Any musicians (djs) out there doing live streamings on Facebook or YouTube? Would really appreciate your advice.

I regularly DJ out, but now that i'm in quarantine i've turned towards doing live streams. However i can't seem to figure it out completely.

Firstly i have a Pioneer XDJ-RX (so essentially an all-in-one decks and mixer combo [really nice bit of kit if anyone wants something a bit more manageable for their home]), and a Behringer UCA202 audio interface (not the most expensive option but wasn't sure whether it would even work so didn't want to commit that much to it) which i use to link the audio to my laptop.

This setup works pretty well, with the audio being much better than if i just went off the laptop speakers, but still the quality goes a bit low (quiet) on certain songs or drops in songs, but i put that down to the amount i paid for the interface.

So… I did my first stream on facebook. After about 45 minutest the stream automatically stopped, so I had to restart it. Then after about the same time it stopped again. This happened about 3 times whilst I completed a 3 hour set. I listened to it back and found that one of the recording had the audio cut for 5 minutes. After speaking to a mate of mine they told me that this is because of the songs being played aren't licensed. There is an algorithm/bot listening in and if it recognises popular songs then if too many are played it closes the stream. I did another stream on YouTube for about 5 hours which was uninterrupted, but then heard from a mate of mine that they’ve been doing loads of these recently on YouTube and YouTube have blocked them from doing any more because they have also detected it and it infringes on copyrights. Is anyone else finding this or can offer any advice here?

I see so many djs still doing live streams on Facebook and YouTube etc that seem fine, so am wondering what they are doing differently. (I guess bigger companies like Boiler Room might have a contract in place maybe?) I totally respect the copyright element, and happy to look at what legal routes there are but that isn't very clear at all.

Also i'm not entirely sure how to tag this question and get the right audience so if you know anyone that might be able to help can you please @ them in it?

Thanks in advance!

Replies2

  • Also thanks for your insight. Yeah I thought that might be the case. I was aware of Mixcloud’s contractual setup with music companies, I remember reading an article before about it where they mentions that as a business cost.
    I just would have thought that Facebook or YouTube had something similar.
    Do you know of any other site that does have this, that then support live streaming? Seems crazy if not. One for Mixcloud or even Spotify to move into huh?
  • @D.A.V.E. Digital And Vinyl Expert thanks for the offer! I'd absolutely love that, will be in touch!

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