A conflict between the music industry and Twitch is brewing. Representatives of artists in the music industry sharply criticize the streaming platform, claiming they are doing too little to protect the rights of artists. This endangers their existence. However, Twitch denies this.
This is the letter: The US site Variety has a letter from representatives of musicians and songwriters to Twitch and Amazon. It is signed by 18 organizations representing copyright holders. Among these organizations is the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which claims to represent 85% of the music legally sold in the USA (via riaa). So this is somewhat like “the music industry” you often read about.
The letter was sent on Thursday, October 22nd. It was addressed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the Twitch CEO Emmet Shear (featured image). Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014 for $970 million.
The letter states that Twitch allows its streamers to use the rights holders’ music without a license. It appears that Twitch is doing nothing against the thousands of copyright violations and doesn’t even acknowledge them.
It is mentioned that the representatives of the artists are “deeply disappointed” by Twitch’s actions. There is still an immense amount of “unlicensed music” available on the platform. This “concerns” the rights holders.
Twitch grows with music, jeopardizes artists’ livelihoods
Twitch uses music to grow their platform and dismisses musicians with vague platitudes. Twitch turns a blind eye when the rights of musicians are violated. However, it is crucial for musicians to receive fair royalties on a growing platform like Twitch. This is a matter of life and death:
- Because the money that is missing makes the difference between whether a musician has a roof over their head or not.
- It makes the difference between whether a musician can afford health insurance or not.
- It makes the difference between whether they can work as artists or whether they have to give up a lifelong dream.
Twitch says: We are proud of how we help musicians
This is Twitch’s response: Twitch denies these allegations in a statement from Monday. They are very proud of what an important service Twitch has become for musicians and songwriters, now that other stages in the real world are closing and tours have to pause.
They have teamed up with “dozens of labels” to ensure that the music of the artists is distributed and promoted. Additionally, they pay some labels royalties.
Twitch claims they are proud to contribute to the health of the music industry. Furthermore, they investigate every copyright infringement complaint.
“Twitch turns a blind eye when users violate rights”
This is what the rights holders are saying now: In a further statement from the rights holders RIAA, it is said:
Twitch looks the other way when users violate rights. They shift the responsibility to the streamers: No company seeking a genuine partnership with artists behaves like that.
Therefore, a large coalition of organizations has now come together to point out Twitch’s misconduct, which continues to make unlicensed music available on their platform.
Twitch exploits the work of musicians, songwriters, and many others without compensating them.
Twitch must now acknowledge the seriousness of the situation and ensure that no unlicensed music is available on Twitch.
The conflict between the music industry and Twitch has been brewing for several months. Just a few days ago, Twitch deleted thousands of clips that had copyright complaints lodged against them.
This gives streamers on Twitch a uneasy feeling:
Twitch deletes thousands of clips, warns hundreds of streamers – they are angry and confused
