The streaming platform Twitch now offers streamers a direct way to purchase the “Affiliate” status. Until now, streamers needed a certain number of viewers for this status, but now only 5 $.
What is this status? It’s about the “Affiliate” status (a person who belongs to someone): This is the first official “rank” that one can earn as an ordinary person in collaboration with Twitch.
Those who are an Affiliate can start making money with Twitch. They can receive subscriptions, use the currency “Bits” or other features.
The “Affiliate” rank is the preliminary stage to the coveted “Partner rank.”
To become an Affiliate with Twitch, one must actually meet 4 criteria (via twitch.tv). One must
- have 50 followers
- have streamed for 500 minutes
- have been live on 7 days
- have reached an average of 3 concurrent viewers
Only then is one qualified to become an “Affiliate”. At first glance, this does not seem like much, but streaming 500 minutes is still quite a task, and with the huge competition, it’s not that easy to entertain 3 concurrent viewers if you can’t just talk your mom, dad, and grandparents into watching.
In any case, the “Affiliate” rank is the first hurdle that the hopeful up-and-coming streamer must overcome before fame and fortune await him or her.
Company offers $5 for Affiliate rank and thousands of songs
How is the status available now? Twitch has a new partner, the site “Monstercat,” a music service. Anyone who subscribes there for $5 per month can claim the “Twitch Affiliate” status after 30 days.
The Monstercat service gives streamers the opportunity to use “thousands of high-quality songs” in live streams, as the company itself states.
The partnership between Twitch and Monstercat is clearly a reaction to the stress Twitch has with the music industry.
This is the criticism of the action: The action has a certain aftertaste. Because even though one only needs a few viewers for the Affiliate status, this is still a strange business practice.
Twitch is selling something that one should actually earn, something that thousands of streamers worldwide have already worked for. Furthermore, someone is now profiting from Twitch’s poor handling of the “copyright crisis”.
Thus, Twitch also now has a model where users “have to spend money to make money” – this is generally viewed critically. Because there is no guarantee that a streamer will recoup the $5 he is initially investing.
Many are annoyed especially that this model now comes as a response to the fact that so many streamers are frustrated by copyright complaints. Because one would urgently wish for better solutions from Twitch than “mute the music in Cyberpunk 2077” and “delete all clips and videos you have ever uploaded to us”.
Streamers say:
- “Isn’t this a little bit not good, a little bit nasty, a little bit exploitative? It’s depressing that the platform sees a huge problem for streamers and considers it an opportunity to squeeze money out instead of something it needs to help with.” (via Twitter)
- “This looks incredibly unfair for all the people who had to work hard to become affiliates, and I think it diminishes the value of being an affiliate when you can just buy in.” (via Twitter)
The problems with the music industry have been bothering streamers for a few days now. Female streamers have begun to protest against Twitch’s advice to “just mute the music in-game” by following precisely that advice.
With highly amusing results:
Streamers protest against radical Twitch recommendation in a fun way
