Your Questions: Best Free Live Streaming Services For DJs?

Digital DJ Tips Platinum Group member Ransom asks: “I was just about to go on Mixlr to broadcast a Techno set, and found that you can no longer broadcast using their standard free service option. Does anyone know of any other free audio-only options for live streaming DJ sets?”

Digital DJ Tips Says…

I had exactly the same thing recently, Ransom. I had been using Mixlr from its inception and was gutted when I got an email saying that they were discontinuing their free service. There is good news though – there are plenty of other free streaming sites that you can use. Granted, some of them might not (at least at the moment) have the organic feel that Mixlr had, where random listeners floated in to listen to your sets but nonetheless, they are free!

Chew has made up a lot of ground recently and is free to use, although you will have to pay if you want to keep your sets online. As you know, one of the cool things about Mixlr was that everything was kept on your showreel indefinitely. With Chew though, you can choose to record and save your set locally, so if you want to share it elsewhere, there is no real problem.

Another up-and-comer in the same vein as Chew is Grooveo. It works in exactly the same way but is totally free. The only downside is that the service is sparsely populated at the moment, so you are going to have to drive your audience there; don’t expect many organic listeners and follows. Another service that we recently found out about is Livesets – it offers free live streaming and broadcasting to digital DJs worldwide, and focuses on DJs who use Traktor Pro, Virtual DJ & Mixxx.

You always have the option of streaming live via YouTube and Facebook Live but this comes with the risk of your content being taken down and your account being suspended if you are accused of copyright infringement. While these two services could be seen as “go-to”, for streaming DJs they are a minefield to navigate safely. There are plenty of horror stories to be found online of people having their entire accounts deleted after being flagged for copyright infringement.

All-in-all, we agree that it’s a shame that Mixlr has become a premium service. However, as above, there are plenty of other services offering a similar product. Some might even be considered better, with the inclusion of video streaming. All we would advise is to err on the side of caution and make sure that your hide is covered when you broadcast your sets online, especially if they are saved and used for commercial purposes. Be aware that there are many unscrupulous DJ mix hosting sites out there that absolve themselves from any responsibility in the fine print of their terms and conditions.

Do you live stream your sets? Which service do you use? Where do you do it from, home or elsewhere? Let us know in the comments below…