One of the fastest-growing segments of the entertainment industry is live streaming.
And, given that, you would think there would be more of a push from apps to incorporate that into their overall platform but, largely, the field is dominated by Amazon’s Twitch and Alphabet’s YouTube, among others. Heck, even Microsoft couldn’t make it work with their failed attempt at live streaming although no one can fault them for trying. There are big advertising revenue dollars, among other things, to be made off of live streaming.
That makes today’s announcement that Instagram would offer integration with live streaming software via its Instagram Live Producer service unsurprising. What is surprising is how relatively pain-free and simple the process is.
From the blog post announcing the feature:
“Instagram Live Producer will allow you to go live on Instagram using streaming software (OBS, Streamlabs, etc.) through a stream key. This integration opens up production features outside the traditional phone camera, including additional cameras, external microphones and graphics. This feature is only available on instagram.com.”
As you will probably note, this is a desktop-oriented feature which, again, squarely targets the Twitches and YouTubes of the world. You select the software you want to use for your live event, such as Streamlabs OBS, and then you open that software and create a new post on Instagram’s website. Interestingly, you can set your audience from public to private or even a “practice” mode where you can do a dry run of your proposed live stream setup. All in all, a pretty neat addition to Instagram’s growing array of features.
What do you think of Instagram as a live streaming platform? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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