Welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator Podcast.
Tonight we're actually going to look into the live streaming platforms.
I know we've talked about this before in the past, but it kind of bears repeating that
since with the recent changes of Twitch and YouTube and basically those are two main platforms
that people think of when live streaming topic comes up, that you know, alternatives are
out there that are probably be better for you or your content creation journey.
So let's actually talk about that.
Let's look into Twitch.
Twitch has made some recent changes, some for the good, some for the bad,
and there is a lot of misinformation, a lot of things that certain people might be misconstrued
about what Twitch is and what it can do for you.
Recently, Twitch had, well actually let me backtrack.
The CEO of Twitch, Dan Clancy, had released a blog post or you know, the roadmap for 2025.
And one of the bits in there was a section for monetization for all.
Now, if you're a live streamer on Twitch, you might have seen where, oh, the push for
affiliate or the push for partner.
And that's great and all and you know, people do get their push to partner and after they
get that, then well, what's going to happen is that their views are just going to fall
off a cliff and they'll be disappointed with themselves and what is going on.
They don't understand exactly how things are going.
With the monetization for all is that in the blog post says that they'll be putting in
an implementation that a new account for Twitch will get monetization for pretty much day
one.
And this is for bits and subs.
Bits are kind of like the, you're exchanging real life currency for digital ones that you
can give to streamers and you know, get little things that pop up on a screen or subscribe
to your favorite live streamer for what, $6 a month or so.
And then the streamer gets anywhere from 50% if they get a lot of subscribers, they get
like, was it 70 or 60% of it.
So there's a lot of pushing to get monetization for a lot of people and the great majority
of the live streamers on Twitch don't have the concurrent numbers that can make it very
profitable for them to go full time.
Now I'm not saying that what they're doing is wrong.
It's just the nature of Twitch.
You as a single live streamer, single person going up against thousands or hundreds of
thousands, millions of other creators that are doing pretty much almost doing the same
thing that you are and trying to get discovered in Twitch and discovery.
It doesn't really go hand in hand really.
There is no discoverability as per se as you see on like YouTube or anywhere else.
So the sea that they're pushing, or I should say Twitch is pushing for monetization to
be associated to every account on the platform is in of itself a good thing, but it could
also lead to a bad thing because it'd be more people say, Oh, I can stream on Twitch and
become famous and rich and it's just not going to happen.
And then they're going to get within a month or two that sinking realization that, Oh,
this is not working out for me and no quit.
Unfortunately that happens a lot per every day throughout the year.
So it's just one of those things that happens.
Now there are alternatives to live stream platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
I put YouTube into the mix too, because there is a capability for live streaming on your
YouTube channel.
Is it any better than Twitch in some aspects?
Yes.
The video player is miles above Twitch.
Like you can start joining a live stream on YouTube and rewind it to the beginning and
catch up by doing a one and a half or two times speed to get up to the point where it
is now live.
So you can do that on Twitch, but it's so convoluted.
It's a mess really.
Like you have to click on the person's profile picture, go to video, go to broadcast, click
on that, then go back.
And it only goes up to where you actually started from.
So it's, it's, it's not good.
Let's just say, let's say that at the least for live streaming.
If you know me and have watched the podcast or any of my other videos, you know, I am
a big advocate for owncast.
Owncast is a free open source platform that allows you to pretty much take control of
your live streaming journey.
It is, you installed it on your infrastructure, your own hardware, or if you rent it from
like Hetzner or Digital Ocean, or you have it in your closet, you can easily put the
owncast software on that hardware and stream from your computer to that software or to
that server.
And then people can join in and participate with chat and watch your stream.
And you have full, full outright control over it.
So what do you mean by owncast?
Owncast is, like I said, it's free open source.
There, there is really no minimum what kind of software or I should say server hardware
that you can put this on.
There have been people putting this on a Raspberry Pi and successfully running their, their streams
on it.
Now, is it going to get the high quality?
Maybe not.
It's, it's all dependent on the hardware that you have that gives you the resolution that
you want to stream at.
So if you're on a Raspberry Pi, you might get maybe a 480 or 720 stream because that
encoding broadcast is not data heavy as much as say like a 1080p or 1440.
So your mileage may vary, but going into it, owncast, like I said, it offers you so much
that it's, it's pretty much limitless depending on how you want to use it.
It is by its nature.
It is not what I, what I refer to as a multi-channel streaming platform like Twitch or YouTube.
This is more geared for the single channel, you creating your own, your own content and
sharing it out to the world right now.
And there is, you get, like I said, it's completely free.
It's free open source software.
There are a lot of people that contribute to it.
There's easy ways to download.
There is a one-click installer on, if you use Hetzner, which down below, I have a link,
an affiliate link to a Hetzner setup.
You can try that out for yourself and, you know, get a owncast running within like 10,
15 minutes and you're ready to go.
Now I do also have a video as well.
It'll have that linked as well in the description down below and it just show notes.
But let's say that you don't want to go through the hassle of setting up a server or installing software.
