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Vlogging and streaming can provide sufficient monetization to avoid a day job. With gaming, you get to play top games and earn at the same time – the perfect dream sequence.
Every streamer has envisioned streaming to multiple platforms including Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Live/Gaming, and others while making enough of them to purchase the best gaming gear. However, it’s easier than done and will need some serious effort and hard work.
Multi-streaming/simulcasting will demand above-average network bandwidth from your network service provider and a powerful enough PC to handle high-end gaming and streaming.
This is what pros do and what you need to know more about!
So, can you stream to Twitch and YouTube at the same time? Yes. It will help you connect with a larger audience and effectively increase monetization multi-fold.
Of course, there’re substantial investments to be made unless you have the right desktop and equipment setup. But beyond that, you need to know the basics about simulcasting or multistreaming.
Multistreaming: Is it easy enough?
When a streamer uses more than one streaming platform to engage with their viewers, it is commonly referred to as Multistreaming or Simulcasting.
Live streaming is the best way to connect with and target the audience in real-time, using direct interaction and engagement to generate monetization on the go.
Advertisers and collaborators pay a hefty amount to streamers who have substantial viewers.
This live streaming industry is expected to grow at a 28.3% CAGR into a $247 billion industry by 2027.
This growth projection is prominent, given the number of individuals taking to streaming, either as the audience or the streamer.
In theory, one can get far more connections and monetization opportunities when streaming to multiple platforms.
But it’s a challenging task to organize and stream to multiple sites other than the technical expertise you also need to get it done right.
However, Simulcasting makes it easier, allowing a streamer to use a single live stream source and broadcast it to multiple streaming platforms.
Also Read: How to Use a Capture Card for Live Streaming?
How does Multistreaming Work?
Multistreaming or Simulcasting uses web-based software and cloud computing via a single software interface.
The stream recorded by a PC, generally with the help of a capture card, can be broadcasted to multiple platforms from a single video feed.
You can interact with viewers across different chats and platforms via the integrated chat feature provided by the software.
This may sound like a complicated process, but it is handled by the software if you know how to set up a stream.
Note that multistreaming is not always free and you may need to subscribe to certain software to use handy chat integrations from multiple platforms.
Multistreaming software generally offers dedicated servers along with other optimizations to help in streaming quality, chat integration, and more.
Note that top streaming software even comes with paid features where you can brand, transcode, and take advantage of chat integration to interact with viewers from multiple sites.
But should you invest in multistreaming?
Here are some reasons to help you contemplate why –
Maximizing your reach
Compared to live streaming on a single platform, multistreaming can maximize your outreach saving crucial time and effort needed to stream on every platform with varied content.
With multiple streaming platforms, you can reach out to a larger audience and scale your monetization goals better.
Answering comments from different channels
Even without a paid service, you can respond to the individual audience’s comments by changing to various platforms to read and respond.
Multistreaming software has a chat integration feature that can make it easier to control the audience.
Having aggregate chat on one screen can take away the stress of reading comments by changing platforms.
Alerts
Unlike asking your social media representative to post-event news online, multistreaming platforms can save you from the hassle of posting on multiple channels you intend to stream on. Social alerts will be automatically assigned to all the channels with one click using the multistreaming platform.
Best Multistreaming Platform to Stream on Twitch and YouTube at the Same Time
We have checked out the most popular multistreaming software around.
Here’s what we think about them, based on user reviews and some first-hand experience added in as well!
1. Restream
Pros
- Very User Friendly
- Excellent stream editing options via LiveStudio
- Stream to multiple sites for free
Cons
- Expensive for new streamers
- Dipping frame rates
This is a popular and feature-rich multistreaming platform.
Restream offers you advanced controls and integrations for chatting and other audience engagement options, even including API integrations. It allows you to integrate the chatrooms into your live streaming platform.
Its built-in live transcoding feature lets you convert your stream into different formats and qualities, all while streaming live.
This feature helps make the most out of the broadcast limitations of individual platforms such as Twitch, Facebook live, Discord, or YouTube Live.
Individual streamers starting with multistreaming do not need to pay anything. Restream has a free version with its brand logo on all your streams.
It doesn’t affect the new streamers, but established streamers with a larger audience should take their paid professional plan and have their own branding.
Pricing/Subscription
It costs $41 per month billed annually at $490 per year. There is no bandwidth limitation on this platform, although you cannot stream to more than six platforms in free versions.
Business users can get their premium business to dedicate products with more features and better support.
Support
Rated one of the best customer supports among all streaming services out there.
Refund Policy
You can initiate a subscription and cancel it within a 7-day period to get a refund. Note that you may need to connect with customer support.
Verdict
If you have the time and money, get started with Restream.io because sooner or later, you will be recommended to use it!
2. Switchboard Live
Pros
- Stream to multiple sites with a single input.
- Integrated performance tracking and analytics.
- Create stream reports.
Cons
- Limited streaming hours in the base plan
- Paid only service
- No APIs
Switchboard Live is an easy-to-use multistreaming platform with various powerful features and unique advantages. This software is not available for free anymore, although you have numerous subscription plans to choose from.
Although they offer a free trial without a credit card, which allows a user enough exposure to ascertain the need to purchase their service, their easy-to-use interface makes a mark on users.
