With the continued growth of the entertainment industry, opportunities for becoming a content creator or online influencer are rising. Since the pandemic is still ongoing, creators are now in-demand as more and more people tend to look for new entertainment to occupy their free time since they can't always go out to the public.
If you are one of the vloggers, online gamers, or podcasters active online today, then you need a platform where you can post your content. Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other popular social media sites are great for live streaming. However, finding a tool that can share your content in real-time on multiple platforms would be better. Doing this allows you to gather more views and attract more followers.
Since this is the case, it is good that live stream software services are available to help you with your real-time online content. Here are the top five best live stream software providers in 2021 that you can rely on:
#1 Melon
Melon is a web-based live streaming studio that allows creators to go live easily. With Melon, you can easily invite guests onto your stream without any hassle. No downloads are required for you or your guests. Creators can also take advantage of tons of customization options to personalize your show. Monetize your live streams with donations and alerts.
Thanks to its build for browsers, you can access Melon on your Windows, iOS, Android, macOS devices, and anything with a browser. When it comes to actual streaming, Melon can broadcast your content on multiple social media or online sites simultaneously.
With a stream key via custom RTMP, you can rely on this live stream software to post your ongoing content on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Twitch, Facebook, and other popular platforms. Thanks to its easy navigation features, you can create professional-quality streams in no time using any device.
Melon features stream recording and native recording without going live, so you can use Melon to record podcasts and videos without streaming. After recording, you can upload your videos to YouTube or live stream the videos with Melon at a later date. Here are other things it has to offer:
- Melon is designed for anyone but especially benefits professionals and creators. Online teachers, gym or fitness instructors, public officials, real estate agents, and social media influencers can take advantage of its features to reach their audiences more easily.
- Melon helps you maximize your audience since you can multistream on almost all platforms you can think of, allowing you to gather more views and other online interactions.
- Unlike other streaming services, Melon doesn’t require installing an application on your smartphone, laptop, or PC. This innovation is quite helpful since it saves more space for the video and audio content you create, which means you don't need a powerful PC since Melon’s servers handle the processing.
- Another great thing about Melon is its easy-to-manage controls. This live stream software offers a single control panel containing all the tools you need. This panel allows you to do many things, such as sharing your screen with all your real-time videos, which is quite helpful for online gamers. You can also use this panel to customize your stream layout.
What Makes Melon Better Than Other Live Stream Software
- Melon has integrated an "Alerts and Donations" feature to offer creators a tangible way to earn while they stream. Melon does not take a cut of your donations - 100% of the proceeds go to you.
- Affordable. Great pricing. Melon is the best value for dollar on the market relative to other live-streaming services
- Intuitive and simple UX. You can go from the landing page to your first live stream in just a few clicks.
- Melon's Cloudbot integration protects your comments or chats and keeps them clean.
- Leading cloud-based infrastructure on the most advanced servers in the market leads to high-quality audio and video outputs.
- Melon also has an excellent customer service team, always ready to help you with your concerns.
- Supports stereo sound on both: regular audio and screen sharing by default.
- Melon is continuously adding new customizations and features every week.
Melon's Live Stream Features
Aside from the mentioned capabilities and advantages above, Melon also offers great features specifically designed to enhance your streams. These include the following:
- Melon offers a feature that allows you to invite more viewers or collaborators into your stream. Once they are there, you can interview them and work together with other creatives.
- Melon allows you to edit your tracker to update your viewers with the latest happenings on your live stream. You can also add a background or a logo to your content. Aside from these, you can also customize your stream's overlays and other designs to make it more unique, allowing you to have a memorable live stream that significantly impacts the viewers.
- Melon also offers stream recording. This means that you can live stream and record your content simultaneously. Thanks to these functions, you can repost your live streams so that viewers can re-watch them if ever they miss some parts of your content.
Aside from Melon, there are also other live stream software services you can use to post your content. These include the following:
#2 OBS Studio
OBS Studio is free and open-source software that allows you to live-stream your video recordings and other content. Like Melon, it is also accessible on Mac, Windows, and Linux devices.
This live streaming software was created thanks to its sponsors and backers, such as Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube.
"Your contributions help support our developers and fund equipment purchases for easier testing and development. They also go towards software licenses and other project expenses such as website and server hosting," said the company via its official website.
