The Flip Side of Renown and the Market[L’envers de la notoriété et du marché]

Live video streaming platforms such as Twitch are based on the production of many hours of live video, each watched by a small number of viewers. This article explores the production model underpinning it: not scattered publications by fans, or the failure of fame strategies, but the creation of a community of small-scale streamers. In this case, the vast majority of creators who film themselves live on Twitch have only a small number of viewers. We show that there is a commitment to a particular activity and that at the heart of this commitment are the multiple interactions that bind small-scale streamers together: in their practice, in their interaction with their audience, and with other streamers. Streaming, which begins as an interaction between enthusiasts, usually of a game, becomes something else. From personal interaction – between enthusiasts or with a few friends – and with practice they move on to interaction between a streamer and their audience, which is largely made up of other streamers. This is a new medium of contemporary audiovisual production with its own conventions, neither exactly those of media professionals, nor the simple aggregation of communities of practice that use the platform to publish their passion.