Guide To Livestreaming Your Concert or Event On YouTube

With live video now functioning as an established and important component of event marketing, more attendees now expect livestreaming to be available at major functions, and platforms like YouTube Live make it easy to do – especially with a little help from us.

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Guest post by Rachel Grate of EventbriteLive video has truly come into its own as a major player in the event marketing business. Not only are attendees increasingly expecting livestreams, events are able to more easily provide them — thanks to platforms like Facebook Live, Periscope, and YouTube Live.While it may seem daunting at first glance to even consider livestreaming your event, it’s definitely worth your while.Live video can help you boost engagement and grow your event’s attendance.And contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have to be expensive.In fact, the most popular livestream site — YouTube — is free. Here’s how to livestream your event on YouTube.

What is YouTube Live?

YouTube Live lets you broadcast video in real-time to your audience, either via desktop or mobile phone. As you stream your event, you can interact with your audience using live chat, as well as monitor how your stream is doing with real-time analytics.After your stream is finished, YouTube automatically archives the event up to 12 hours and makes it available in the Video Manager. Which makes it super easy to add your recorded video to your library and repurpose it for different marketing materials down the road.

The benefits of livestreaming your event on YouTube

With over a billion users, watching a billion hours of video per day, YouTube is undoubtedly where people go to watch videos on the Internet. So livestreaming your event on the platform (especially for free) makes a lot of sense.Plus, using live video at your next event can drive your ROI:

Live video is engaging — Users spend 3x more time and comment 10x more when a video is live, according to Facebook.
Live video grows attendance — Digitell reports that 30% of people who watch a livestream of an event will attend the same event the following year.
Live video is cost-effective — 52% of marketers worldwide named video as the content type with the best ROI, according to HubSpot.

Getting started with YouTube Live

There are some basic things you need to do if you want to use YouTube Live (assuming you already have a YouTube account). First, make sure your channel is verified. Second, check confirm you haven’t had any livestream restrictions in the last 90 days that might prevent your account from accessing the feature.Next, you then need to enable livestreaming for your channel. To do so on your desktop, go to Creator Studio tools and select “Live Streaming.” In the mobile app, simply select “create a live stream.”Once enabled, you’re all set to stream an event! There are three options to choose from:

Stream now is an easy way to go live. This option lets you quickly send content, with YouTube automatically starting and stopping the stream for you at the right time.
Events provide greater control over your livestream. You can preview it before you go live, have backup redundancy streams, select privacy options, and start and stop it when you want.
Mobile, available on Android 6.0+ and iPhone and iPad iOS 8+, lets you stream from the app. However, to livestream on a mobile device, your channel must have more than 100 subscribers.

Note: Before you can start streaming on YouTube Live, you need to download encoding software. This allows you to capture content, including your desktop, camera, microphone, and more and send it to YouTube Live to be streamed.Want to extend your event livestream beyond YouTube and onto other channels? Learn all you need to know to livestream your event in by watching Why Livestreaming Can Grow Your Event — and How to Do It.Rachel Grate is a writer for Eventbrite, where she regularly interviews organizers of the country's most popular events, from massive music festivals to exclusive food & drink gatherings. She's a live music lover, a foodie, and a big fan of smiles.