I don’t use many services, but there are many of them out there. Try doing a search for “video streaming services” or “video streaming protocol”. Here’s a decent list of possible options to look into: List of streaming media systems - Wikipedia
The most recent one I used is Vimeo, and I was pleased with it.
I have no idea. They all seem to be accessible. They each have their own statistics, and I prefer to deal with the technical side of things.
Then people are creating their own problem. Your term “prevalent” is rather telling, to prevail is to win a contest. If you actually want a prevalent service, then you get to deal with precisely these kinds of shite companies. It’s the digital equivalent of requiring everything you to buy to be at Wal-Mart, because you can’t possibly be bothered to go elsewhere. Like a guy told me at Home Depot told me once, “If we don’t have it, you actually don’t need it.” To which I replied with choice words! If they feel that everybody is boxed into their service, then that’s the treatment we get. I don’t need a company or service which has a fat head for “beating” others, I need one which can do what I need done, which can satisfy my criteria.
This sounds rather crass to me. Meaning is based upon communication, and as such doesn’t have anything to do with pushing for quantity over quality. One of the principles of general semantics is that true communication is only possible between equals. A browser and content provider on YT might have a similar power balance to each other - but not to YT itself - at least according to YT terms and practices. It’s worth avoiding for the same reason as music labels, because their pimps deal amounts to controlling your distribution.
There’s also the somewhat separate problem of artistic egoism, the notion that it somehow matters how many people are interested in your work. It might be more factual to suggest that it doesn’t matter at all. Anything not worth doing for its own sake probably doesn’t really need to be done. The art/media world attracts many interesting, but unfortunately, also often vain people.
Hopefully, someday, people will realize that the internet need not be about “one stop shopping”, and that people can actually stream content themselves, without any help. At least people wised up sufficiently to create content on their own, without institutional backing. But it seems they are getting fooled into assuming that they cannot distribute their own work without the help of dinosaurs, which is sad and not even remotely true.
Perhaps you do. I was guessing that you were baiting me, and were going to dismiss anything I suggested as being “too inconvenient”, even more so than abusive corporate cartels.
