Exploring New Live Streaming Platforms: SharePlay and LiveSpace Enter the Beta Arena

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Independent Creative Podcast. Actually, this is our first episode of 2024, and tonight we're diving into something pretty exciting. We're taking a look at some new up-and-coming live streaming services that are just entering beta. So strap in folks, because we're going to explore SharePlay and LiveSpace and see what they bring to the table.

The Current Live Streaming Landscape

In the live streaming universe, there are really only a few big places where content creators can go. You've got Twitch and YouTube, and that's pretty much it. Twitch is the king maker of live streaming for gaming, outdoors, and any kind of IRL content. You name it, and you can probably find it on Twitch.

But here's the problem: a lot of people are getting disappointed with how Twitch is running things. Many creators are migrating to YouTube, but then you still have the same issue of a large company controlling the live streaming space. With YouTube, live streaming isn't really their priority. They're more focused on short-form content, with long-form content coming in at maybe second place, and live streaming trailing behind that.

YouTube has made some great changes to their live streaming features, but the reality is that it's still YouTube. It's a massive, multi-billion dollar conglomerate. And while Twitch isn't necessarily better in that regard, YouTube commands a much greater mindshare of the world market. Twitch is big in North America and some parts of Europe, but the majority of Twitch's audience and content creators are concentrated in North America, including the US, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, with some presence in South America, particularly Brazil and Argentina.

Why Creators Are Looking for Alternatives

The recent changes Twitch has implemented are pushing creators to look elsewhere. They're essentially saying that if you want more money, you need to run more ads on your live stream. You have to create content around ads, with at least three minutes of ads per hour. If you don't comply, you won't earn as much. They're also pushing creators to encourage viewers to subscribe and use bits.

While monetization is great, the problem arises when you're forcing content creators to shoehorn ads into their content. This goes against Twitch's culture, which has traditionally been about lower production values and a more spontaneous, ad-lib mentality. When people are being told they have to do ad breaks and follow specific monetization requirements just to get paid, many creators find themselves on the outskirts of what they thought Twitch was going to be.

Past Alternatives and Their Fate

There have been other alternatives to Twitch over the years. Mixer was a great option before Microsoft bought it. Originally known as Beam, it had more of a grassroots, content creator-first atmosphere. But when large companies take over, you tend to lose that grassroots feeling.

There's also Trovo, which is still around but is more geared toward European, Asian, and South American markets. It does have some English-speaking North American content creators, but the majority of its user base is non-North American. Trovo started out with great potential, but they incorporated too much gamification, which essentially drove away a lot of the English-speaking North American audience and creators.

We've also seen smaller platforms like Glimish, which had promise at the beginning but suffered from mismanagement and failed to establish a strong foothold. It lasted about a year and a half to two years before ultimately closing down.

Enter SharePlay: A Fresh Beta Experience

Now we have two up-and-coming live streaming platforms that deserve attention. SharePlay just entered beta about a month ago, initially opening to a select few streamers before gradually expanding access.

One thing I really like about SharePlay is their interface design. On the right-hand side, where you'd normally find live streams from channels you follow, they have these cool graphics featuring the games that streamers are playing as backgrounds for each section. You can collapse these sections and they still maintain that graphic element.

Yes, they're using a familiar template that resembles other streaming services, but there's wisdom in that approach. If it's not broken, don't fix it. When Trovo first launched, people criticized it as being "Twitch but green," but the reality is that you need to emulate what works if you want people to feel comfortable transitioning to your platform.

SharePlay took a different approach to development. They spent years in closed testing, closed alpha, having only certain days of the week with one or maybe two streamers going live. They've recently opened up more beta spots to people interested in streaming on the platform.

Is SharePlay perfect? Absolutely not. That's exactly why it has the beta tag. They're still working on making sure their site runs and functions correctly. While most people can spin up OBS and go live without issues, I personally have encountered some problems. I use Ecamm for all my live streaming and recording needs, and when I hit go live, my stream doesn't always show up immediately. I have to submit a ticket, and then about 10 to 15 minutes later, someone addresses the issue and it starts working.

SharePlay's Dashboard and Features

What I really appreciate about SharePlay is their dashboard. When you go to your profile and click on Play Studio, it opens up your dashboard with analytics that are quite important for content creators. You can see how your streams are performing, track new followers and subscribers, monitor gift subscribers and play coins, and access other vital metrics.

It's great to see this analytics page as the first thing you encounter. They'll likely be adding more features throughout the year to flesh out the streamer dashboard, but the foundation is solid. You also have access to your stream key, wallet functionality, payout transactions, and subscriber spending data.

For payments, they're using Stripe, which I believe is a smart choice. Stripe works well globally and tends to have fewer issues compared to PayPal. Your mileage may vary if you're a PayPal fan, but this is something you can discuss with the SharePlay developers on their Discord.

