YouTubers are well aware of the issues that the DMCA system imposes and recently, Twitch streamers have been dealing with similar headaches, in large part due to music licenses. After months of lengthy discussions, Twitch appears to have now reached a deal with the music industry, but details on how this will help streamers are still vague. 

Twitch has reached an agreement with the National Music Publishers Association, which will see Twitch “provide new opportunities to music publishers” and “increase visibility and revenue for songwriters”. This follows on from months of the NMPA and other groups like the RIAA making complaints about Twitch and how the service allows unauthorised music to be played on streams, despite the community guidelines in place.

Essentially, the music industry wants a piece of the pie, and isn't happy with Twitch's lack of activity when it comes to detecting and taking down streams using unauthorised audio. As part of the new deal, music publishers will be able to opt-in for “future collaborations”, there will also be a system where publishers can opt into to “report certain uses of their music, to address when creators inadvertently or incidentally use music in their streams”.

Currently, the details on what all of this entails and how it will impact streamers, are vague. However, Twitch should be revealing more specifics about how these new systems will work to streaming partners soon.

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KitGuru Says: If you are a streamer, then there are free to use music libraries available, although there is always the possibility that a publisher buys that library and switches to a licensing model – something that has occurred in the past.

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