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Comment by bryans | Hacker News Reader

This is pretty well done! Coincidentally, I've been working on a very similar project for a friend of mine, for the exact same reasons. Self-hosted live streaming is definitely the way to go (~8% costs versus ~50% Twitch fees), so it's great to see more independent and open source solutions popping up!

I do think it's important to note, however, that self-hosting doesn't legally absolve the streamer from PRO fees for playing covers, and they'll still need to register and pay based on actual revenue. PROs are notoriously aggressive about pursuing that kind of skirting.

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I wonder how do you calculate 8% costs. Also is it possible to include in the calculation the "discovery" service that twitch provides?

Twitch discovery is not what they pretend it is. A raid results in a tiny amount of follows, and very few people actually peruse the browse page.

As for the calculation, that's based on: 2.9% + 30c card processing, ~3% PRO fees, plus bandwidth and server costs.

Twitch has 0 costs, and provide you with avenues to earn revenue (ads, bits, subs).

Your self-hosted platform has some costs, and doesn't have any way to directly monetize via ads or similar.

Twitch takes 40-60% of everything, so that's not "0 costs." Bits are just donations, and every streamer already tries to get people to donate directly to circumvent Twitch's fees, and subs are possible through Stripe directly, or through Patreon or their self-hosted version.

So, literally none of what you said is reality.

Twitch takes a cut, but doesn't "cost" anything.

When you signup and decide to start streaming, do you have to buy a subscription or pay for something?

You're making some ridiculous assertions that do not reflect reality in any way. If a business pays a commission to a service it utilizes, that is a cost. If the viewer is paying $5 and Twitch takes $2.50, it COSTS me $2.50 to participate in their system.

Whereas, what you're suggesting is that the expense magically doesn't even exist, simply because you didn't need to pay it up front. Except that's not how anything works.

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