On the other hand, here are the exact features it offers:
- Set hotkeys for nearly every sort of action, such as switching between scenes, starting/stopping streams or recordings, muting audio sources, push to talk, and more.
- OBS Studio offers different kinds of customizable transitions. You can use these effects to make your videos more attractive. Consumers can also add their own stinger video files.
- Get a high-level view of your production using the Multiview. Monitor 8 different scenes and easily cue or transition to any of them with merely a single or double click.
- OBS Studio's advanced Studio Mode allows you to preview your scenes and sources before going live. Thanks to this feature, you can make some adjustments to your videos, ensuring that your content is perfect before it is live-streamed.
#3 Wirecast
Telestream develops Wirecast. This live stream software service lets you broadcast your content in different RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) platforms, which are online destinations that make live streaming actually possible today.
Aside from this, you can also use it to record live streams locally. Meanwhile, Wirecast software's compatibility is also on the next level since it works with a wide range of capture cards, camera inputs, and different kinds of gadgets.
This popular real-time broadcasting tool also offers picture-in-picture composition, audio delay, live switching, and other similar capabilities that influencers and other creative professionals can take advantage of to make their live streams more interesting and fun.
Wirecast also allows you to include pre-recorded videos on the content you would be live streaming. Here are its other integrated technologies:
- Multi-Channel Audio Ingest
- Pro Audio FX Built In
- GPU-Enhanced Encoding Technology
- Multiple Live Input Support: Capture Card, NDI, Wirecast Go, Webstream IP Sources, USB, etc
- Compatible with both Windows and macOS devices, allowing you to have more options.
Thanks to all its features, consumers find it easy to use. They added that when they use Wirecast, they can set up and plan their live streams smoother and simpler than before.
#4 VidBlasterX
VidBlasterX is also an RTMP-enabled live stream software service. This simply means that you can rely on this online tool to post your content on various streaming platforms, including Dacast, which most streaming tools don't cover.
When it comes to the actual capabilities, VidBlasterX performs efficiently just like Wirecast, vMix, and other popular streaming software services:
- VidBlasterX supports video routing. This means that consumers can use this live stream software to change their content's signals in various platforms without any lagging issues.
- On the other hand, VidBlasterX can also display your ongoing podcast or blog on a monitor. Since it supports different devices, you would definitely have more options than you prefer.
- This streaming tool also allows you to record your real-time content to local disks.
- VidBlasterX also offers to output action to a Blackmagic DeckLink video card.
- Aside from the mentioned features above, VidBlasterX also supports 4K/UHD recording output, allowing you to repost your content to Facebook, YouTube, and other CDNs using the RTMP app or a virtual camera driver.
- Although it supports different devices, the service still has limitations. These include the lack of macOS system support. This means that MacBook users can't take advantage of VidBlasterX's advanced functions.
#5 XSplit Broadcaster
Broadcaster live stream software is developed by XSplit, the tech firm behind other popular online tools connected to live streaming. These include Vcam, Connect Webcam, Presenter Beta, Capture Beta, and more.
Thanks to the efforts made by various software developers, XSplit Broadcaster is quite efficient for broadcasting use for both creative creators as well as businesses. Here are its other features:
- Just like the mentioned services above, this live stream software also supports multiple platforms.
- XSplit Broadcaster also works with Windows devices. However, the service is still unavailable on macOS gadgets. Although this is the case, XSplit said that the feature would arrive soon.
- This live stream service is also quite great for streams on Twitch. But, it is also well suited for YouTube and Facebook streams.
- Thanks to its non-complicated navigation features, new influencers and beginner gamers can use it without any issue.
- XSplit Broadcaster also offers flexible, powerful extensions and plugins.
- You can also take advantage of its multiple animations and broadcast effects to make your real-time content more pleasing.
- If you have kids or pets roaming your house during a live stream, XSplit Broadcaster's noise suppression feature will solve this issue since it can remove unwanted background sound.
All the services mentioned above can definitely make your real-time content more productive and interactive. However, some of them would still depend on the device you are using.
On the other hand, some of the live stream software services above also require you to upgrade your free account to a premium one if you want to have all their features. This is why it is vital to check everything they can offer before choosing one.
Doing this would allow you to have the most suitable live stream software for your daily streaming activities. Remember, gamers, social media influencers, and professional businesses are quite different from one another.
