Twitch has signed licensing agreements with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music and “hundreds” of independent music rights holders that allow DJs to legally play copyrighted songs in their streams, the company announced this week.
The landmark deals, which Twitch claims are the first of their kind, precipitated the “Twitch DJ Program,” which will pay royalties to artists on the platform, but with some caveats.
“This program only applies to those who live stream as a DJ and does not apply to other uses of music,” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a blog entry. “DJs will need to sign up for a new agreement that will apply to all streams on their channel. For those who only stream DJ content part-time, we recommend creating a second independent channel dedicated to DJ live streaming.”
To “cover the cost of the music” played by DJs in their videos, Twitch will allocate a portion of its revenue to the record labels and artists behind the streamed music. In other words, DJs will have to shell out an unspecified percentage of their profits to rights holders. These costs will vary depending on “how a channel is monetized,” but for most streamers, Clancy says, Twitch will split them 50/50.
The platform experienced rapid growth after its acquisition by Amazon for $970 million in 2014, and its popularity exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic as DJs desperately turned to streaming to stay afloat financially. But Twitch found itself in trouble after issuing rampant DMCA takedown notices to legions of its users, who were unknowingly playing songs on their streams without the rights to do so under the company's business model.
“DJs have been streaming on Twitch for some time now, but they have been personally responsible for the challenges of addressing these issues, along with the risks of not doing so,” Clancy's blog post reads. “Twitch has been able to mitigate these risks during ongoing negotiations with music companies, who have been willing to maintain the status quo during our discussions.”
“It's crucial that DJs understand that the status quo on Twitch is not sustainable and that any viable future for the community requires us to find a solution,” he added.
Twitch
The new licensing agreements not only legitimize Twitch as a true music hub, but also serve as a watershed moment for DJs. They can now freely select music and perform without legal ramifications, opening new avenues for monetization and audience growth.
A late 2021 study by music analytics firm Luminate suggested that Twitch is instrumental in driving the discovery of electronic dance music and found that users of the platform “are 84% more likely to listen to EDM than the average music listener.” Look no further than Crossmauz, a teenage Twitch creator who set up a festival-grade rig of lasers, strobes, speakers, and even pyrotechnics in his bedroom to blast EDM during his gaming streams.
The number of DJs streaming on Twitch has more than quadrupled since 2020, according to Clancy, who said that “more than 15,000 of them have been able to build and monetize communities of music fans” on the platform.
“We're proud to be the first major service to provide a safe, permanent home for DJs, and we're excited to be able to promote and support these creators as they build communities on our service and beyond,” he said.
You can learn more about the “Twitch DJ Program” here.
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