Questions!
Twitch? Mixcloud? YouTube? What about Vimm? Or even ALL of them!
Greetings fellow Hivians and Happy Tuesday!
I started live streaming around 12 months ago and started building up a following on Twitch playing weekly on Friday nights (replacement to going out during lockdowns?!).
However, when I started my weekly Brixton Radio show, I switched to Mixcloud because that's what they used. Mixcloud has mostly been fine, but I've had several people report that they miss me being on Twitch - either because of the notification they get when I go live or because it's just a better App to use and watch on.
Mulitstreaming
Anyway, I'd been aware of restream.io for some time - but been put off by the free version stating that it would include their branding. However, Brixton Radio just started their own Twitch channel and streaming to it using restream.io and reported that there didn't seem to be any obvious branding (certainly not a watermark in the video anyway).
So, last night I plunged in and dual streamed to both Brixton Radio's Mixcloud, and my Twitch account. No obvious Restream branding and the handful of people who tuned in on Twitch seemed to like it.
The only negative I found was that although restream.io seems to support putting the chat for all platforms in one window (either in OBS or in their online dashboard) - that feature didn't seem to work for Mixcloud so I had to monitor two chat windows - do-able from my studio I think, though not appealing if I'm playing on location.
Free vs Paid Restreaming?
I have seen other people's YouTube streams with "Powered by Restream.io" in the stream description - so perhaps I'm just lucky in that my chosen two platforms didn't support Restream setting that. Even then, what I've seen is just text and not in the video so could live with that.
That being said, I'm not totally opposed to paying for one of the premium packages on restream.io or similar - it's currently $16 a month (billed yearly) for the standard edition which would give me the option to stream to an extra channel on one platform (so I could stream to Brixton Radio's Twitch as well as my own for example).
I also like the idea of being able to play pre-prepared videos - for the odd occasion where I'm on holiday so I could pre-record a set rather than broadcast live - that would require the $40 a month plan though which seems like a big jump.
So what next?
Should I add YouTube as well or do you think I should focus on 1 or 2 streaming platforms?
Twitch in particular has some cool features allowing automation (I've seen people with chat bots that allow their viewers to alter their lighting!). And I've just been made aware of Vimm here on Hive - sadly restream.io doesn't support that natively it seems so in the short term that would need to be a completely separate show.
What about you!
- What platform would you ideally like to watch musicians streaming on?
- Have you any experience of restream.io or multistreaming?
- If so, how did you handle interacting with multiple audiences live?
- Have you tried Vimm and should I just get on the Hive solution ?!
All thoughts much appreciated - for me I really enjoy creating electronic music live and just want people to be able to tune in and engage in the way most convenient for them!
For now I'll leave you with a 1 minute snippet from last night's show:
You can also listen to the full set on Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/brixtonradiolive/tdc-tunes-brixton-radio-200921-20210920-200038/
And if Twitch is more you thing I'm here:
Thanks for your thoughts and I'll see you soon on Hive and one or more streaming platforms soon!