Why Vimeo is the best place for artists to share video (part 1)

To save you loads of time, let me explain why Vimeo is the best video sharing community for artists. In my next few blog posts I will explain why Vimeo is great, why the other sites stink, and then tell you about how you can meet other artists & share your work on Vimeo.

See Part 2: Tips for making artist videos for Vimeo

See Part 3: Connecting with artists through Vimeo

You can share your video on Practice.ie, but we can't host the files here. We recommend you host your video externally, and then post the link to + Add Video to your project. We never explained why we chose to focus on Vimeo.

Vimeo is hands-down the best place for artists to share videos. If you're working with kids, there's a bonus, because it's a family-friendly place too, where you can inspire your students with new ideas.

Doing some stop-motion animation with kids? There's a great Stop Motion & Animation group. Check out this fun clay-mation video below. Finding something of this quality is relatively easy on Vimeo, but would take ages on YouTube.

What makes Vimeo so great for artists?

To explain why, I took a look around to see some comparisons. Mike Carrall over at StarSilverCreek did a survey of the different video sharing services (specifically for high-definition hosting). He says the most important when choosing a service is your goal. And if you're an artist wanting to share your video with a creative community... Vimeo is the spot, the artists' hangout, and the community has been growing.

Vimeo has always been known for the technical quality of the video encoding (they way it compresses down your video so people can watch it online), but Vimeo has always had the more restrictions on file sizes and how much space you can upload. But, hey, you're a busy artist, how many videos do you think you'll upload in a year? Most reviews I read point out that Vimeo wins on community, and this is important.

Clear community guidelines

The Vimeo community guidelines enforced by members and administrator make the space a bit cleaner than other places online.

"I hope to get more artists from YouTube to Vimeo because Vimeo offers a superior outlet and has attracted a more mature audience. Hope Vimeo stays this way," said Reginald Primrose in his group 'Artist Showcase' on Vimeo.

Of the categories on Vimeo, art has the most groups, with currently 310 groups. (oh! make that 311 after the one we made today ;) The next category in size is film with 277. That's pretty good. Blip.tv is another great video sharing site. Yet Blip.tv attracts more business-y, commercial ventures. (Vimeo does not allow commercial advertising videos)

Mike Carrall argues that YouTube can get you the largest audiences. But are they the right audiences for your videos? I always warn people that YouTube is 'in the bad part of town'. You're only 3 clicks away from something... quite dangerous. I've embarrassed myself in training classrooms doing a quick search on YouTube and seeing some freaky things in the sidebar. And it's full of, well... junk. I know that everyone is familiar with YouTube, hard to argue with that. Maybe I'm betraying some snobbery here, but I think this is part of what makes Vimeo better: it's a niche community.

Considering the people behind Vimeo are artists and filmakers, this explains why it's grown this way.

Join us!

In my next two posts, I'll share some tips on making a video, and then give you a tour around the place and invite you to join us on Vimeo in our new group for artists who work with kids.

Artist Julie Forrester (a Practice.ie member) is using Vimeo with her young artists too. Their Sodacake Wedding video even won a prize for Most Innovative Film in the junior category at the recent Fresh Film Festival! (from the SodaCakeVille blog) Congratulations are in order :)

• Do you need some help on using Vimeo?
• Are you already a member? What's your username?