

A new TikTok channel is coming to the platform Atmosphere, which provides “audio-optional place-based viewing” to businesses. It brings streaming channels to public TV screens – think waiting rooms, gym foyers and on the big screen at a bar.

The company provides content to 19,000 businesses including Burger King and Taco Bell. TVs in businesses around the world could now display a channel dedicated to a constant stream of user-uploaded TikToks.

Atmosphere is a free platform, with ads, and says it reaches over 20 million visitors a month.

Leo Resig, co-founder and CEO at Atmosphere, said: “Everyone is constantly on the go and on their phones, so we developed a hyper-entertaining streaming TV platform with Atmosphere, which elevates the vibe of any business. This is a win-win for the business and their customers as well as advertisers, who are having a harder time connecting with an unreachable TV audience.”

“We are thrilled to partner with TikTok and to showcase their brand of extremely engaging content in businesses. We are trailblazing TV entertainment in the third space and having a blast doing it!”

For TikTok, the deal is a good way for the platform to reach a broad audience of different age groups who might not have downloaded the app yet. That could help push TikTok up further still from its current place as the third most-popular social media platform.

Unlike on the TikTok app there won’t be the original sound in the videos – Atmosphere mutes it or adds its own music. So sadly if you’re an artist with music in the TikTok library your music won’t be heard in your local doctor’s office.

But indirectly, if the deal pushes more people to download the app, that’s more TikTok users to potentially hear your songs on the platform. And it’s a lot more interesting than staring at a home shopping channel as you wait for your name to be called.

Wondering how to put your music on TikTok? Use RouteNote – it’s free! Find out more here.

TikTok beats Snapchat and Twitter becoming third most popular social network

Jacca-RouteNotein
Digital Video News

Image credit: Olivier Bergeron

TikTok follows behind only Facebook and Instagram as the biggest social network in the world.

TikTok has come to take over the world’s attention span and it’s doing a pretty good job, moving up the rankings yet again to make it into the top 3 of social platforms. It’s predicted that TikTok will surpass 1.5 billion total users in 2022 and its clear it’s not going anywhere, influencing even it’s largest competitors in the social sphere to change tact and explore the medium of short form, easily created videos.

The video sharing app burst onto the playing field just a few years ago following the success of spiritual predecessors like Vine and Dubsmash. In recent years it has taken the world by storm, particularly in a world on lockdown seeing monumental growth in popularity in the last 2 years. TikTok revenues grew 500% in Europe alone last year.

Now a new report from Insider Intelligence suggests that TikTok has overtaken both Snapchat and Twitter in their number of users globally. Looking at the number of monthly users (users who access TikTok at least once a month), they predict that TikTok will reach 755 million monthly TikTok users in 2022. This is 40.8% growth in 2021, following an incredible 59.8% of growth in 2020.

Insider Intelligence principal analyst, Debra Aho Williamson said: “The rise of TikTok is especially challenging for Snapchat, with which it competes head-to-head for the youth audience. Although TikTok does not share much similarity to Twitter, its massive size relative to the more-established platform is a clear reflection of the addictive nature of TikTok’s content.”

TikTok’s success does not go ignored by its competitors, most of which have followed their footsteps to launch an easy creation and sharing platform for short videos in their apps. YouTube have found huge success with Shorts, Instagram have been prioritising Reels more and more, Snapchat’s Spotlight offers their users short-form videos to explore, and even Twitter have been testing TikTok style content.

TikTok has had a huge cultural influence, taking the torch from YouTube which revolutionised the power of user-uploaded content to make it even easier with smartphones and a focus on short, snappy content. Using music as a backdrop to much of its content, TikTok has also had a massive influence on the music industry.

We’ve seen that TikTok can make an artist’s career blow up with the viral potential of the platform. It’s been seen time and again, with a single video capable of getting millions of views putting a song in front of millions of potential new listeners. With free distribution for artists to TikTok, we’ve seen our own artists collect millions of streams in recent years.

With the year coming to a close, you can see what one of the biggest culturally influencing platforms has been making popular with our list of the 10 top songs on TikTok in 2021. For an overall view of TikTok’s year and the content that’s made it so popular, check out the Year on TikTok, showing the top videos, music, trends, and more.

TikTok are testing a Repost button, but how can it help boost videos?

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

A new share options has appeared to some users on TikTok that seems to share a video to all of your followers with a single tap.

Spotted by Kev Adriano and shared by Matt Navarra, TikTok are testing a new Repost option under the share menu. Much like Retweets on Twitter, it seems Reposts are a public version of your likes, that appear in the Following and For You tab of your followers. Those that see the post can tap the comments section to see who shared it. Currently, reposts won’t appear in your profile. This area will be kept to your own videos only.

Image Credit: Kev Adriano

This feature is a great way to share videos with all of your friends at once and has the potential to significantly boost video metrics. Reposts aren’t available to all users just yet. TikTok will determine whether to fully roll out the feature depending on their test results.

In the meantime, get your own music on to TikTok for free and start generating revenue online.

