How To Live Stream A Pre Recorded Video To YouTube from Mac or PC?

Do you want to know how to Livestream a pre recorded video to YouTube from your Mac or PC? If yes, here’s how I do it.

But, is live streaming really necessary?

Can’t you directly upload videos to YouTube instead of LiveStreaming?

Frankly, no one knows whether there is a definite advantage to LiveStreaming a video rather than simply uploading a pre-recorded video it to YouTube, the normal way.

However, some SEO experts do believe that the YouTube algorithm in its search results gives an advantage to the videos that are live-streamed. Anyway, there is no way we can verify these claims.

The only way to verify these claims and to know the results for sure is by experimenting with this method ourselves. And to do that we need to Livestream a video.

But most people including me, are not very comfortable putting our faces on camera for the world to see, during a LiveStream. And that’s where the technique I am going to show, comes in handy.

Using this technique you can upload and LiveStream a prerecorded video to YouTube from your Mac or PC.

How To Live Stream A PreRecorded Video To YouTube from Mac or PC, Step By Step?

I am going to show you how to do a LiveStream from Mac because that’s what I use regularly. The steps involved and the tool, both are the same if you use a Windows PC.

If you find this tutorial technically challenging, we have got an alternative, easier option for you.

Here is a software using which you can easily stream your pre-recorded videos to multiple social media platforms like YouTube, FaceBook, Periscope, Twitch and more. You can even schedule your videos.

OBS

To start the process you need a software called Open Broadcaster Software, popularly known as OBS. It’s a great video recording and Livestreaming software which is also free.

To start the LiveStream process first you need to download the software. You can visit the following link to download it. It works with both Mac and the PC.

Setting Up Your YouTube Channel for LiveStream

Once you have downloaded the OBS and installed it on your MAC or PC, its time to set up your YouTube channel for the upcoming Livestream.

To do that head on to your YouTube channel and click on the creator studio button.

Now go to the Livestreaming option in the left side and click on GET STARTED.

If you haven’t previously connected your phone number with the account and verified it, you will be greeted with the following screen where you will need to verify your phone number.

Please remember that it will take 24 hours for your LiveStream feature to be enabled on your YouTube channel, after successfully verifying your phone number.

Once the Livestream feature gets activated the window will look similar to the one in the picture below.

Now scroll down the page and go to the section that says ENCODER SETUP and note the STREAM NAME/key. This is the secret key that we need to connect OBS with the YouTube channel. Please do not share this key with anyone else.

Now open the OBS and go to the PREFERENCES section and choose the STREAM tab. In that section choose the YouTube/YouTube gaming as services and enter the STREAM KEY in the stream key section as shown in the picture below.

And that’s about it.

Now, all you need to do is go to the OBS main interface and click on ADD SCENE.

Name the scene and then go to the SOURCES section and click on the + button to add a source. Now choose the MEDIA SOURCE as the source. and choose the prerecorded video file that you want to Livestream to YouTube.

Once you have finished adding the media source file, click on the START STREAMING button on the right lower corner of OBS to start streaming the pre-recorded video file to YouTube.

And that’s how to Livestream a pre recorded video to YouTube.

You can add thumbnail, description, titles, and tags to this live stream from the YouTube dashboard itself as you do with the regular YouTube uploads.