Saturday, July 23, 2011

Live Audio Broadcasting with Mixlr

I'd heard of the sites that allow live video broadcasting, but hadn't really found any that specialized in audio.  That's why when a friend on facebook shared a link to this the other day, I had to check it out.  We've been doing live audio cybercasting of our church services and Bible studies for years, using Real Audio's Producer and Server software.  That can get expensive and complicated, and you need access to your own server or someone with a server running the software.  And then all your listeners have to have RealPlayer - not that RealPlayer is bad and everyone shouldn't have it, but...

Anyway, this site is called Mixlr, and it offers high quality audio broadcasting, FREE for anyone. Sign up, download their free broadcasting app, and you're ready to go.  I just tried a test broadcast, and it was super simple.  I didn't even plug a microphone into the computer - just used the built-in microphone.  For better quality, you'd want to plug in a microphone or even a complete sound system.  While you're broadcasting, you can share with your twitter followers or facebook friends, to invite them to listen in.


Live broadcasts can be hosted on the mixlr site, where there's a chatroom for listeners to interact and comment, or you can embed the mixlr player on your website or blog, and people can listen there.  Broadcasts can be started immediately or scheduled ahead of time.  At the end of the live broadcast, mixlr saves it to your 'showreel' for later listening.  If you upgrade to a premium account, you can download your broadcast files, but with a free account, you have to listen to them on mixlr.

Mixlr looks like a very useful site/service.  Check it out if you've been looking for a simple way to broadcast live high quality audio.