Scheduled live stream

Creating the stream ahead of time in YouTube Studio gives you a URL to share, a countdown page and a Notify me button viewers can press. Reminders fire when you go live, which is the whole point: an audience gathered in advance beats hoping people spot you in the sidebar. The page also gives your social posts, newsletter and community posts somewhere to point in the days before. Scheduling early costs you nothing. Scheduling and then starting late or cancelling does cost you, because a dead countdown page teaches people to ignore the next one.