Twitch and US music publishers association join forces

The partnership will see Twitch provide new opportunities to publishers that will enable “future collaborations to bring new facets to both the gaming experience and songwriter exposure”.

The NMPA said the collaborations would create a space for people to discover, watch and interact with songwriters. It added that the deal “ paves the way for the economics of new gaming models to increase visibility and revenue for songwriters” and that Twitch had shown dedication to creators on its platform. 

“Both the NMPA and Twitch are creator-focused and our respective communities will greatly benefit from this agreement, which respects the rights of songwriters and paves the way for future relationships between our publisher members, songwriters and the service,” NMPA president and CEO David Israelite said.“Through our discussions, Twitch has shown a commitment to valuing musicians and to creating new ways to connect them with fans in this burgeoning and exciting space.” 

Twitch head of music Tracy Chan said: “We are pleased to reach this agreement with the NMPA and are excited about our shared commitment to empowering songwriters and other creators to share their work and passions while connecting with audiences. That’s what Twitch is all about, and we know that great music starts with a great song.”

Following backlash over copyright infringement on the video streaming platform, Twitch has developed a new tool that music rights holders can use to report unauthorised use of their music.

In May, Twitch voiced disappointment after receiving Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notifications, specifically about 1 000 copyright infringement claims over the use of background music in recorded on-demand videos (VODs). In October last year, Twitch deleted thousands of videos on the platform due to infringement notices. Twitch is legally required to adhere to takedown requests by rights holders like record labels or publishers to avoid liability for infringing user-generated content on its platform. 

Several prominent Twitch users received copyright infringement notices with retrospective claims based on past copyrighted music that they had used in their streams. Twitch later apologised to its users for the copyright issues and promised transparency on policy, saying that it had tried its best to manage the situation. “One of the mistakes we made was not building adequate tools to allow creators to manage their own VOD and Clip libraries,” a Twitch blog post reads.