How to livestream to Instagram Live with pre-recorded video, for free
So, you’re trying to stream to Instagram LIVE? At first glance, you’ve probably deemed it as “impossible” or have been told that they don’t allow it.
Even more, you might have a pre-recorded video that you want to put onto Instagram LIVE as well. Maybe it’s a compilation, an interview, or perhaps a series that you filmed and now want to stream!
I’m here to tell you that it’s 100% possible, AND it can actually be really easy. In this article, I’ll show you the tools I use and how to make it really easy on yourself.
Oh, and did I mention that everything I use is free? I personally don’t mind paying for software that makes my life easier, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay anything. Especially if you’re just getting started!
You will need:
- An Instagram account to stream to
- A video to stream live
Usually Takes About: 5–15 minutes
(Most of this is just uploading time!)
[Edit: There’s also a YouTube video that covers these same tools, you can skip the article and watch it below.]
Step 1: Getting your video ready
Too many people forget about this part. Instagram Live utilizes vertical video, which means that instead of your video being 1920x1080, it needs to be 1080x1920.
If you don’t do this step, it can come off as unprofessional and really hurt your image. It’s important to have good-looking videos online and give your audience something that looks really sharp and quality.
Here’s three easy ways to make sure your video is vertical:
- Film your video content vertically, by turning your camera sideways.
- Edit your video, and rotate it 90°. (Your audience may have to turn their phones sideways, but it’s better than the alternative!)
- Automatically have your video “zoomed-in” on, losing the majority of the left and right framing of your video (not recommended).
By doing this, you’ll be mitigating your risk of having poor, pixelated video, and you’ll be creating something that people actually will enjoy watching more.
Step 2: Finding an easy-to-use streaming service
There’s a lot of options that you can use here — Some that are very complex, and others that are simpler to use. For the best quality way to go LIVE to Instagram, you’ll want to make sure that the software you choose has some key features.
Key features you will need in software:
- Make sure it doesn’t use your own wifi the whole time, as it may drop in spots and become glitchy, or the audio will go out of sync. (This is the most important thing to know by far!!)
- Find a software that will start and stop the video for you. (Many free softwares will just loop your pre-recorded video infinitely, and you’ll need to wait with a timer when to click “stop” with free software.)
- You’ll want to stream your video at the best possible settings, which is 1080p HD. Anything less than can look unprofessional and trashy quickly!
All of this being said, one amazing tool for this is LIVEpigeon.com.
It has 100% everything you’ll need, it’s easy to use, and it uses Amazon servers to make sure everything is always in sync and all advanced settings are automatically taken care of.
Their software has a free 14-day trial, and you can easily stream pre-recorded videos to Instagram with it. Plus, they don’t have file size limits, so you can upload whatever size video that you’d like.
Once inside and logged in, you should see a screen come up with multiple options. Here you can go LIVE to YouTube or Facebook super easily without a stream-key, just by logging in! But because you’re going LIVE to Instagram, we will be using a stream-key.
Once inside, just drag and drop your videos to start uploading. You can upload multiple videos at a time, or just the one.
Once your video is uploaded and processed, you’ll want to hover over your video and click the “…” menu. You’ll see three options pull up, to “Go LIVE now,” “Schedule,” or “Delete video.”
Just click “Go LIVE now” and you’ll see a small option menu pull up. This is where we can enter a “stream url” and a “stream-key.”
Which brings us to our final step…
Step 3: Connecting to Instagram
There’s a free software called YellowDuck.tv, which connects to Instagram and gives us all of the information that we need to begin live-streaming.
LIVEpigeon is used to send the video to YellowDuck.
YellowDuck is used to put the video onto our Instagram account.
Once YellowDuck is downloaded and installed, it will ask us to login to Instagram.
After signing in, you will get a “stream-key” and “stream url.”
We will need both of these things to connect our video to Instagram.
Note: Once you click “Log In & Start,” your followers will begin receiving notifications that you just started a LIVE video. You’ll want to move fast, and not waste much time.
Go back to LIVEpigeon and copy & paste your “stream url” and “stream-key.”
Once you click “Go LIVE Now,” your video will immediately start being streamed to Instagram.
In order to watch your own livestream, you HAVE to be logged in under a different account.
Instagram ultimately wants you to be going LIVE from your own built-in phone camera. Instagram wasn’t built to have you watch your own livestream.
When you’re navigating in the app, you won’t see yourself LIVE at all! This may confuse you at first, (trust me, I’ve been there too) but after you sign into another Instagram account and view your original account that’s LIVE, you’ll see that you’re livestream is there and working. No problemo.
Now, your livestream should be working, and you should see your video playing on your Instagram Live story.
Note: You must leave the YellowDuck app open during the entire livestream. If it is closed, your livestream will end.
After your video is done playing, all that is left is to close the YellowDuck app that is running on your computer, and that’ll end the livestream!
The benefits of live-streaming this way:
By using pre-recorded video to Instagram, you get all of the benefits as if you actually did go LIVE! Your followers will get notifications pushing them to jump on, and then they will have the ability to comment and have fun in the livestream.
When Instagram notices that a lot of people are enjoying your livestream and are sticking around on it, Instagram will begin to think that your account also has really great content. They will reward you by giving you more publicity and eyeballs.
This means that your content will begin to be seen by more people. Whether that’s through post threads, daily feeds, or on the discovery page.
Pro Tip: Join into the comments with another account and engage with the people watching. Stimulate them, call them out by name. See if you can get other people to begin commenting more than they would have normally, and if you can create excitement, buzz, or sharing. The more the better!
So, how do you go LIVE to Instagram with a pre-recorded video?
You’re going to need a couple of softwares. Luckily two really simple softwares that makes this easy are LIVEpigeon.com and YellowDuck.tv. By using both of these, and linking them together, you’ll be able to go live to Instagram in seconds. Bonus points because you can livestream pre-recorded videos!
Use LIVEpigeon.com for streaming pre-recorded videos to Instagram.
(Note: LIVEpigeon also works with Facebook and YouTube. They have a 14-day trial, so you won’t lose any pennies or sleep for at least 14 days!)
Use YellowDuck.tv to connect to Instagram as a “camera,” and by using their streamkey you’ll be able to also stream to Instagram.
Happy live streaming!
