LIVESTREAMING to Substack: Observations After 4 Weeks
I've been waiting YEARS for this capability. After streaming multiple time times every week to 3 different publications, I have some thoughts...
I got really excited last month to learn that we could include Substack into the How Did We Miss That weekly livestream distribution.
Read the original article, published 3 weeks ago here:
Indie’s Take
It’s been great to bring in the email subscriber audience to the livesrreams. My guess is that it’s because of the notifications in the app. We’ve definitely seen people pop in to check out the show that had never done so before.
At the end of the last article, I laid out some improvement suggestions, which I mostly agree with - but also wanted to expand upon.
It seems to still be in beta test mode - I seem to be the only person I know that has the ability to livestream via desktop, but luckily, I can set up streams for every Substack publication I am an admin for. My first suggestion: turn it on for everyone!!
How Can Substack Upgrade the Experience Further for RTMP Livestreamers?
I expect things will only improve as Substack adds the few things currently missing:
Before the Stream
Will we get the ability to add a thumbnail & description to the livestream scheduling?
Finding the RTMP key once the stream has been created is a little clunky. Making people go to “New Live Stream” is confusing - they could literally just take the word “New” away and it would be less confusing.
The URL generated for the stream does not preview and embed within a Substack post, as opposed to any other substack item (post, video, note).
Mid-Stream
It would also be nice as a streamer to be able to pop chat out to a separate tab or window. There are sizing issues where the chat disappears on desktop if the browser window is not wide enough.
Integration of chat and direct video/audio with livestreaming platforms like Streamyard, Restream, StreamLabs & evMux so we don’t need to place a unique key between platforms.
There are also improvements that can be made for stream moderation - if trolls happen to pop into chat and you want to block or mute them, there’s no easy way to do that.
It would be great if viewers could make a one-time tip/contribution during the stream (like a SuperChat)
Post-Stream
There are no analytics about the stream once it’s over - It should provide a list of viewers, watch time, chat flow, stream quality
The Livestream Viewer count seems to be more of an aggregate total of views, with the number never going down.
It would be nice to see how many were actually watching the stream live at a given time
Also to learn the source: how people got to the stream, plus at what point during the stream they jumped in
There is an AI-assisted set of post-stream editing options, but employing this froze up my video and was stuck “processing” for more than a day after I selected to “Automatically Trim Video”
It would be cool if Substack generated an AI summary of the livestream written by Deepseek R1, using the transcript and limiting to 1000 characters, for example.
The URL for the livestream is not connected to the livestream replay in any way. Is there a way to connect the two? Someone who clicks the stream link after it’s over should be able to see the replay.
Is it possible to redirect that URL once the livestream is done?
For example:
Sunday night’s stream was at https://open.substack.com/live-stream/31229 - that’s what you see when you click that link. It should guide them to either the homepage of the publication or to the link for the replay.
but the replay URL is https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/exposed-propagandists-ops-narrative-managers-how-did-we-miss-that-161?r=539iu
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With this link:
https://open.substack.com/live-stream/31229
Did you publish the video post with the recording Substack created or did you have to create a post of your own due to the freezing issue?