Mixcloud Adds Unlisted Feature for “Private” DJ Livestreaming

Mixcloud has added an “unlisted” feature to its Mixcloud Live livestreaming service. The feature, which is available to Mixcloud Pro members, allows DJs to go live without it being announced anywhere on the platform.

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This makes it easy for DJs wanting to do “private” livestreams on Mixcloud without the link being shared anywhere publicly. It also makes it easier to “go live” on Mixcloud in order to test your livestreaming set-up or just to have a “dress rehearsal” run-through of a set before the real performance.

However, it is not truly private, as the “unlisted” livestream will reside at your usual livestream address – it’s just that nobody will be notified. And it will never show in the Mixcloud apps, even to your subscribers – the only way people can access it is by clicking your link.

• You can try Mixcloud Pro free for a month, to test livestreaming and see if you feel it is worth subscribing to the service. Click here for more info.

Our Thoughts

Good to see this feature being added, despite the caveats above. Mixcloud is slowly adding to the feature set for its livestreaming offering.

Mixcloud does, however, seem to be under stiffer and stiffer competition, primarily from Twitch. People like Beatport and Serato – who you would think would be natural bedfellows for Mixcloud and its legal platform – have instead thrown their weight behind Twitch, which is no doubt harming Mixcloud’s push for dominance among DJs.

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This would indicate that those companies must believe Twitch to be getting its house in order to offer legal livestreaming soon enough, in much the same way as Mixcloud currently does. If and when that happens, Twitch would likely seriously erode Mixcloud’s position, because of the bigger reach and better features of that platform.

It will be fascinating to see how this plays out, but in our view Mixcloud needs to speed up development, and get super-serious about making industry partnerships with big-name players (in the same way Twitch seems to be doing), if it is to have a serious chance of dominating DJ livestreaming.