They offer chat integration which can be used to effectively communicate with your audience across multiple platforms.
You also get transcoding capabilities to control the video and format for individual platforms. For monetization purposes, Switchboard Live offers a custom branding feature allowing you to stream different brands on different platforms with ease.
The downside of using this service is their pricing which has multiple restrictions.
You get three plans to choose from, but each one of them offers a limited number of multistreaming platforms, hours of streaming per month, maximum video quality you can stream, and watermarking capabilities.
Pricing/Subscription
Their base plan costs $35, the Pro plan costs $99, and the Business plan costs $ 350. Regular streamers can make use of quarterly and annual plans for additional discounts.
Check out Switchboard Live membership here.
Support
Responsive customer support is best only for troubleshooting software-related issues.
Refund
There ain’t one. So if you’re in it, you’ll have to pay up for a month.
Verdict
Despite no refund policy in place, Switchboard Live is quite affordable for beginners intending to take stream to multiple sites for some serious monetization. There’re enough features in it as well to keep them on it!
3. CASTR
Pros
- Free 7-day trial with a single stream
- Easy to set up and use
- Excellent list of features
- Best streaming service for social media platforms
Cons
- Dipping frame rates
- File size limits when pre-scheduling
CASTR is the latest service provider and they do offer almost everything for much less.
Unlike the other two platforms, there are no limitations on the bandwidth to streaming and there’s a trial period added in as well. Their only limit is the number of platforms you can stream to which does include the big three.
Perhaps the best feature it offers is cloud recording – virtually saving your live stream on the cloud.
CASTR offers other features as well including varied chat integrations so that you can make the most engaging interactions with the audience. With a simple user interface and tutorials, setting up your multistream is a breeze.
Apart from multistreaming, they also offer live streaming features. You get a pre-recorded live feature, no branding, unlimited cloud storage, and concurrent streams for much less than the previous two streaming services.
CASTR, however, lacks features in comparison to Restream and Switchboard Live – it is best suited for new users.
Pricing/Subscription
Can you stream to Twitch and YouTube at the same time with Castr? Yes, if you get the Multistream Plus to pack for $14.99/month or higher.
For $39.99, you can stream on 5 simultaneous platforms or multiple pages.
Check out all Castr subscriptions here.
Support
Castr has perhaps the best customer support among live-streaming apps, as good as Restream and even better – 24/7 and highly responsive.
Refund
All purchased subscriptions are non-refundable which is understandable considering that they do offer a trial period.
Verdict
Castr is perfectly suited for beginners, helping them gain multistreaming know-how and experience very affordably.
Can You Multistream for Free?
Multistreaming is entirely possible on your computer without any software or devices, but it comes at a cost.
By cost, we do not mean money but higher internet upload speeds and superior computer performance. Even the dedicated streaming PC build can face lagging and dropped frames while streaming to two different platforms.
Understand that live streaming requires your PC to run the game on one hand and record the video and audio of the game while streaming it on the other, simultaneously. If this is not hard enough, streaming to 2 platforms will demand even more computing power.
A vital factor to consider is your internet bandwidth, other than whether your gaming PC is up to the task in the first place!
A general rule of thumb for live streaming is to use 70% of internet upload speed only.
So, if you have a max 12 Mb per second of upload speed, avoid using more than 9 Mb per second for uploading. But that’s not the whole story.
Twitch supports up to 1080P live streaming @ 60 fps. While YouTube supports up to 4k @ 60 fps, requiring a very high internet upload speed to successfully multistream on your own.
Let’s suppose in a fair case you are uploading to both Twitch and YouTube @ 1080P and expecting 60 fps.
You would need at least 23 Mbps of internet upload speed. If you have the necessary bandwidth from your internet service provider and a powerful computer that will need less than 40% of its processing for 1 stream @ 1080P, you’re good to go.
If not, you would need multistreaming/simulcasting software and a powerful gaming PC at the very least.
How to use OBS Studio to Multistream?
Before you go ahead, make sure to have a high enough network bandwidth before starting the actual stream. You can even try a test stream to ascertain the success in a real attempt.
- After Starting the OBS studio, click on Settings.
- Select the Stream tab and choose your first destination as Twitch (or the streaming platform of your choice.)
- Select the Output tab below the stream tab and select the output mode to advanced.
- Click on the recording tab and select Output to URL option in FFmpeg Output Type.
- Now visit your YouTube live studio, copy your stream URL and paste it into the File path or URL tab.
- Add a / to the pasted URL and return to YouTube live account to copy the stream key (URL/stream key.)
- Paste this stream key into the File Path or URL tab after the pasted URL.
- Click on start streaming and start recording option to stream on both destinations.
This way, the original stream is broadcasted to the Twitch channel, and recording is broadcasted on to the YouTube Live account.
Note: Twitch should be used as the original stream. Otherwise, the steps will change.
Conclusion
Live streaming these days is not just limited to Twitch. There are many new streaming platforms including Facebook Live and YouTube Live that offer a different set of audiences.
In a time where restrictions have affected engagement, somewhat positively for gaming, multistreaming offers a great way of interacting or presenting your content to users of many other streaming platforms, dedicating individual time to each of your subscriber base. Monetization is easier, provided you’re offering good content!
The best time to start off is now!
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