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Much more of a meta question, but why is live-streaming preferred by some people? Live streaming just seems to have so many downsides to me: 1. Requires real

Much more of a meta question, but why is live-streaming preferred by some people? Live streaming just seems to have so many downsides to me: 1. Requires real-time presence 2. No editing (meaning less efficient use of time for the viewer) 3. No client-side speeding up/skipping irrelevant parts 4. No possibility of index or table of contents What are some use cases where live streaming is better?

ratedgene 2y ago
Live interaction with a community is pretty big.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
femtozer 2y ago
I see one significant upside: combined with a chat, you can ask the content creator questions directly
fwip 2y ago
Interaction with viewers is the primary one. There is also the "event" nature of streaming, where the audience is excited to react to things together in real-time, like when people Tweet when watching the Superbowl or a show's season finale. Even for mundane streams, the "chat" will happily talk amongst themselves reacting to whatever the streamer is doing, which can feel like hanging out with friends. There's also times where the streamer is discussing something that is happening now or just happening (world events, the Superbowl, a game update, etc), where viewers are excited about the content right now and don't want to wait for the traditional record->edit->release cycle.
- freedomben 2y ago
  Ah thank you, this is the missing piece! That makes a lot of sense.
soulofmischief 2y ago
Some viewers prefer livestreaming, and we see streamers catering to those audiences. It depends on the streamer, but often times there is much stronger sense of community when there is a live, topic-oriented chat, especially when the streamer engages with the chat. This is not something you can satisfactorily replicate with prerecorded streams. Streaming is also much more low-cost to produce, editing can often represent an unwanted source of complexity and loss of creative control.
jmyeet 2y ago
Think of the difference between watching a live sporting event or a concert vs watching a recording of the same event. The latter might satisfy you but there's something different about the former. Live streaming is inherently mor einteractive and there's a shared experience simply because you can't speed up. I guess you could see that live-streaming is experience-based. VODs are results-based. Not strictly the case but there's a trend.
bookofjoe 2y ago
FWIW my YouTube live streams that go on for hours sometimes attract a total of 10-50 viewers who click in for even a second. No one EVER interacts. My 15-second YouTube Shorts of my cat get around 400 views, sometimes as many as 10,000! Go figure.
pjc50 2y ago
The very important thing in modern internet media: parasociality with the audience. Only by being live can you have a conversation with "chat", whether that's individual chatters or the hivemind of very large audience streams. There is a special skill of streamers who can play an action game on one half of the screen and read enough of chat on the other half to make and respond to jokes, at the same time. Another consideration: youtube and twitch apply different music licensing considerations to live, so almost anything that involves music MUST be live and unarchived.

ratedgene 2y ago

Live interaction with a community is pretty big.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

femtozer 2y ago

I see one significant upside: combined with a chat, you can ask the content creator questions directly

fwip 2y ago

Interaction with viewers is the primary one. There is also the "event" nature of streaming, where the audience is excited to react to things together in real-time, like when people Tweet when watching the Superbowl or a show's season finale. Even for mundane streams, the "chat" will happily talk amongst themselves reacting to whatever the streamer is doing, which can feel like hanging out with friends. There's also times where the streamer is discussing something that is happening now or just happening (world events, the Superbowl, a game update, etc), where viewers are excited about the content right now and don't want to wait for the traditional record->edit->release cycle.

freedomben 2y ago
Ah thank you, this is the missing piece! That makes a lot of sense.

soulofmischief 2y ago

Some viewers prefer livestreaming, and we see streamers catering to those audiences. It depends on the streamer, but often times there is much stronger sense of community when there is a live, topic-oriented chat, especially when the streamer engages with the chat. This is not something you can satisfactorily replicate with prerecorded streams. Streaming is also much more low-cost to produce, editing can often represent an unwanted source of complexity and loss of creative control.

jmyeet 2y ago

Think of the difference between watching a live sporting event or a concert vs watching a recording of the same event. The latter might satisfy you but there's something different about the former. Live streaming is inherently mor einteractive and there's a shared experience simply because you can't speed up. I guess you could see that live-streaming is experience-based. VODs are results-based. Not strictly the case but there's a trend.

bookofjoe 2y ago

FWIW my YouTube live streams that go on for hours sometimes attract a total of 10-50 viewers who click in for even a second. No one EVER interacts. My 15-second YouTube Shorts of my cat get around 400 views, sometimes as many as 10,000! Go figure.

pjc50 2y ago

The very important thing in modern internet media: parasociality with the audience. Only by being live can you have a conversation with "chat", whether that's individual chatters or the hivemind of very large audience streams. There is a special skill of streamers who can play an action game on one half of the screen and read enough of chat on the other half to make and respond to jokes, at the same time. Another consideration: youtube and twitch apply different music licensing considerations to live, so almost anything that involves music MUST be live and unarchived.