Blog 2 — Geekyslug

The live streaming industry is growing massively with time, and YouTube and Twitch are two of the most popular streaming platforms today. Most streamers want to enjoy the best of both worlds and want to expand their viewership across as many platforms as possible. When there are two great performers in the market, there will be competition between them for sure. So can you multi-stream on both platforms if you are a Twitch affiliate? If you are an affiliate of a particular program, there are some terms and conditions you need to follow. While some affiliate programs are very strict in terms of conduct while you are associated with them, some others are more lenient. So what is the Twitch affiliate program like? Does it allow you to stream on any other platform like YouTube? There are many conditions and factors related to this and it also depends on how you go about it. Here you will get a comprehensive guide and understand if a Twitch affiliate can stream on YouTube as well. Twitch Affiliates And Youtube- The Connection Between The Two Twitch affiliates use the Twitch platform to earn money and grow their work and audience. And using YouTube is a great idea for them as it helps to expand their horizon and is overall much better than relying on Twitch alone. As a streamer, the higher the number of platforms you use for streaming, the higher the chance to earn more money by growing a bigger audience. But when you become a Twitch affiliate, you enter into an agreement with the platform that decides whether you are allowed to use YouTube and other platforms and the conditions you need to follow. Can Twitch affiliates stream on YouTube? If you want a simple answer to whether a Twitch affiliate can stream on YouTube or not, the simple answer to this is- yes, they definitely can. However, the primary condition that these affiliates have to follow is that they cannot stream on both platforms simultaneously. In other words, affiliates can only stream on any other streaming platform once they are done streaming on Twitch. In fact, Twitch even mentions in their affiliate agreement that the affiliate has to wait for at least 24 hours after a Twitch stream to share that same content on any other platform. Let's suppose you start a stream on the Twitch platform. You can move over to a completely different platform only after you have ended your streaming on Twitch. And after your 24 hours window is over, you can share bits and parts of your live stream on any platform you want. However, in reality, you might notice that Twitch hardly enforces this rule strictly, and many streamers are in doubt about whether being a Twitch affiliate is even worth it now. There are definitely some pros and cons to the entire scenario. To cover the pros, being a twitch affiliate helps you earn money somewhat faster via subs and bits. It also helps you build a community and makes you rank higher in Twitch's algorithm. The primary con is that you cannot multi-stream after you become a Twitch affiliate which somewhat reduces your reach as a creator. What will happen if twitch affiliates multistream? When you become a Twitch affiliate, you have to sign an exclusivity agreement that you will not stream on any other platform at the same time. In this agreement, you will also have to agree that whatever content you share on Twitch, you will not share it on any other live streaming platform like YouTube. But what exactly happens if someone violates this agreement and ends up multi-streaming? In the case where affiliates are seen multi-streaming, it has been noticed that it is rare that the agreement policy is implemented immediately after, especially in the case of smaller content creators. This is because the moderators do not always spend so much time monitoring minor content creators, and hence they hardly ever realize that someone is violating the agreement. But in case the moderators notice that the agreement is broken and the streaming hours have been shared between Twitch and other platforms, the affiliate might end up losing their status. How to stream on Twitch and YouTube at the same time? For example, let's say that you have figured out your broadcasting preferences and you want to stream on both Twitch and YouTube simultaneously. So how to do that? Fortunately, there are several multi-streaming platforms and solutions out there that both major and minor creators can use to stream directly on multiple platforms. Here are a few methods using which you can achieve that goal. Using Restream streaming software. Restream Studio is very popular software in the market, which allows you to use multiple streaming accounts in one go. All you need to do is sign up on the platform. You can either go for the free version or the premium version depending on your budget and convenience. The free version works just fine, but the premium virgin offers a few other perks like extrusive social alerts, comments section management, and the ability to multi-stream on a maximum of 8 different platforms. After signing up on Restream, you need to click on the 'Add Channel' option and sign in to your Twitch and YouTube accounts. Your Restream dashboard will now show both the Twitter and YouTube accounts, and you'll have to give all the necessary permissions. Next, you need to open OBS Studio, which should be already set up with Twitch. You need to navigate to the settings and select Restream as the streaming platform, connect your OBS account to Restream, and enable all permissions. Now when you go live, you will stream on both Twitch and YouTube at the same time! Using Streamlabs Prime multi-streaming software You will need to purchase the premium subscription of Streamlabs, which is known as Streamlabs Prime if you want to stream on more than one platform. The subscription is approximately $20 per month and offers a variety of perks, including multi-streaming capability. First, you need to log in to your Twitch and YouTube accounts from Streamlabs itself to link them to the software. And now, when you click on the "Go Live" option, your stream will appear on both YouTube and Twitch. The free version of this software is decent too, but the premium version operates more smoothly and will give you a better experience overall. Pros and cons of streaming on Twitch and YouTube at the same time Talking about the pros at first, streaming on both your Twitch and YouTube channels means expanding your reach and reaching out to a higher number of audiences. Another advantage of streaming on two platforms simultaneously is that you will be able to figure out the best suitable time to stream on Twitch. If you want to do streaming for the long run, you might want to diversify your content channels based on the results. Streaming on both platforms at the same time will help you gain insights into what works better on which platform and this data can be helpful if you want to stay in this game for a long time. Now coming to the disadvantages, the first one is that when you use free accounts for streaming software and other services, it might lead to a few software issues, and your streaming session will not be as smooth as you wanted it to be. When you want to host multiple participants in one stream, you will need good quality hardware and maybe even a gaming PC to handle the load and maintain the upload speed. Another con is that if you are an affiliate Twitch streamer and you stream on YouTube at the same time, you might face trouble with your contractor. So before deciding to multi-stream, it is very essential to consider all the factors, especially if you are a Twitch affiliate. Conclusion When you are a content creator, it is true that you want to expose yourself on a variety of platforms so that you can reach out to more audiences. It also helps you monetize your work. Becoming a Twitch affiliate will help you earn money by streaming on the platform, and you can also build a community, but there are some restrictions where you cannot stream the same content on other platforms simultaneously. Even though it is very rare for the moderators to take action against an affiliate for violating the agreement, a slight risk is still there that the affiliate might lose their status. However, if you are determined that you do want to explore other streaming platforms at the same time, you can follow the methods mentioned in the article to achieve your goal.