Top 5 Livestream Platforms
Are you a podcaster searching for a promising platform to engage and interact with your audience at a deeper level? If yes, then live Streaming is your answer. It can take your story anywhere, and the solutions available will make the process easier for you. All you need is the right tools to help you achieve your goal.
The rate of live streaming has grown exponentially in the last five years, and it’s slowly becoming a necessity in every thriving business. Hence, more and more Livestream platforms are flooding the market, making it harder to distinguish the best tools from shiny objects. You need something that will allow you to add quality and value to your live videos.
KEY LIVE STREAMING STATISTICS
- The live streaming industry is believed to have reached
- $70 billion in 2021.
- 54% of live streaming content is about gaming/esports.
- Twitch is one of the biggest live streaming platforms with 30 million daily visitors.
- 80% of live stream viewers will watch a stream from a brand rather than read its blog.
- One Taobao streamer earned $49.7 million in one day.
- The live streaming market will grow to $223.98 billion by 2028.
- Twitch hosts 91% of streaming content in the market.
Here’s a look at the top five Livestream solutions that I’ve personally tried, along with their pricing strategies to help you make an informed choice on what will work best for you. Unlike most used over my live streaming journey.
ECAMM LIVE
When I landed at Ecamm Live, I already had experiences from different Livestream platforms. However, this one proved to be the best, and it’s still a winner for me. It’s an all-in-one live streaming solution with all features of a video production studio, but one thing that sets it apart from others is Mac-only compatibility. With Ecamm Live, you can easily create a professional live stream for your podcast or pre-produced videos right from your Mac. Now some would consider this a con because it doesn’t work on PC. However, on Mac, you can experience the full potential of what Ecamm Live has to offer.
You can also add customizable logos, titles, and graphics if you wish to, share the screen with your viewers, drop-in video clips, bring on interview guests, and so much more. A significant advantage that Ecamm Live has over the other streaming services are:
- Community: The Facebook Ecamm Live community is by far one of the best on the internet. The community is rooted in helping its members improve. You can practice your Livestream run of the show and receive instant feedback from the community; someone is always willing to assist you.
- Dynamic Improvements: The founders use the community to obtain feedback for improvements as most updates, and new features come from there. In the latest version, the software adds screen share overlays, rounded corners, borders, squircles, cropping, resizing, grouping, green screen key, and more— giving you full control of the design and look of your video content. Again, all these feature updates came from the community.
- Separate Audio Tracks: the video comes synced with their individual audio track, which is a great benefit as it allows you to clean the background audio while your guest is not speaking. For podcasters, the sound quality is a good as the mic you and your guest are using. However you can then pull these separate audio tracks into your DAW to you audio podcast from your livestream.
ECAMM LIVE PRICING
Currently, Ecamm Live pricing is offered at monthly and annual subscriptions under standard and pro plans. Standard goes for $20/month or $192/year, while Pro goes for $40/month or $384/year. Unlike other Livestream solutions, Ecamm Live does not have a free version, but you can get started with a 14-day free trial. No credit card or payment details are necessary.
STREAMYARD
Streamyard is a live streaming studio where you can easily produce shows and interviews and broadcast them wherever you want. Your viewers can watch on platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. This makes it easy for your audience to join your show on their phone browser using a link. They don’t have to download an app or anything. The best browser for iOS is Safari, and for Android, the Chrome browser is the best option. However, for the best possible outcome and viewer experience, it’s recommended for both you and your guests to use a laptop/desktop.
Just like other Livestream solutions, with Streamyard, you can create customizable logos, overlays, backgrounds, and any other graphics in programs like Canva or Figma. In addition, you can stream to multiple platforms simultaneously, record all your broadcasts in HD without going live and download the videos for editing if need be.
STREAMYARD PRICING
Unlike Ecamm Live, Streamyard offers a free version, but it’s limited to 20 hours of streaming per month, which is more than sufficient for those just beginning their livestream journey. Therefore, if you need more hours and features, you’ll need to upgrade. They offer basic and professional payable plans. Currently, the basic goes for $20/month with a 60% discount if you bill annually, while the professional plan goes for $39/month with a 120% discount when billed annually.
