In an interview, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy stated that DJs who stream on the platform will have to share their earnings with record labels.
According to Zach Bussey’s tweet, Clancy said that Twitch is working on a “structure” where DJs and the platform “will have to share money with labels”. And he said he has already talked to some DJs about it.
DJs, of course, realized that they would prefer not to share what they earn. But Clancy said that Twitch will pay part of what is owed to the record labels, while the DJs will give a portion of their earnings.
Twitch wants to work with record labels
Clancy’s statement was part of his response to the host’s question about the situation of copyright for music streamers on the platform.
The CEO responded that Twitch has been talking to record labels about it in hopes of finding a stable solution so that DJ streamers don’t receive DMCA takedown requests.
He also said that the website has a “pretty good thing” going on with tags right now – a “thing” that involves Twitch paying them money, apparently – but it’s not a sustainable long-term solution. In addition, the streamers only agree to that deal for now because they know Twitch is working on another solution that will make them (more) money.
Clancy also clarified that live broadcasts and on-demand videos have different rules for playing copyrighted music, and this is undoubtedly a problem.
That’s why it suggests that DJs mute pre-recorded videos on their own, because the Twitch system doesn’t always detect copyrighted songs to mute them.
The CEO has said that Twitch is close to signing the agreement with record labels, but it is not clear how the Amazon subsidiary intends to monitor live music streams and if it already has the technology to do so.
