A YouTube playlist is a list of videos that are compiled by users in order to be played in the sequential, ascending order by which the videos are added. The videos usually come from other YouTube users and are usually compiled for any theme that the creating user may desire; multiple playlists can be created by a single user/channel, and users can subscribe to a playlist without having to subscribe to the user/playlist creator account.
Playlists were first introduced to YouTube in 2008 after YouTube's groups were removed from in-site search indexing. Groups were previously used as a means to collaboratively add relevant videos to a common group pool of videos. However, playlists continue to lack the collaborative adding of videos. Playlists have a limit of 5,000 videos. This includes liked videos, watch later & favorites. However, all of the data in liked videos get saved and won’t be removed, as it will only remove it from the playlist.
Playlists as shows[]
Featured or sponsored playlists are designated as "shows" as of 2009. These are usually paid for by content producers in order to show full episodes of series, including syndicated television series, pre-broadcasted shows and web originals.
Competitors[]
Since the introduction of playlists to YouTube, competing video hosting sites have also added similar features to their sites.
- In 2009, Vimeo.com released a "channels" feature in which users can group their own videos into specific sequential collections for playback.
- In 2009, Veoh.com released a "channels" or "collections" feature which accomplishes similar goals.
However, other sites' implementations don't allow users to compile playlists which include the videos of other users.
Auto-generated playlists[]
Auto-generated playlists for channels can be found by changing /channel/ to /playlist?list= and the UC in the URL to one of the following prefixes
| Prefix | Playlist name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UU | Uploads by [channel name] | All uploads by a channel |
| UUSH | Short videos | Videos tagged as YouTube Shorts |
| UUM | Members-only videos | Videos only available to channel members |
| LL | Liked videos | Videos liked by the channel. Now private |
| FL | Favorites | Playlist for liked videos on older channels. Unlike 'liked videos' playlist, theses are not private |
See also[]
- Group
- Search
- RSS
External Links[]
- Playlists on your account
- Search for playlists
- Making a playlist from YouTube help
- Making a playlist on eHow