If you want viewers to see the current kirtan within the picture, add an on-screen text overlay to your broadcast scene. The usual path is to get the track title from the playback source, make it available to OBS as metadata or a text file, and display that file with an OBS text source.
That is different from changing the YouTube video’s title field. A metadata update changes information on YouTube; it does not draw text into the encoded video image. Decide which result you want before choosing a workflow.
Decide whether you mean an overlay or YouTube title
An overlay is part of the video picture. A viewer can see it on a television, phone or embedded player because OBS renders the text into the stream output. It might say “Raam Naam Jap” while that track plays, then change when the next track begins.
The YouTube title field is separate information attached to the live broadcast. It appears in places such as the video listing and watch page, subject to YouTube’s interface. Changing it does not create a graphic over the kirtan image. Google’s Live Streaming API documentation describes a broadcast as a YouTube video, while its update method allows authorised clients to change broadcast properties.
A third possibility is manual text. You or an operator can edit an OBS text source or the YouTube title when a track changes. That can be enough for an occasional programme or a special devotional event, but it requires someone to notice each transition and make the edit. It is not automatic merely because the playlist continues playing.
| Approach | What changes for viewers | What it depends on | Suitable use |
|---|---|---|---|
| OBS text overlay | Text is rendered within the video image | A title from the player, an integration or a maintained text file | Showing each current kirtan track in the picture |
| YouTube broadcast title update | The YouTube video’s title metadata | An authorised API client or manual change | Updating the listing title when the programme name changes |
| Manual OBS text edit | An in-picture label, if you edit the scene source | An operator at each change | A small schedule with occasional track changes |
For most “show the current song title on my YouTube live stream” requests, an OBS overlay is the relevant result. The rest of the main workflow below covers that route. The API section explains the separate broadcast title field.
Get the current track title from the playback source
Start at the point where the audio actually plays. It may be a VLC playlist source inside OBS, VLC running separately, another media player, or a programme that controls playback and streaming. The title display needs information from that playback path; a playlist looping by itself does not tell OBS which title to draw.
Check how the source identifies each item. A player might expose tags such as title and artist, or a playback system might know the current playlist item. A file name can serve as a fallback if you maintain a consistent naming convention, but a file name is not proof that the recording’s embedded metadata is correct. If your library contains a file called Track 07.mp3, OBS cannot infer its devotional title without a reliable mapping or supplied text.
Do not assume a particular source automatically exports its metadata. The integration depends on the player, operating system, software versions and how the 24/7 setup is assembled. Establish that the source can identify the current item before investing time in styling an overlay.
If you use OBS’s VLC Video Source, the OBS media sources guide describes playlist playback and a loop option, and notes that VLC must be installed for that source. Those playback features do not, on their own, establish a working path from track metadata to an overlay. If your stream is built around a playlist, the practical distinction is: playback decides what is heard; a separate metadata route decides what title OBS can display. For loop behaviour and transitions, see this guide to making a YouTube stream loop without a black screen.
Before building the display, run through more than one track and observe what the player calls the current item. Check tracks with missing tags, unusually long names, Sanskrit transliteration, punctuation and artist fields. The aim is not to make every recording perfect at this stage; it is to find out what information is available and where it comes from.
Expose the title as metadata or a text file
OBS needs a value it can read. One route is an integration that watches the actual player and exposes the current title. Another is a helper that writes title information to a text file. OBS community resources document file-based approaches, including a resource for writing now-playing information and another focused on VLC metadata. They are community tools, not an official guarantee that a given combination will work unattended on your machine.
The OBS forum resource Now Playing To File describes a helper that writes media-session information to files when information changes. The VLC-focused Now Playing Monitor resource describes monitoring VLC metadata with optional text-file export. Read the current resource instructions and confirm compatibility with your player and operating system before relying on either. Do not treat a forum resource as a built-in feature of OBS.
For a file-backed overlay, the important hand-off is simple: the helper or playback integration writes the current title to a known file, and OBS reads that file as text. Confirm the exact output path, file format and update behaviour from the tool’s instructions. If OBS is pointed to the wrong file, or the writer is not running, a correctly styled text source can still show nothing or retain an old value.
Keep the title output predictable. If the integration can write just the track name, use that rather than a full block of player status text. If you want artist and title together, decide on a consistent layout such as Track — Artist, and check that the tool produces it in the form OBS expects. Avoid passing extra control characters or unrelated playback information into the visible label.
Plan for absent or poor metadata. You can maintain a title file manually for a special programme, use a filename convention you control, or show a neutral fallback such as the channel or programme name. A blank title or stale track name can mislead viewers, so decide what should appear when playback is paused, stopped, or has moved to an untagged file. Do not present guessed information as live track metadata.
Add a text source to the OBS scene
Once the title is available in a file, add a text source to the scene that is actually sent to the stream. In OBS, create or select a text source, enable its option to read from a file, and choose the title file produced by your metadata route. The community resource’s documented workflow likewise points users to a text source, the read-from-file setting and the file to display.
Place the source over an area that remains legible without covering important devotional imagery, lyrics or a person speaking. Keep the text short enough to fit at the output resolution, and check it on the actual scene rather than only in the source properties. A title that looks readable on a computer monitor may be too small on a phone, while a long track name may run off the edge of the picture.
Style for the stream’s background, not only for the first still image. A light title over a pale temple image can disappear; a dark background bar can help, but should not obscure a meaningful part of the frame. Use a modest outline, shadow or backing if needed, then view a recording or private test playback at normal size. Keep placement consistent so returning viewers know where to look.
