Moving to Mixer

Date: 18 November 2019

Things are changing here at Music Free Gaming. Some of the changes are minor but the biggest one is that I’m moving exclusively to Mixer!

This is super exciting for me and it’s not a change I’m making lightly. I like being open with you about what’s going on here so let’s break it down.

Just like the channel itself, this change started with YouTube. They may a recent change that required all videos and live streams to state whether or not they were targeted at children. That seems simple enough but it broke Restream’s ability to stream to YouTube. At least, it did for me. Given how little interaction and growth I’ve seen on YouTube since the Adpocolypse it didn’t really bother me as much as I though it would.

When I look at my metrics over the last year or so, it tells a pretty simple story. There are a few stalwart viewers over there. Y’all are amazing but there’s no way to sugar coat it. YouTube is dead for me a streaming platform. That left Twitch and Mixer.

Here’s where things get a little bit more personal. I’ve been thinking about focusing on a single platform for a while now. (It’s been over a year, I think.) Restreaming has been great and let me try new services without abandoning the old ones. Unfortunately, it’s had its share of problems.

One of the biggest ones is inherent in the platform itself. Restream adds latency. A typical stream will have 8-10 seconds of latency. Restream adds another 5-8 seconds. Combined with the universal delay that comes from you having to type a response, it can sometimes be hard for me to tell what y’all are reacting to. By going directly to Mixer with FTL, I can that time down to a couple of seconds. You might recall that I streamed Kingdom Hearts 3 exclusively on Mixer. It was an amazing experience reacting with the audience in nearly real time.

The big question for me at this point is whether or not it’s worth while to continue streaming to Twitch. Twitch has always been my smallest platform. I’ve had a little bit of growth there but it’s been pretty limited and, honestly, not a lot of repeat viewers. Still, it’s light years better than YouTube.

What really made me hesitate was the connections I’ve made there with other streamers. I’m on a couple of Twitch teams and leaving Twitch means leaving those teams behind. That’s not an easy thing to do. The cold facts, though, show that Twitch is not the place for me right now.

That brings me back to Mixer. I’ve said that if I was every going to give up multi-streaming and focus on one platform, it was going to be Mixer. Well, it’s that time and I’m super excited. Mixer’s community is amazing. In a lot of ways, Mixer feels new and fresh. This has me more excited about streaming than I’ve been for a while. It wasn’t an easy decision but I think it’s the best thing for me and Music Free Gaming.

So, what’s next? My schedule remains the same. I’ll still be streaming on Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm MST and Saturday at 7:30am. I will also continue to upload the stream archives to the YouTube channel. I also have one more charity stream scheduled for December.

I hope to see y’all on Tuesday!

Update 2019-11-18: Added explainer video