YouTube Studio update the mobile app with comment filters, new analytics, monetization appeals, currency switching and refreshed icons

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Google

YouTube introduce new features and updates to the YouTube Studio mobile app, bringing it more in line with the desktop site.

The YouTube Studio app is the best way for creators to manage their channel while on the go. However until now, the app lacked many basic features on the desktop site. Last week, YouTube updated the Studio app making it easier to manage content while away from the computer. As the app is continually updated with new features, below are some of the top changes and tweaks to check out.

Click to download the app on iOS and Android. For existing users, head to your app store to perform any updates.

New Search Filters for Comments

First up, YouTube are bringing filters for comments to the Studio app. These make it easier to search for certain types of comments. Simply tap Comments in the navigation bar at the bottom, then set a filter using the buttons at the top of the screen. Available filters include:

  • Response status: have I already responded to this comment?
  • Contains question: does the comment contain a question?
  • Subscriber count: does the commenter have at least a certain number of subs?
  • Subscriber status: is the commenter publicly subscribed to me?
  • Member status: is the commenter a channel member?
  • Search: Do any comments contain a specific word I want to search for?
Image Credit: Google

New Analytics options in the Studio app

Previously only available on the desktop, YouTube are bringing helpful analytics information over to the mobile app. The new graphs and data will help creators access useful channel-level insights and monitor important information. To get started, tap Analytics on the navigation bar and scroll through all the different charts of information. You’ll find many familiar charts, as those below. YouTube says when introducing new analytics features and channel insights, they will be brought to both the desktop and mobile.

Image Credit: Google
Image Credit: Google

Mobile Monetization Appeals

For video monetization decisions that you disagree with, such as a yellow dollar icon for limited monetization instead of green, you can now appeal these right within the app. Once appealed, a human policy specialist will review the video and if appropriate, change the video’s monetization status. Tap Content, then tap a video with limited monetization, tap the yellow $ icon and select Request review.

Image Credit: Google

Currency setting now available for Revenue Metrics

You can now view Revenue Metrics in Analytics in your chosen currency, easier for those balancing payments and revenue in a variety of currencies. Analytics data was previously only available in $USD. Just tap your channel icon in the top right corner, choose Settings > Currency. This setting will change the currency for all users across desktop and mobile, who have access to your channel.

New Icons in YouTube Studio & a New App Icon

The new YouTube Studio app icon provides a fresh new look that’s more in line with other YouTube apps, such as YouTube Music and YouTube TV. Some of the icons in the app have also been updated for more visability on mobile, especially in dark mode.

Image Credit: YouTube

New Bottom Navigation Bar

There are now more icons in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, for easier switching between tabs. User have one-tap access to Dashboard, Content, Analytics, Comments and Playlists, rather than hidding icons behind the old three line menu in the top left.

Image Credit: Google

Still missing a key feature? Head to the comments section of this post to make suggestions.

RouteNote are partnered with YouTube to help creators get their music on Content ID, YouTube Music and YouTube Shorts for free.

TikTok introduce new features for creators such as GIFs in Green Screen, easy visual enhancements, voice effects and HD uploads

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: TikTok

The update brings GIPHY to the Green Screen effect, one-tap enhancements, musical and animal voice effects, and 1080p uploads to TikTok.

As one of the most popular social media apps in the world, TikTok provide users with eye-catching and entertaining content, and creators with easy and intuitive tools. Without any prior video editing or film-making knowledge, creators can express their creativity on the app. Last week, TikTok introduced even more tools to help creators.

GIPHY in Green Screen

TikTok’s Green Screen creative effect is one of the most used on the platform. TikTok have partnered with GIPHY to bring GIFs to the Green Screen effect, allowing you to select a GIF to apply as the background. This is an interesting partnership, considering Meta-owned GIPHY also owns one of TikTok’s top competitors, Instagram Reels.

Three screenshots showing how to use a GIF as your backdrop
Image Credit: TikTok

One-tap visual enhancement

A new Enhance button applies visual effects with a single tap, improving exposure, low-light performance and colour correction instantly. This should save time fine-tuning video edits before publishing. After uploading a video from the camera roll or shooting directly in the app, simply tap the Enhance button on the right panel. To undo the enhancements, just tap Enhance again.

How to activate one-tap visual enhancements
Image Credit: TikTok

New musical and animal voice effects

The latest update allows all creators to turn any sound or voice from videos into an animal or musical instrument. Currently, you can turn sounds into a cat’s meow, a flute or a suona melody. TikTok says they are developing the tool further to add more sound effects. To apply the new effect, record your video, on the Editing page, tap the Voice Effects button on the right panel, then choose one of the three new options to transform the audio in the video.

How to activate new musical and animal voice effects
Image Credit: TikTok

High Quality Uploading

Finally, TikTok are rolling out an option to upload videos in up to 1080p HD, giving your audience an optimized viewing experience. While the feature has been available to some users for several months now, high quality content is now available to more users in select countries. To publish videos in full quality, record or upload your video, on the Publishing page tap More options and toggle on the Upload HD setting.

