Broadcast Live Video To Your Facebook Friends With Ustream’s BFF iPhone App

On Tuesday Ustream released its Best Friends Forever Broadcast for Friends iPhone app. This new app allows you to broadcast live to your friends on Facebook and, after the broadcast is complete, leave the video for later viewing. Though Ustream is not a music-specific service, many musicians have used it for various forms of broadcasts and since there are no limits on viewers, BFF should be quite useful for live music marketing.

Ustream Broadcast for Friends iPhone App Demo

Ustream supports numerous live shows and is intended to support a large viewership as well. Though you wouldn't guess from their homepage, they've benefitted quite a bit in the past from video broadcasts of or by musicians.

Their new Broadcast for Friends iPhone app now lets you broadcast to Facebook and it's even got filters. Features include:

• LIVE video shared right to your Facebook friends
• UNLIMITED length broadcasts
• 10 COOL ORIGINAL FILTERS to add some style to your broadcast
• LIVE NOTIFICATIONS when your friends comment or like your broadcast
• PRIVACY SETTINGS to control who can see your broadcasts on Facebook

The videos show up in your friends' newsfeeds. At the moment you can't broadcast from your page but that is a feature that's in the works.

Ustream explained to VentureBeat's Ricardo Bilton that they didn't integrate this functionality into their previous apps because they wanted to create a simpler user experience. The original apps were said to be designed for Ustream pro broadcasters.

Early users such as Bilton confirm that it's easy to use and he also points out that it automatically uploads the final video to one's timeline after the broadcast.

The Verge's Jeff Blagdon points to some glitches but overall it sounds like it could be an incredibly useful tool for music marketing.

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) maintains a business writing hub at Flux Research and blogs at Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.