Live streaming your music to listeners online has never been easier, especially if you’re a solo musician. If you’ve never live streamed before, you may not realize how easy it can be — if you already have a smartphone and a social-media account, then you’re halfway there. Whether you’re a singer/songwriter singing songs or an electronic musician performing with your synth rig, live streaming helps you get your music out in the world while providing a unique, interactive platform for engaging and growing your audience that you can also monetize. Let’s de-mystify the live-streaming process and show how you can live stream your own musical performances.
Should You Stream with Your Phone or a DSLR Camera?
Live streaming means broadcasting live audio and video, and you have options for how you capture both. Regarding video, the simple solution is to use your smartphone as your video camera — you’ll be able to live stream directly through popular apps like Facebook and YouTube without having to use any additional software. Using your smartphone as a camera makes your setup simpler; and platforms like Facebook allow instant user feedback and comments, but this may prevent you from using advanced video features, like effects, in your stream.
Using a DSLR camera will give your live stream much better video quality. Your camera will need a USB or HDMI connection to hook up to your desktop or laptop computer’s video input. When using an external camera, you’ll need to use additional live-stream encoding software to send your stream to Facebook, YouTube, or whatever platform you choose. All popular streaming platforms offer easy-to-use encoding solutions for streaming with an external camera, and third-party offerings are available that can handle multiple platforms, as well. Speaking of streaming platforms, let’s talk about those.
Choose Your Live Stream Platform
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and many other social-media platforms allow you to live stream for free — which you choose is up to you. Whichever you choose, it would be smart to do a search for that platform’s streaming guide — not only will they offer technical advice for their platform, but they’ll also offer guidance on the best ways to promote your live stream and help its visibility. And each platform offers its own encoding solution for using an external camera for live streaming — for Facebook, you’ll need Facebook Live; for YouTube, you’ll need YouTube Live; and for Twitter, you’ll need Periscope. In other words, see what your chosen social-media outlet has to say about what you’ll need to live stream on that specific platform.
Do I Need a Mixer or Just a Microphone?
Singer/songwriters and acoustic musicians may only need a single microphone to capture their performance. This simplifies matters greatly, as you only need to connect one mic to your phone or DSLR camera to capture your audio. Check out all the iPad/iPhone microphone and USB microphoneoptions that Sweetwater has to offer. If you want to hear how good a USB microphone can sound, check out our “USB Mic Shootout.”
If your performance requires multiple microphones or you’re an electronic musician with synths and drum machines, then you’ll need a mixer to combine your signals into a stereo feed that you can then send to your phone or DSLR camera. Most audio mixers can handle the job, but for the most efficient experience, consider a dedicated live-streaming mixer. The Roland GO:LIVECAST Live Streaming Studiooffers microphone, instrument, and line inputs; effects; and micro-USB connectivity for your smartphone. The TC-Helicon GO XLR Streaming Mixer is a four-channel mixer and audio interface with motorized faders, effects — even an audio sampler — and USB connectivity for your desktop or laptop computer. And the TC-Helicon GoXLR Mini brings similar functionality in a smaller footprint and at lower cost.
Tips for Better Audio in Your Live Stream
If you want people to stay engaged with your live stream, you’ll need to make sure your audio is as good as it can be. Here are some tips for making sure your audio is great.
- Use an external microphone — even a low-priced microphone that is closer to you will sound much better than your phone’s built-in microphone.
- Put up some acoustic treatment — even some heavy blankets placed on nearby walls can help reduce high-frequency reflections in your room. Learn more about the basics of acoustic treatment in this article, “Fix Your Room, Fix Your Mix.”
- Use a quality microphone stand that will keep your mic in place and that allows for flexible positioning.
- Know the polar pattern of your microphone (how directional it is when picking up sounds) and experiment with mic positions to get a sound you’re pleased with. This article, “Best Live Sound Mic Placement Techniques,” focuses on live sound, but much of the info is universally applicable.
- Use a limiter at the end of your audio chain — preventing signal spikes that could cause distortion in your live stream is critical. Live-streaming mixers often offer this as a feature to simplify your workflow.
- Test your setup — whether you’re using a single microphone or creating a mix for your live stream, do some test recordings to make sure the audio quality is up to high standards.
- Learn everything you need to know about making better-sounding videos with your smartphone in this article, “How to Make Better-sounding iPhone Videos.”
Tips for Better Video in Your Live Stream
People are generally more forgiving of low video quality if your audio is great, but it’s easy to make some big improvements in your video quality, too.
- Mount your phone or camera on a tripod — not only does a good tripod keep the camera from moving and results in better focus, but it also gives you better control over your shooting angle and camera position.
- Get some lighting — even some modest additional lighting will make a huge improvement in your video quality. Something like the Nanlite LumiPad 25 Soft LED Light Panel is simple to set up, even in a small room, and immediately improves your video quality.
- For the best video quality, use a DSLR camera instead of your phone.
- Just like with your audio, do some video tests to find your preferred combination of lighting and camera angle.
Don’t Infringe on Anyone’s Copyright
This mostly applies to playing covers of existing songs, but you’ll want to make sure you have the rights to perform any material you’ll be planning on live streaming — Facebook and other platforms can definitely shut down your live stream on copyright-infringement grounds.
Don’t Forget to Promote Your Live Stream
You’ve put a lot of effort into your music and into putting together a live-stream performance — make sure as many people as possible know it’s happening! You should be telling your social-media followers about your planned live stream weeks or, at least, days in advance. Depending on which platform and streaming methods you choose, you may be able to schedule a premiere for your live stream in advance. Your goal should be to get comfortable with the live-streaming process before you start promoting your live stream so that you can focus your attention on promotion and not technical details.
You’re Almost Ready to Live Stream
Hopefully, we’ve clarified the live-streaming process and shown you how feasible it can be for practically any musician. To sum it up, you need solutions for capturing audio and video (microphone and phone/camera), a method for connecting those audio and video streams to your live-streaming platform of choice (encoding software and social-media app), and you need to get the word out so people can find your live stream. For a more comprehensive guide to live streaming, as well as more info on streaming with multiple performers, check out our article, “How to Live Stream a Performance.”
Hebra Definition 