So let me lead with this: TWITCH.TV IS AWESOME!!!
Ok, now that we got that out of the way, I think that I’m going to try streaming to multiple platforms again using restream.io.
Multi-Platform Streaming With Restream.io
If you don’t know what restream.io is, you should go check it out. It’s a service that you stream to that turns around and streams it to multiple streaming services that you have accounts with, reducing resource usage on your end. Super easy to setup and has worked pretty well in my experience.
I have a couple of different reasons for wanting to try multi-streaming again:
Fewer Streams, Stand Out More
I mean I friggin LOVE Twitch. Besides Game of Thrones I think that all of my off-time entertainment comes from watching Twitch streams, but it is so damn crowded. Some games that I stream I can be in the top 5 rows, but popular games I’m wayyy down at the bottom, nearly impossible to find.
With so many new streams out there it’s really hard to stand out and get more viewers, and viewers are the lifeblood of a stream. You guys make it fun for the streamer and the others in chat as well. Sure, you can be super entertaining and have great production quality, but if you don’t get any viewers your stream doesn’t grow. Viewership is how you get partnered, how you get sponsorship’s, and overall how you turn streaming from a hobby into a career. I love streaming, I would love to be able to turn this into something I could do full-time or even part-time as a career, but without viewership that seems unlikely.
Everyone Gets Quality Options
Twitch is an awesome platform, but it only has quality options for the channels with top viewership or for partnered streamers. This means that everyone who wants to watch on a mobile device, or if they have poor internet, are basically stuck with endless buffering and lag. I’ve turned down my stream quality to try and help, but if I turn it down anymore the stream looks like a muddy mess of colors for everyone else.
Other streaming platforms give everyone quality options right from day 1. This would allow me to send mobile users over to the other platforms if they want to still watch the stream. To be fair these other platforms can offer encoding options bc they don’t have the same traffic numbers as Twitch, but it’s still a bonus for the other guys.
Ok, now that we have some good reasons for streaming to other platforms, why not just ditch Twitch and head right over to beam.pro , hitbox.tv , or gaming.youtube.com ?
Lacking Overall Viewership Numbers
Even though it would be easier to stand out on another platform due to the lack of streams, there is also a lack of viewers on those platforms. I mean they’re growing, but not at the same rate as Twitch.
Fragmented Community
Streaming to multiple platforms means that you have multiple chats, multiple bots, multiple screen alerts, etc. The chats typically can’t talk to each other in any sort of natural way, so you basically have multiple community bubbles who don’t really know the others are there. I’ve seen bots that will cross post chat messages, but the experience is really broken. Plus typically if someone is on a particular platform, they’re there for a reason and most likely do not want to switch (except maybe those users who didn’t know about other platforms).
Keeping up with all chats is another problem, especially if you’re an interactive streamer. Now restream.io actually has a cool chat program that combines all of your stream chats, but can still be very difficult to follow especially when chat starts getting busy (people playing bot games, having conversations, spamming emotes, etc.).
I Bleed Purple
Well tbh, my number one reason is that I’m a huge Twitch fanboi, I just love the platform and the community, even when it went from Justin.tv to Twitch. I think they’re making a really awesome platform with some great features, it’s just hard to keep the infrastructure and tech up with the growth rate.
So like I said, I can’t (nor do I really want to) switch streaming platforms, but I will start trying to stream again using restream.io . This gives me the ability to offer quality options without partnership, and can hopefully help to grow our community and viewership.
Ok, enough ranting, here is the rest of the bullets:
What I’m listening to:
Doses & Mimosas by Cherub
Ok, I guess this song is old, BUT IT’S NEW TO ME so screw it. I don’t know what it is, but this song just puts me in such a happy mood. It’s pretty much been my internal sound track for the entire week.
Something I’m interested in:
I’m a terrible cook, I’ll just get that out there right now, plus I don’t enjoy it AT ALL. To me food is fuel, so I basically just throw a bunch of stuff in a tortilla and call it a day. But with having so many awesome people in my life who cook for me, it’s nice to return the favor sometimes.
Enter the 3-ingredient recipe gallery!
These recipes are not only easy, but fast and only 3-ingredients. You probably won’t win any awards with them, but they’re pretty tasty and get you an “A” for effort.
Let me know what you think about any of the above. Comment below, check out my stream twitch.tv/legbracestv , or hit me up on twitter.com/legbracestv
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