Ultra.
From adding cool theme overlays to your live stream to controlling video sources, streaming software like Streamlabs Desktop is an excellent tool to help level up your live stream content. Plus, with connections to YouTube, all you need to stream is to log in. However, to get started live streaming on YouTube using some streaming software, you need a YouTube stream key (and to read our complete guide on YouTube live streaming, of course). A stream key is a unique “password” associated with your YouTube channel that tells the encoding software where to send your live stream. Virtually all third-party streaming software will require a stream key for setup.
Finding your stream key is yet another task you must complete before going live with your streaming software; however, it’s much simpler than you think. Below, we’ve outlined the steps for finding your YouTube stream key so you can get started streaming today.
How to Find Your YouTube Stream Key
- Go to studio.YouTube.com and log into the account you’d like to retrieve a stream key for.
- Once you’re logged in and are on your Channel Dashboard, click “Go Live.”
- Next, you’ll be presented with a YouTube Live Control Room screen asking, “When do you want to go live?”. Look for the option “Right now” and click “Start.”
- The next screen should ask you what type of stream you’d like to begin. Select “Streaming software.”
- Once you’ve selected your stream type, you should land on a webpage showing your stream settings towards the bottom left of your screen. You can copy your stream key to paste into an encoder or reset it if needed on this page.
- You’re all done! You’ve found your YouTube stream key and are ready to go live using your streaming OBS of choice.
Though using streaming software to go live on YouTube may sound like a complicated process, the truth is it's not (so long as you're pointed in the right direction). We hope you've found this tutorial helpful—feel free to share it with another creator that may find it useful.