A Streaming Guide for Musicians who can’t gig during the Coronavirus Pandemic
Every industry is being hit hard by the pandemic, and with bars and restaurants closed there are many who are unable to work and earn income.
For many types of work, there’s just nothing that can be done. Fortunately for us, musicians and performers do have a fallback option with live streaming, but for many of us computers are for Digital Audio Workstations and sharing gig announcements, not rich media.
The good news is that there are a number of free/nearly-free tools and fairly simple techniques to put together a decent looking and sounding broadcast that’s optimized to get you tips.
As someone who has a brain hemisphere devoted to the musical and digital worlds respectively, I thought I’d put together a quick guide to streaming.
(Sorry if it seems hasty and incomplete, I’m 550 miles into a 2k journey from LA to Cincinnati to make sure I can be there for my parents during a quarantine, so my time is limited)
First: Get yourself set up to take some money. The concept here is: The more ways you have to take money online, the better you’ll be to make money online.
GoFundMe is probably the best platform overall, but using Facebook’s donation platform gives a nicer presentation within Facebook. Happily, nothing will stop you from doing both.
You’ll also want to get and save the QR codes from both Venmo and PayPal for later. Their Smartphone apps have them.
Here’s how to get your QR code from the Venmo App
Here’s a video on where to find the QR code in Paypal
Now let’s talk options.
Level 0: Facebook Live from the Facebook app.
You can always go quick and dirty with your SmartPhone and Facebook Live. I presume everyone already knows how to stream with the Facebook app just due to the sheer number of videos of my band Barley covering Nathaniel Rateliff’s “S.O.B.” that exist, so I’m going to skip right past explaining that and go straight to “next levelling” it.
First, no matter what you do make sure to put your GoFundMe link in the post with your stream. On YouTube include it in both the title and the description, and in Facebook make sure to put in your post.
Level 1: Mixed Audio and Independent Camera using a Phone and Desktop Together
If you just toss your phone on a tripod and hit record, you’re going to deal with the limitations of your phone’s mic and not be able to interact with anyone while you’re streaming. Using your phone as a “pure” camera with the desktop available to interact with your fans puts you above 95% of the streamers out there now.
To do it, Facebook live lets you toss your phone on a tripod and stream via a “stream key” if you access it on a desktop. Click the “Go Live” link on your personal profile or band page to get started with that.
The advantage to doing it this way is that you can get a nicer video shot and, if you’ve still got the headphone/mic jack or own something like an iRig, you can even feed in mixed audio through professional gear.
Facebook has instructions on how to connect an external encoder which you can find here.
You’ll need to get an App that lets you turn your phone into an encoder in order to make this work. Check out WireCast Go, Live Pro, or really any RTMP streaming app from the App Store. I have an iPhone so I can’t recommend anything in the Android space but I bet folks will pipe up in the comments. I should also mention that as a geek and digital guy I tend to use my laptop and collection of gear for this, so there are likely better smartphone apps.
Level 2: Video Overlay
If you’ve got a decent webcam and a reasonably modern computer, you can use software like OBS (free) or WireCast ($-$$$ depending on version) to create a Cable News style overlay with some key information you’ll want on screen while you broadcast.
If you’ve got your GoFundMe up, go ahead and toss on the link. If you’ve got a Venmo or PayPal QR code, throw them in as well.
Here’s a picture of the overlay we used for my friend Nate the other night when he streamed. He was able to crush his GoFundMe goal.
As you can see, we put the GoFundMe link up top and the Venmo QR code in the corner. People mostly donated to the GoFundMe but also sent plenty straight to his Venmo. (Feel free to test the link and code by sending him tips)
If you’ve got Photoshop or knows someone who does, I’m including a link to download the PSD for the overlay. (It’s evolved into the overlay we used for this fundraiser that made over $10k for musicians last weekend) Click here to grab it.
Level 2.1: Just use a Phone or iPad
If you got Wirecast Go, there’s an in app purchase for something like $6 that gets you the ability to overlay a PNG image. The UI is frankly a bit janky, but fairly simple once you get the hang of it.