Well, that's okay because you know, there are other options out there for a multi-channel streaming platform.
That is an alternative to Twitch and YouTube.
And one of those is Beam.
Beamstream is a new up and comer that within, oh, less than a year now,
they have set themselves up as a, I'm not going to say free because they do not offer a free plan.
That's a caveat.
They have two different tiers or two different ways that you can stream on their platform.
One tier is you pay $3.95, let's say $4 a month to stream to your channel on Beam.
There's also another tier or another option that you can have your channel be sponsored by a company.
I stream to Beam as well.
I have it set up to use or is sponsored by Logitech G.
Now, do I get any of the money?
No, it's just basically they had set it up that these companies are subsidizing you to stream on Beam.
And one thing that Beam does quite well is the multi streaming or yeah, the multi-platform streaming capability.
So you can stream to Beam and that stream can be sent to Twitch, Trovo, YouTube, and many other different places.
Like a lot, I think they have at least 30 to 40 places that you can stream or restream your stream.
I know I'm saying stream a lot in this stream.
So yeah, you can use this as a free alternative to Restream.
Sorry, which Restream is the same exact infrastructure or I should say the same type of company.
Not really a company.
I don't know what I'm trying to say here.
But anyways, Restream takes your stream that you give them and then they split it out into other places.
So it's kind of the easier way instead of you yourself streaming from your computer to four or five different places,
you stream it to one and then they take that one stream and send it off to four or five different places.
Now, you can create an account.
It's free to watch streams on Beam.
And this is at beamstream.gg.
And the underlying company that is doing this is that they provide this service to provide, like I said, an alternative to like Twitch.
But they also have it where you can provide an easier method for people to watch your stream from different other places.
And which is great because it provides a service completely free of charge for viewers, not for streamers.
Like I said, you have to pay or get it sponsored by, you know, another company.
Is the service okay?
Yeah, it's fine.
It's perfectly doable.
And they offer the studio option, which you would normally see like on the Twitch creator dashboard is very similar.
It's more streamlined.
They don't offer analytics as much as say Twitch or even anywhere close to what you get from YouTube.
But there is a lot of things that they're coming out with different features that they're slowly implementing into your accounts.
Like I said, this is relatively new.
It's a new service that they've been working on for a long time.
And I think within the past year they released and, you know, they're working as hard as they can and making sure that the stream that people are watching are the best that they can provide.
So, Beamstream is an alternative and it's a great alternative really, because again, like I said, it offers a multi streaming capability.
So, if I were to go in that route, I would definitely look into checking out Beam.
Now, another option is another up and comer, which is Moonbeam.
Now, I don't have an account into Moonbeam because right now they're in their alpha phase of testing.
Actually, I had covered going over Moonbeam, was it last summer?
And what they're coming up with is basically taking elements of Discord and combining it with live streaming.
In a way that is a better implementation than what Trovo did.
Trovo tried to be a Twitch competitor, but then wanted to add in a Discord capability as well.
And later down the line, Moonbeam is basically taking that concept and doing it from the start.
So, they're building on creating a space for your community to live that also implements a live streaming capability as well.
So, they have different, what I call servers.
There are different community spaces for you, your live streaming, your community to live.
And for people who want to be part of your community can be like that as well as a Discord server.
So, I'm going to wait until they get into beta and eventually.
Last I've heard that they're actually, their testing, their alpha testing is going really, really good.
So, they might go into beta sooner than they thought.
Or, you know, the testing phases are going really good because they're moving along with how everything is working.
So, I expect to see Moonbeam fully out for the public probably, if I want to take a guess, this summer, maybe by the end of the year.
Which would be really great and we'll definitely cover all the information, all the features and stuff like that, that is available to you on Moonbeam.
Another choice that you have for a multi-channel live streaming platform is SharePlay.
Now, SharePlay is also another up and comer.
They've been around for, oh, let's say about two years now, really.
They really haven't done much, being truthfully honest.
They have opened up in a beta phase that you can easily get access to if you want to stream to SharePlay.
But, the issue is, is that the circle of content creators that, you know, stream to SharePlay is very, very, very, very tiny.
Like right now there seems to be only two people streaming on SharePlay right now.
I'm just looking at their website if you're listening on audio.
And right now they only got two people are streaming to the entire platform right now, which is not to say is a bad thing.
It is okay.
It's just that, to be truthfully honest, is that SharePlay, I don't want to be like a Debbie Downer, but it just seems to be that they're not doing much of anything, really.
I've been part of SharePlay for over a year now, almost two years.
And at the beginning, during the alpha phase, there had a lot of stuff coming in.
Say, hey, we're putting in this new feature or we're doing a test that running these streams and stuff like that.
They seem to be more engaged with the community a while ago.
And now lately it's just kind of just plateaued.
And truthfully, I don't think that it is a viable alternative.
It is an alternative, but it's something that you have to take that into consideration.
Really, it is a platform that is there and is available.
And there is a small community that is dedicated to it.