If the scene has variants, such as a main playlist scene and a prayer or announcement scene, verify where the text source exists. A source in one scene does not necessarily appear in another. If you use nested scenes, check that the title source is included in the scene combination being broadcast and that it is not hidden beneath another layer.
Keep a copy of the selected file path and the source configuration in your operating notes. This is particularly useful if someone else may restart OBS or replace a media file. For broader continuous-stream configuration, the guide to OBS settings for a continuous YouTube stream on a home computer in India covers a different part of the setup; the title feed still needs its own check.
Check updates during playback
Do not verify only that the first title appears. Let the source advance through several different tracks and watch for the title to change at the right transition. Confirm that it does not update too early, remain stuck on the previous item, or briefly show a blank value that distracts from the stream.
Test the cases most likely to occur in your library: a file with no title tag, a title with a long name, non-Latin script or transliteration, and a pause or stop state. If the playback integration behaves differently when a track has no tags, decide whether the fallback should be a maintained title, a programme label or no text. The right choice depends on how viewers use the information, but the behaviour should be deliberate.
Then test recovery. Restart the player and OBS in a controlled session and see whether the title feed resumes, whether the file path remains valid, and whether the correct item is reported after the playlist continues. If your stream runs from a home computer, recovery of the overall broadcast is a separate concern from recovery of the text label. A guide on keeping an always-on YouTube stream running without a graphical desktop discusses a different operating arrangement, but the same principle applies: check what happens after a restart rather than assuming the previous state is restored.
Where possible, review the output as a viewer would see it, not only in the OBS preview. A local recording can confirm that the title is actually in the encoded image. A private or otherwise controlled test broadcast can also show whether the update is visible at the destination. Do not infer success from a changing text file alone: the OBS source must read it, be visible in the active scene, and be included in the outgoing image.
Write down the normal and failure states in a short operating note: which file is read, which programme starts the writer, what title should show when tags are absent, and how to restore the source after a restart. That note is often more useful during an overnight interruption than a complex arrangement that only its original author understands. For unattended streams, reliability comes from a tested and recoverable title path, not from the presence of automation by itself.
Update the broadcast title separately if needed
If you also want the YouTube listing to identify the current track, treat that as a separate task. The YouTube Live Streaming API has a liveBroadcasts.update method that accepts the broadcast’s snippet.title. The method requires authorised API access; it is not a setting that OBS text sources change automatically.
The update method documentation is important reading before building an automated updater. Its request uses an ID and scheduled start time, and the documentation warns that when an update includes a property group in part, existing values omitted from the request body can be deleted. In practice, this means an API client must build the request carefully and preserve the values it intends to retain. If you do not already operate an authorised API client, manual editing may be more appropriate than adding one just to change the listing title.
A listing update also needs its own rule for when to run. If every short track change triggers an update, the title field may become noisy and the automation has additional failure cases. You might instead keep the broadcast title as the programme or channel name, and use the overlay for individual track titles. That separation gives viewers a stable listing identity while still showing the song in the picture.
Changing a broadcast title does not put that text over the stream. If you need both outputs, implement and test both paths independently: OBS renders the overlay, while an authorised API client or an operator changes YouTube metadata. For an overview of where listing titles fit into discoverability, read the guide to YouTube Live SEO and helping viewers find your streams.
Keep the workflow manageable for a 24/7 channel
The more components involved, the more places a title can stop updating: playback, metadata extraction, file writing, OBS file reading, and the visible scene. Keep the route as narrow as your setup allows. If a helper can read the player that actually plays the stream and write a simple file, that may be easier to diagnose than a chain of unrelated tools. If your titles are maintained by hand, make the hand-off between the playlist and the person editing them explicit.
Do not couple a label to a playlist order unless you can keep the order and title list in sync. A track inserted near the beginning can shift every later association. Reading the current item from playback is generally a better source of truth than predicting the track from elapsed time, but even metadata can be incomplete or wrong. Spot-check the recordings and decide how corrections are made.
If OBS, the player or the title helper is updated, re-run the transition and restart checks before leaving the channel unattended. Community tools and integrations can change, and their compatibility is specific to your setup. Keep the existing working configuration available until the replacement has shown the right title across transitions and recovery.
A cloud-operated broadcast can remove the need to keep your local computer switched on, but it does not remove the need to supply and verify the title content. StreamNeo turns an uploaded video into a YouTube live stream; if your immediate difficulty is keeping a computer running through the night rather than sourcing current track metadata for an OBS overlay, that addresses the computer-running part of the problem, not the metadata-to-text workflow described here. Check that the broadcast format you choose can meet your need for changing on-screen track labels before settling on any operating arrangement.
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FAQ
Does changing the YouTube title show the current kirtan on screen?
No. The broadcast title is YouTube metadata, while an on-screen title is text rendered into the video image. Use an OBS text source fed by the playback title or a text file when you want viewers to see the track over the picture.
Can OBS display a title from a text file?
Yes. Add a text source, enable its read-from-file option and select the file containing the title. The file still needs to be produced or maintained, and you should check that OBS reads updates during playback.
Will a looping VLC playlist automatically change the overlay?
Not necessarily. VLC playback and looping determine what is played, but the title display needs a separate, working route from the current item to OBS. Confirm that your chosen player integration exposes the title before relying on it.
What should I show when a track has no metadata?
Choose a fallback you can verify, such as a maintained title or the programme name, or deliberately hide the track label. Avoid leaving an old title visible as though it belongs to the new track, and test pause, stop and restart behaviour before leaving the stream unattended.