How do I start a live stream on Fountain?

While listening to a live stream is something that perhaps only your most engaged listeners are going to do, podcasters on Fountain have found that these listeners are the most likely to go above any beyond in their support, sending larger amounts on a more regular basis. Going live is also a great engagement driver as it allows the audience to participate directly in the show as it's being recorded. Whether you're already live streaming your content on other platforms or you're new to this, making it available on Fountain is pretty straightforward if you follow the steps below.

Set up your podcast feed

To start a live stream on Fountain, the first step is to set up your podcast feed using a hosting service like Blubrry that supports live streaming as well as the other Podcasting 2.0 features. If you have already set up you podcast feed using another service such as Spotify For Podcasters, Acast or Podbean, you can easily migrate your podcast to Blubrry by following the guide here.

Set up your RTMP streaming server

A streaming server allows you to host your live audio and/or video content so that it can be inserted into your podcast feed and made available to listeners on Fountain. In this case, we want to set up a cloud-based RTMP streaming server which will provide us with a RTMP URL, Stream Key and Playback URL. Major streaming server providers include Wowza and DaCast, but the simplest and cheapest option is Viloud, who offer a 14-day trial period that allows live video streams up to one hour each at no cost. If you plan for your livestreams to last longer than one hour, you can upgrade to a business plan. To obtain your RTMP URL, Stream Key and Playback URL, sign up with Viloud and choose Live Stream in the side menu.

Set up your livestream software

Services like StreamYard and Restream offer the valuable ability to multi-stream your broadcasts to various destinations at one time. If you are already streaming content to multiple platforms, the chances are you are already using one of these platforms. If not, create an account (we will use Streamyard for the purpose of this example). From your Streamyard dashboard, choose Create > Live Stream > New Destination > Custom RTMP. Now enter the RTMP URL and Stream Key that you generated in Vilould and add it as a destination then create your live stream. After entering the studio, choose your audio source and go live. You should now see the content you are capturing in Streamyard being pulled into Viloud. Now we just need to configure your RSS feed to pull in the content from Viloud!

Manage your live stream status in Blubrry

To set up your live stream in Blubrry, you will need the PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry. Now that you have access to your Blubrry Wordpress dashboard, from the side menu go to Powerpress > Live Item to configure your live stream.

Tick the box for Enable Live Item Feature
Set the Status as Pending ahead of the stream and update to Live when you are ready
Add the Start Date/Time and End Date/Time as well as the timezone
Update your Livestream Title and Description (this is what will be displayed in Fountain)
Set the Stream Type as Audio and paste in your Playback URL from Vilouand
Press Save Changes to update your RSS feed
Once your live stream is over, set the Status as Ended and untick Enable Live Item Feature

Make sure that you inform your listeners ahead of time when the live stream begins. Once it starts, remind your listeners to stream and Boost throughout the show. It's a good idea to read out the Boosts during the live stream or at the end.