Discord is a popular chat app with millions of users. It’s perfect for groups of friends who want to stay in touch, but it can also be used by businesses to communicate with their customers. One way businesses use Discord is to create channels for different purposes. For example, one channel might be used for customer support, while another might be used for team meetings. Creating and using a stage channel is easy! Here’s how:

  1. Open Discord and click on the “Channels” button in the main menu.
  2. In the Channels list, click on the “Create Channel” button (or press Ctrl+N).
  3. Enter a name for your channel and click on the “Create Channel” button (or press Enter).
  4. In the “Channel Settings” window, set the following options: Channel Type: Stage (for use with voice and video chats) Server: Your Discord server URL (for example, https://discordapp.com/channels/YOUR_DISCORD_SERVER) Members: Your desired channel membership (for example, all members) Click on the “Save Changes” button to finish setting up your stage channel! ..

You’ll feel at home with the Stage channels if you’re familiar with audio-based social networks like Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. Apart from hosting a group listening music party, you can set up an audio-only Stage event to gather folks who want to speak about and listen to a particular topic.

Stage Channels are available only in Community servers, so if you’ve already created a regular Discord server with your friends, you’ll need to change it to a Community server.

RELATED: How to Create, Set Up, and Manage Your Discord Server

If you’re a Community server owner or moderator, here’s how you can create and set one up.

How to Create a Stage Channel in Community Server on Discord

Since a Stage Channel holds an audio-only broadcast, you’ll need to configure your microphone and headset with Discord before you begin.

To make a Stage channel, open the Discord app or website and head to your Community server. First, you’ll need to enable the Manage Roles and Manage Channels options. So, click your Community server name in the top-left corner and select “Server Settings” from the dropdown.

Select “Roles” from the left-hand column and choose “Default Permissions” on the right-hand side.

Then, select the “Moderator” option, or whichever role name you’ve assigned for the moderators on your Community server. Select the “Permissions” tab on the right-hand side.

Toggle on the switch for “Manage Channels” and “Manage Roles” since they’re off by default. Then, select the “Save Changes” button and press Esc to exit the “Server Settings.”

RELATED: How to Configure Your Microphone and Headset in Discord

Now, click or tap your Server name and select “Create Channel” from the dropdown.

That opens up the menu to create a new Text, Voice, Announcement, or Stage Channel. Select the “Stage Channel” option, type out the channel name in the text box under the “Channel Name” section, and select the “Next” button.

After that, you’ll see the “Add Stage Moderator” screen to let you add people as the Stage Moderators to manage and conduct a Stage event. You can pick the “Roles” (server moderators) or the server members. The Stage moderators can manage Speakers and even start a new Stage event. When you’re done, select the “Create Channel” button.

The Stage Channel’s name will appear above the Text Channels list.

Next, click or tap the new stage channel in the left-hand column, and then select “Start the Stage.”

Click or tap the “Got it!” button on the welcome screen to proceed.

Type a topic and choose the Stage privacy—“Members Only” or “Public.”

If you’re making the Stage event for the first time, choose “Members Only” before you open it to everyone.

Your Stage event will become visible in the Stage Channel that you created.

You can always change the Stage event’s privacy setting from “Members Only” to “Public” later. Choosing the “Public” privacy option will list your Stage event in the Stage Discovery section to make it open for all Discord users. Also, your Discord contacts can see Stage event on your profile and can tune in or join the event while the Stage is live.

To open up the Stage event to everyone, select the gear icon in the top-right corner.

Select the “Public” setting under the Privacy section to switch it to a Public Stage event and select the “Continue” button.

A window will show up to remind you what it means to make the Stage event public. If you’re fine with that, select the “Start Stage” button to proceed.

That’s it. After that, you can create custom invite links to share across social networks, messengers, and sites so that people can join the Stage event and eventually join your Discord server.

RELATED: How to Host a Spotify Group Listening Party on Discord