Twitch to Creators: “Don’t Play Recorded Music In Your Stream”
In a new letter to creators, Twitch has instructed users not to play recorded music in their streams, unless they own the rights and permissions themselves. Given the ongoing wave of DMCA takedown notices that have continued to bombard the platform, the company is also encouraging creators to review and delete any of their footage that contains unlicensed audio.
“Don’t play recorded music in your stream,” the letter reads. “Unless you own all rights in the music, or you have the permission of the necessary rights holder(s). Doing this is the best protection for your streams going forward.”
The letter arrives six weeks following the platform’s introduction of their proprietary licensing solution, Soundtrack by Twitch. The product aimed to create a pre-existing catalog of music streamers could safely utilize. However, representatives of the music industry’s copyright holders balked at the product, claiming it did not comprehensively cover the licenses needed.
While Twitch is pushing back against the music business’s view that their product is insufficient, the company purports to be actively working towards a solution. “We are actively speaking with the major record labels about potential approaches to additional licenses that would be appropriate for the Twitch service,” the letter states.
Twitch has committed to doing a better job of keeping creators in the loop, as many were initially told they faced a ban for not deleting their content which contained unlicensed music.