RIVERSIDE. FM
If you are considering starting live streaming your podcast, Riverside.FM might interest you. It’s a remote video and audio platform that makes it easy to record remote and live video interviews that look and sound like they have been recorded in the same room. It also
has built-in noise/echo canceling, making your videos more valuable. Personally, I loved the background noise reduction feature as it makes it easier for guests without external microphones to be heard.
Riverside is an excellent tool for anyone looking to record lossless audio and video tracks locally, independent of internet connection in podcasting. Like Ecamm Live, the video comes synced with their individual audio track, which is a great benefit as it allows you to clean the background audio while your guest is not speaking. Another exciting benefit is that Riverside.FM makes it very easy to get guests onboard on a shared screen using a single link.
Additionally, Riverside.FM can also record all your guests’ full HD tracks separately for the shared screen. Consequently, video quality is excellent, and many of the world’s largest media platforms, including Spotify, Marvel, and Verizon, rely on Riverside to make studio-quality recordings for interviews and shows from anywhere without losing quality.
Every Livestream solution has its own downside. For Riverside, the limitation I had experienced was that no matter how strong the internet connection is, during the livestream recording there appeared to some latency. The good news is that the latency does not show up on the audio or video recorded file, but it may throw off the cadence of a live video session.
RIVERSIDE.FM PRICING
Riverside.FM has a free trial, and you can start
your recording for free (only up to 60 minutes) or subscribe to a plan that suits your needs. Under paid plans, they offer a basic plan for $7.5/month, a standard plan for $15/month, and a pro plan for $24/month.
When you bill on a yearly basis, you get 2plus months free as a bonus.
OBS (OPEN BROADCASTER SOFTWARE) STUDIO
OBS Studio is a free and open-source Livestream platform that is Mac and Windows compliant. It provides features for real-time captures, encoding, recording, and broadcasting via the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) that makes screencasting and Livestreaming easy for you.
OBS Studio uses an open canvas approach that supports plug-ins to extend its functionality for creative video output and broadcast applications. It also has an inbuilt ability to stream to your custom RTMP server, which will allow you to live broadcast to your favorite destinations, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch. Their software is available for Windows, Linux, BSD, and macOS.
OBS presents its own problems as a free Livestream solution, and little can be done to improve. It has frequent updates, unexplainable bugs, and a high learning curve due to a lack of built-in features that make Livestream much easier.
Another thing that makes paid solutions better is support. Unfortunately, support can be an issue if you plan to use OBS for serious livestreaming. For instance, let’s say your show is scheduled to go live in two hours, and your OBS is crashing every time you boot it up. As a result, there is a good chance that your show will not take place. So, choose wisely; you always get what you pay for.
OBS STUDIO PRICING
OBS Studio is open-source software that can be downloaded and used for free. It comes with no pricing plans, and it’s 100% free with no limits for users.
As an unlimited time screen recorder, it will allow you to capture your video without worrying about time restrictions or watermarking on the final output. This is great software to start live streaming your podcast if you cannot afford a paid option.
FACEBOOK (FB) LIVE
Facebook Live is a Livestreaming option that is arguably the most well-thought social media live streaming solution available, and it’s seamlessly built into Facebook’s app.
You can easily start live broadcasting to your followers if you’re a Facebook user. You can also invite people that you want to join using a link. With FB Live, you can interact with your viewers in real-time and allow them to ask questions and react to your broadcast as it’s happening.
To go live, you just need to change your privacy settings to public, and your content will be accessible not only to your followers but also to other 1.65 billion Facebook users worldwide. In addition, unlike in other broadcast solutions, FB has no expiration on Live posts, and you can turn your podcast Livestreams into evergreen content, with Facebook video ads or living posts for your audience to view and engage with at any time. With over 5.7 billion views on live broadcasts, FB Live is proving to be the next channel for fruitful conversions and engagements.
FB live is free and accessible for all its users. You don’t need to pay for anything to get started. All you need is to use FB Live API and high-quality compatible cameras for live streaming to make it more professional.
FINAL WORD
I hope you have enjoyed this series on our top five Livestream Platforms. Live streaming your podcast is as important as choosing the right Livestream platform. If you have identified your Livestream solution, please feel free to share it in a comment. I wish you luck as you take your podcast work to the next level.
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