Speaking of support, SharePlay has excellent community engagement. Their Discord is the go-to place for technical support, suggestions, and joining the beta waiting list. They're releasing new waves of beta invites every couple of weeks, so if you're interested, make sure to join their Discord and get on the waiting list.

The thing to keep in mind is that SharePlay has a small development team, so you need to have patience and understand that they're not a huge corporation with hundreds of employees. If you encounter issues, let them know on Discord. They're very quick at taking care of problems and keeping the community informed about fixes.

LiveSpace: The Social Media-Integrated Platform

The second platform we're looking at is LiveSpace. LiveSpace has taken the multi-channel live streaming concept and added some interesting twists to it. The front page you see now likely won't be the final version, as they're constantly making changes and experimenting with different layouts. The current design is completely different from what it looked like just a couple of weeks or even a month ago.

LiveSpace is also in beta, though it doesn't explicitly show it. What sets LiveSpace apart is its Twitter-like social element. You can access a social feed that shows posts from all account holders on the platform. It functions like a Twitter feed where you can share YouTube links, embed images, post regular content, and share links.

I find LiveSpace to be a bit more stable than SharePlay in its current format, so if you're looking for stability, I'd suggest checking out LiveSpace first.

LiveSpace Categories and Features

LiveSpace offers various categories, primarily focused on gaming, but they also support "Just Chatting" content, sports and fitness, travel and outdoors, music (which is particularly popular on the platform), business and technology, and podcasts. They have a good range of categories available for creators.

The social feed aspect is particularly noteworthy. Twitch tried something similar in the past, but their implementation wasn't great, and they eventually dropped it. Seeing a multi-channel live streaming service incorporate a social feed into their platform is refreshing. It allows you to combine community outreach with keeping your subscribers and followers updated without needing external platforms like Discord.

Unique LiveSpace Features

One feature I really like is the ability to create subscriber-only posts. When writing a post, you can toggle a button to make it visible only to your subscribers. This is perfect for sharing exclusive content or subscriber-only video links.

LiveSpace also has a dashboard that provides essential information, though it's not as visually polished as SharePlay's or YouTube's. It gives you watch time data, total viewers, peak viewers, total streams, follower counts, and following numbers. Like SharePlay, they also use Stripe for payments, which seems to be a trend among emerging platforms.

Monetization and Customization

One significant advantage of LiveSpace is their emote system. Unlike Twitch, where you need to hit certain numbers and achieve affiliate status to upload emotes, LiveSpace allows you to upload emotes right from the start. As soon as you create your account and set up your profile, you have access to emote uploading.

LiveSpace also recently released a VOD system with custom thumbnails, similar to YouTube and PeerTube. When your VOD is complete, you can upload a custom thumbnail for it. This is something many platforms don't offer, and it's a nice touch that differentiates them from competitors.

They've also integrated with Streamlabs for alerts and notifications, and they support Fourth Wall integration for merchandise and memberships. Fourth Wall is an excellent monetization system that I personally use. You can set up memberships that provide access to Discord servers or other exclusive content.

The Shop Integration

If you visit a creator's channel on LiveSpace, you'll notice a shop tab that's integrated directly into the channel. This is something Twitch doesn't really offer natively; you have to use extensions, which is a roundabout and less elegant solution. LiveSpace makes monetization more straightforward with direct integration.

Why We Need These Alternatives

The importance of having alternatives to Twitch and YouTube cannot be overstated. Recent developments, including Twitch laying off 35% of its remaining workforce, show that creators shouldn't rely solely on any single platform. It's encouraging that Twitch finally allowed multi-streaming to other platforms in 2023, but people need to realize that Twitch may not be the same platform in a few years that it was when they started.

Cultural changes, increased ads, and policy shifts are making Twitch a less enjoyable place for many creators. Having options like SharePlay and LiveSpace provides creators with alternatives that maintain the community feel of multi-channel live streaming without some of the corporate baggage.

Looking Forward

Both SharePlay and LiveSpace offer something that's much needed in a world dominated by Twitch and YouTube monopolies. While they may not be perfect yet, they represent hope for creators looking for platforms that prioritize community and creator experience over pure profit maximization.

If you're interested in trying these platforms, remember that they're both in beta, so expect some rough edges. SharePlay can be found at SharePlay.TV, and you can join their Discord for beta access. LiveSpace is at live.space and appears to have open registration.

These platforms fulfill a need for creators who want the community aspect of multi-channel live streaming but prefer alternatives to the major corporate platforms. While OwnCast serves its purpose for those comfortable with self-hosting, not everyone wants to deal with server management. For those creators, platforms like SharePlay and LiveSpace offer the perfect middle ground.

The future of live streaming is looking more diverse, and that's exactly what we need. Competition breeds innovation, and having more options available benefits everyone in the content creation ecosystem.

The Independent Creator