First, click the little + button that they’ve been kind enough to not give any context for. Turns out it means “add a graphic”
Then, click the top icon and select the transparent PNG. If you just have the PNG, you can crop it on your phone and overlay it by itself.
At that point, click the gear icon to set up your stream key and you’re good to go.
You can input audio from a mixer via the headphone jack or with an iRig interface that works with lightning. Unfortunately Apple decided we couldn’t connect anything to our phones and also charge it without another expensive adapter from them, so your broadcasts may be limited by battery life.
Note: A regular headphone jack cable will not let you send input into a Smartphone audio port. You will need a TRRS cable which you can get from Monoprice here. You’ll probably want a 1/4" adapter as well.
NOTE: This method does not work with Facebook Live, but it will work for YouTube.
Level 2.2: Use a Laptop
Once you’ve got the overlay made, you’ll need to set up your encoder to use it. Because musicians whose names don’t rhyme with “Schnars Skullrick” or “Greven Fyler” don’t typically have a ton of scratch laying around, I’m assuming people reading this will be using the free OBS software.
First, take a good look at the digital mixer you use for gigs. Does it have a USB out? Great. Jack that into your computer’s USB port.
If not, you can still send an analog out from the board into your mic jack. Any number of USB audio interfaces will also work as well. Hopefully you’ve got a little home studio gear already, it’ll come in handy.
(If you don’t have a USB cable that fits, grab one from Amazon here. It probably looks like this: )
OK great, now you can hook whatever mics and instruments you want into the Mixer you already know how to use.
You can use the computer’s on-board webcam or toss in an aftermarket camera. If you’ve got a computer with both a front and rear facing camera, note that one camera is typically much better quality than the other. Test with your gear to find out what looks the best.
Set up your camera in OBS with this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06idbvfeMG0
Set up the mixer as an audio source in OBS with this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zl-WPD6RME
Next, apply the overlay with this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAC1U4vyNg
Finally, select your streaming destinations: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-stream-to-facebook-live.391/
Technically, you can push to both Facebook and YouTube simultaneously from OBS but I really can’t recommend doing that. Your computer’s horsepower and your home internet connection will come into play.
If you want to do both, check out restream.io for a fairly cheap and cost effective way to stream to multiple destinations.
Honestly, unless you have a big YouTube following already Facebook is almost certainly going to get more eyeballs on your stream. You’ll need to weigh your own social audience to figure out how best to reach your fans.
There is some specialized gear I can also recommend
- The Mevo Plus. The regular model can simulate a multi-camera shoot and the on-board software lets you add graphics with a Vimeo subscription. I own one and it’s a little bit persnickety swapping between wifi networks but generally works pretty well.
You can feed digital audio into the extended battery via USB or into a phone or tablet that’s controlling it. There’s also a nifty little companion app that lets you connect any phone as an auxiliary mic and you can mix is right in the app.
The downside is you won’t be able to use a fully custom overlay like the one I linked, but it does have the ability to put in graphics with the Vimeo subscription - The Zoom Q2N-4k is an amazing Mic/Camera combo. It looks great in a living room or home studio and also does almost as well in a venue or bar gig.
I hope this is helpful. The reality of what we’re about to face is that we’re about to enter completely uncharted territory in personally published media.
The supply of this kind of content is about to explode as musicians stay home and publish online. The demand will be going up even more as there will be literally nothing else to do but look for content online and on TV, and reruns of The Office and Star Trek are gonna get old pretty quick.
As always, the talented artists who can be be creative, genuine, and communicate clearly are going to rise to the top.
Remember also as creators and often leaders in our respective social groups that it’s on us to keep each other connected with each other. The vibe of warmth and friendship in the chatrooms on the webcasts I’ve been a part of lately has been one of the only bright points in a truly awful couple of weeks for everyone, so please do whatever you can to foster that feeling in your fandoms.
I suspect I’ll have more to share and plenty of time to share it in the coming weeks.
