The YouTube channel without a playlist resembles a library, where books on mathematical analysis, adventurous detectives, romance novels and explanatory dictionaries are piled on the same shelf in a mess. No matter how interesting and unique the information collected in such a repository may be, few people will want to sort through dozens of unnecessary files in search of one particular genre. It is not surprising that users have a chance to gain popularity only when they think about how to create a playlist on YouTube and not spend a lot of time and effort on organizing their videos. This task is quite simple and does not require special skills, despite several nuances that need to be considered when designing a channel on different devices.
What is a playlist and how is it convenient
A playlist is a list of videos in which files are collected by a specific criterion, and from which any video can be viewed without going to the channel itself. On YouTube, a playlist can be created not only for your own clips. Any video you like is easily added to the playlist, and the number of such lists is not regulated in any way. They are also convenient because after watching the video, the next one turns on automatically. And this increases the likelihood that the viewer will watch more than one video in a row and, having become interested, will subscribe to the channel.
How to create a playlist on YouTube
So, let's get down to business. Before you create a playlist on YouTube, you can add several videos and immediately distribute them by topic. And you can, on the contrary, first make a few playlists and only then get to fill the channel. In order to start working with the channel structure, you must go to the "Creative Studio". There are 2 ways to do this:
- Press the button at the top of your own channel.
- Hover over your login in the upper right corner of the site and select the link "Creative Studio" in the drop-down list.
On the left is a block of available functions. In the "Video Manager" tab, select the "Playlists" link and click on it. On the page that opens, all playlists will be displayed in the future. Click on the “Create a playlist” button at the top of the page and enter a name in the window that appears. Select one of the access options:
- "Open access". Playlist can be viewed by all users.
- "Access by reference."
- "Limited access". Only those whom you specify in the settings will be able to watch videos from this playlist.
After that, click the "Create" button. The playlist is ready.
Create a playlist on iPad
If the process of creating a new video collection in a browser is almost intuitive, then for iPad users, the question of how to create a playlist on YouTube is quite acute. In this application, all the user's playlists are displayed on the main page, but the buttons for generating a new playlist do not seem to exist.
The secret is that the application for the iPad does not provide the ability to create "empty" playlists. This can only be done by adding a new video. Before creating a new playlist on YouTube, open the search bar or one of the existing collections and turn on any video. Click on the Share button and select the "Add to playlist" function from the offered list. The application will prompt you to select a playlist in which the video will be placed, or create a new one. It is on this key (it is located at the very top of the pop-up window) that you need to click. Now it remains only to enter the name of the new playlist and confirm the action.
YouTube on an Android device: how to create a playlist
There are applications for Youtube on all modern smartphones, and many prefer to watch clips and even movies not on a computer, namely on such portable gadgets. There are many reasons: a convenient interface, automatic screen orientation, the ability to use transport. The irony is that not all functions of a mobile application are well-known. So, not everyone knows how to create a playlist on YouTube for Android and whether this is possible in principle. The good news: it is possible, moreover, it only takes a few seconds.
The principle of action is simple:
- Open any video.
- When the video starts playing, touch your finger on a random spot on the screen.
- After that, a list of playlists will appear, invisible the rest of the time. You will be prompted to add the video to your favorites (or to another collection), set aside for later viewing, or create a new playlist.
- Click on the New playlist link and enter a name in the field that appears.
- And to complete the action, click OK.
The selected video will be placed in the created playlist. After it can be deleted or added to one or more playlists.
How to add a video to a playlist
Some users know how to create a playlist on the YouTube channel, but don’t know how to add video to it. When you go to the playlist, a list of already downloaded videos is displayed, but the download button is not displayed. To see it, you need to click on “Change” or the pencil icon, then on the page that opens, click on the “Add Video” button. For other people's videos, the principle is almost the same. You must click the "Add to playlist" button and select the appropriate collection from the drop-down list.
Playlist settings
After creating a playlist, you may need to change the name or access settings. This is not difficult to do. To get started, go to the video manager and open the tab with your playlists. Select the playlist you want to edit. Click on the “Change” button with the image of a pencil (it is located below, under the playlist icon).
In the window that opens, several functions will be available:
- change the name of the collection;
- share a link to a playlist in any of the social networks;
- Add new video
- delete the playlist (to do this, click on the three vertical dots on the right side of the page and select the desired action in the drop-down list);
- Add a short description.
In addition, by clicking on the "Playlist Settings" button, you can edit the working conditions of the playlist:
- configure access;
- choose a method for sorting videos (by popularity, by time of addition, by publication date or manually);
- Specify a collaborator with the right to add videos to this playlist.
- Select options to automatically add clips to the playlist.
The latter function is not well known to anyone, however, turning it on is as easy as creating a playlist. On YouTube in 2017, a lot of videos were added, not to mention the video of past years. View them all, not everyone has the opportunity. By clicking on the "Auto-add" link in the channel settings, you can specify a new rule for searching files: tag, name or phrase in the description. All videos containing this marker will be added to the collection without your intervention. Then they can be moved to another place in the list or simply deleted.