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Can you stream on multiple platforms at once? The answer is that you’ve always been able to do that but it’s way easier today than it used to be. Back in the day, multistreaming meant that we would put up several devices in front of us, and each device would stream to a separate network. One to X, another to Facebook, and so on. That setup could look something like this:
Today, multistreaming is much easier. That’s what I discuss in this article.
Article sections
What is multistreaming?
Good platforms to multistream
Where should we multistream to?
After the multistream
What is multistreaming?
As the name would suggest, multistreaming is the practice of broadcasting your livestream to multiple networks. That could include LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. Livestreams on TikTok and Instagram are also possible but aren’t as quickly set up due to third-party restrictions by those networks.
Technically speaking, we did multistream in that webinar a few years ago with all those devices. Today, however, multistreaming usually involves the use of a platform that handles the streaming to multiple networks for you.
Read next: How to go live on LinkedIn
Best multi stream platform
There are two that are popular.
Restream
Restream allows you to stream to dozens of channels. There’s also a live studio where you can invite up to 10 guests for a show and add graphics, prerecorded videos, and more.
Restream is best used from your desktop browser, though there’s limited functionality available on mobile devices. Since I’m mostly streaming from my home studio nowadays, Restream works well for my ongoing recording of The Business Storytelling Show.
Restream also allows another level of multistreaming through its pairs feature. Your guests on the show can simulcast the broadcast to their channels. You send them the pairs link after setting up an event, and when you go live, it goes live on their channels.
StreamYard
StreamYard is the second big player in the multistreaming world. I have not personally used StreamYard recently, but StreamYard has great supporters. Any time I mention multistreaming, somebody will say StreamYard.
How to decide which channels to multistream to
There’s always a decision point in content strategy, and the logical one here is to decide what channels we should multistream to. But, it’s becoming less of a “let’s think about this for hours” kind of moment.
These platforms make it extremely easy to stream to several networks at once. So, I don’t have to decide on LinkedIn, Twitter, OR any other extensive networks. Even with RTMP, I can add additional channels as long as they support this.
So instead of deciding where to stream, consider where to focus our energy. In other words, stream to all the available and relevant networks but focus your energy on one.
For example, some livestreamers broadcast to Amazon, where their focus is. So the show is produced for that channel. On other channels, stream there, but they are secondary channels.
That’s one way to do it.
The other option is to have a show that works fine on all the channels. So, for example, on my live podcast episodes, I barely mention the channels and respond to comments on all channels like each was my leading network.
Red next: What equipment do I need for a successful Facebook Live broadcast?
After the multistream
Once the multistream is complete, I still want to use the content in other channels. So I download the video file and upload it to my podcast channels – Apple, Spotify, etc. While this isn’t multistreaming technically speaking, it certainly does help us push our content to more audiences.
That’s probably the most significant advantage of multistreaming, to begin with. So you’ve spent all this time building your LinkedIn, Twitter, or whatever other networks, why not stream your livestream to all of them?
