Warner Music and Twitch strike new deal

The deal will see the launch of several WMG artist channels featuring exclusive and behind-the-scenes content. A separate WMG platform focusing on music programming will also be established, offering regularly updated “exclusive experiences”. It will feature original programming courtesy of WMG’s digital media company IMGN. The programming will include programmes like music talk show The Drop and Twitch rap talent show Freestyle Throwdown, among others.

The deal will offer WMG’s roster of artists access to Twitch’s creator-driven model with opportunities to generate more income and employ more tools to engage followers.

A recent Twitch report called Twitch’s Rockonomics shows that the platform’s live streams are generating more earnings for some musicians than digital service providers like Spotify, Bandcamp and Apple Music.

“It’s clear that Twitch is an indispensable space for all types of creators to connect with their fan communities,” WMG chief digital officer and executive vice-president of business development Oana Ruxandra said. “Our partnership creates an on-ramp for artists to come onto the service with strong support from Twitch, opening up an entirely new source of incremental revenue.”

Twitch vice-president and head of music Tracy Chan said: “Twitch has always been and will continue to be creato-first. For fans, artists and all creators, this is a great step forward. The myriad opportunities for fans and artists to forge meaningful, direct and valued relationships on Twitch continue to expand every day.”

The news follows a recent announcement by WMG CEO Steve Cooper that the label is generating about $235m a year in revenue from “alternative offerings that create new use cases for music” across social media, fitness and gaming, including Facebook, TikTok, Peloton and Roblox.

The development comes after Twitch’s deal with the National Music Publishers’ Association in the US last week, which followed a backlash about thousands copyright infringement notices sent to the compnay. The deal with the association will see the two companies working together “to build productive partnerships between the service and music publishers”. Twitch recently announced that it was introducing a new tool for music rights holders that would allow them to report certain uses of their music.