And that's pretty much it.
I hate to say this, but that's pretty much it for SharePlay.
There really isn't much more I could say that they're growing leaps and bounds every quarter.
And just definitely check it out.
But if you want to look for a community that is very, very tiny, I would definitely give SharePlay a try.
Definitely join their Discord server because that's about the only place that you can get an invite link or get into their beta phase is by going through their Discord server and going through the process there.
So I'll have all the links to these places in the description and the show notes on this episode.
Now, going back to the free open source software side of things, PeerTube does offer a live streaming capability.
Now, PeerTube is, I like to call it like a jack of, what was it?
Was it a jack of all trades, master of none?
They are very good in providing free software to run a video hosting platform.
Their live streaming capability, while functional, is temperamental, I should put it nicely.
There have been many times.
There's other people who would probably proclaim it to be as well, to be very temperamental when live streaming to a PeerTube instance or channel or whatever it is now platform.
If you're streaming to a PeerTube platform, your live stream might suffer from dropouts on the occasion or it's a stutter or just, you know, just as a lower quality of enjoyment, really.
On occasion, it depends.
This is very big if depends on the server hardware that the PeerTube platform is sitting on.
That's what I can break it down to is the software of itself is very, very good.
I mean, you're not going to find any alternative platform, any alternative software from like YouTube and Vimeo than PeerTube because they do, like I said, video hosting perfectly fine.
Transcoding is great.
Hosting it is awesome.
It's sharing on the Fediverse.
It's just has a lot of things that go in for it.
The live streaming capability is there.
Again, it's temperamental.
And again, is if you're on an instance, if a hosted instance, if you're not on your own, but somebody who's hosting it and they are allowing you to live stream, there are some caveats depending on how many live streams are available to be live streamed at the same time.
Again, it's all depending on your server infrastructure and the hardware that it's sitting on.
So I'll give PeerTube, how would I rate is Onecast, Beam, and PeerTube, and then SharePlay.
I can't put Moonbeam in there because I don't have any experience with as a viewer or as a streamer myself into it.
But that's how I would rate being Onecast is at the top, which provides a great infrastructure and a great platform to, and it's also connected to the Fediverse as well, which once you start your live stream, it automatically posts out a post on Macedon or the ActivityPub system.
And you can do that with PeerTube as well, where you can copy and paste and say, "Hey, I'm live streaming here as well."
I know there are a few people who do implement PeerTube as a live streaming source for people to watch them besides, you know, Twitch or YouTube or anything, places like that.
It's unfortunately that the side of things for PeerTube for live streaming is not, I don't want to say it's not caught up.
It's just not as the forefront of FromSoft, which is the developers of PeerTube is their focus on is making a video hosting platform as best as it can be.
It's just tacked on live streaming because people were asking about it because they were thinking of PeerTube as an alternative to YouTube, which to be fair is an option.
It can be viewed as an alternative to YouTube, but as a live streaming, I would go into it with some trepidation and just understanding that the PeerTube side of the PeerTube stream might just crap out within like during a live stream.
So just have that in the back of your mind.
So, reason why I wanted to go over these options, these five options here is that, again, live streaming is not just, you know, Twitch and YouTube.
It is, you know, these other options as well.
And I would highly suggest for people to at least give these places a try. Check them out. Give them, you know, about a month or two as a viewer yourself just to, you know, experience what is available for you besides the, you know, the usual Twitch and YouTube.
Because as I said at the beginning, Twitch is making a lot of changes and some of them are a good thing, like the monetization for all.
Sometimes decisions are made that are not a good thing. So it's just one of, it's just something that you have to have in the back of your mind to be, be, be aware of what is going on in the world of live streaming.
And just don't blindly leave yourself in a all your eggs in one basket type of situation because there, I myself and countless other people have done that before.
We've gone through platforms dying off with, let's say Mixer, when that whole debacle came through and, and so many people were left looking around like, what do I do now? Where do I go?
And then, okay, we'll go into Trovo or all is another place called Glimish. Glimish had its great promise, but was plagued by mismanagement.
And again, this, the service and the platform shut down. And again, those people who were using it as a egg in one, all in one basket kind of thing were left yet again, looking around and trying to figure out what to do.
So keep that in the back of your mind is you have a game plan going forward. Is that, do you have a plan B? Do you have a plan C just in case Twitch can be shut down?
It's, there is no too big to fail. Twitch has the capability to be turned off. Amazon can be like, just one day it's like, yeah, you guys are not making us any money.
We're losing so much money and turn off the lever and Twitch is done. And again, there's going to be hundreds of thousands of millions of streamers looking around. Where do I go?
Do I just give up streaming? I don't know. So this is why I wanted to bring to light that there are other options out there and just have that in the back of your mind.
So if you enjoyed this, this particular episode, or if you have any questions or comments, definitely let me know in the comments down below, or join our forums at twotonewaffle.forums or .forum, I should say.
I have all the links down below. And with that, have a good night and I'll see you on the next episode. Later taters.
Later taters!
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