@one37pm

#HowTo upload TikToks in HD! #contentking #hd #tiktoktip #hack

♬ Yes Indeed – Gypsy Woman Mix – Freddo

Did you know you can upload your own music to TikTok for free? Upload your music, start the next trend and earn revenue today.

YouTube Shorts announce new creator tools and launch the Shorts Fund in 70 new countries

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

YouTube brings creators new Shorts tools to desktop and mobile devices, plus expand their Shorts Fund to new regions around the world.

YouTube’s short-form video platform and TikTok competitor, Shorts now pulls in over 15 billion views per day. Now YouTube are launching new tools and helping more creators earn money on the platform.

Earlier this year, YouTube introduced a new Create button on eligible long-form YouTube videos. With a single tap, creators can sample up to 15 seconds of audio from the video. The original video creator will now be notified with a link to the Short, when one has been created from their videos. YouTube says only one notification will be sent per day and no more than three per week. Creators can view all of the Shorts created from their audio by clicking the pivot button in the bottom right corner of the Shorts player.

Rolled out over the coming weeks, a new card in YouTube analytics will show you how many Shorts have been created from your videos, plus a list of the most popular ones.

Image Credit: YouTube

Along with the new analtic tools, come new YouTube Shorts creation tools. The align tools, previously only on iOS, is now available on Android. When recording videos, the camera shows you a silhouette of the last frame of the previous video to help you align your subject from one frame to the next.

Image Credit: YouTube

There are also updates coming to the channel page on mobile devices. YouTube Shorts videos will be shown in a grid view, making it easier for viewers to find the Shorts they’re after. Creators can change how the grid is displayed on YouTube Studio on desktop. The new grid view looks very familiar to TikTok’s profile page.

  • Image Credit: YouTube
  • TikTok’s profile page

YouTube’s $100 million Shorts Fund is shared among some of the top creators in 2021 and 2022, with creators earning between $100 to $10,000 in a month. Launching in May in the US only, in September YouTube brought the Shorts Fund to over 30 addition regions. Now YouTube are further expanding the Fund to 70 new markets. Creators are notified if their content over the last month brough in enough views to qualify for the fund. They then have until the end of the month to claim their bonus.

YouTube notes that currently YouTube Shorts views do not count towards YouTube’s Partner Program eligiblity threshold, but this is an area they’re looking into. Subscribers gained from watching Shorts still count.

The full list of eligible requirements can be found here. The updated list of eligible countries and regions can be found below:

Algeria
American Samoa
Argentina
Aruba
Azerbaijan
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bermuda
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Cayman Islands
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica		Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guatemala
Guadeloupe
Guam		Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg		Macedonia
Malaysia
Malta
Martinique
Mayotte
Mexico
Montenegro
Morocco
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Northern Mariana Islands
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru		Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Republic of Ireland
Reunion
Romania
Russia
Senegal
Serbia
Singapore
Saudi Arabia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland		Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Turks and Caicos Islands
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
U.S. Virgin Islands
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zimbabwe

Find details on how to upload your own music to YouTube Shorts’ Audio Library.

How to embed your Instagram profile on your website

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Adam Mosseri

The latest update could be a great way to highlight the most recent six Instagram feed posts on your own website.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri hits socials with another video outlining the new features on and coming to Instagram. This week, updates include Instagram Playback, Reels Visual Replies and profile embeds. For years now, Instagram has made embedding photos and videos on your website super easy, just see below. Now, Instagram are expanding this feature to profiles, allowing you to embed a miniature version of your Instagram profile on your website. This is a more visually appealing way to show off your Instagram feed, rather than simply linking to it. You will be able to embed anyone’s account, not just your own, but the feature is launching just in the US to start.

Mosseri doesn’t show us exactly how embeding profiles works, but presuming it’s done in the same way as feed posts, we can expect to see the option under the three dots beside the username.

Did you know RouteNote make it easy to get your music on Instagram? This means you can uses and earn money from your music on Instagram Stories, Reels and Videos.

How to get the YouTube dislike count back

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Return YouTube Dislike

Missing dislikes on YouTube? This extension brings back an estimated dislike count and ratio, just like the good old days.

Last month, Google announced they were removing the YouTube dislike count, to the dismay of most of the internet. This is an issue as it removes the glanceable information that shows whether a video is worth your time. Luckily there’s an extension for that.

Return YouTube Dislike is a web extension for Firefox and all Chromium browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Opera and Brave. Head here for other unsupported platforms and third party implementation on jailbroken iOS.

So how does it work? Until earlier this week, Return YouTube Dislike used YouTube’s Data API to gather the dislike numbers and display them to users. All of this data was saved by the extension’s database. Now the dislike count is removed from the API, the extension displays a combination of archived dislike stats, estimates extrapolated from extension user data and estimates based on view/like ratio. For this reason, the dislikes displayed aren’t 100% accurate, especially on newer and small videos with limited data, however it’s the best you’re getting until YouTube bring back the dislike count… You may be waiting a while.

YouTube Rewind 2018's like to dislike ratio