“It doesn’t come for free”: Twitch CEO says DJs will soon have to share revenue from streams with labels
“We’re gonna pay a portion of it, and then the streamer will need to contribute a portion in terms of the revenue.”
Credit: Ian Dagnall
Dan Clancy, CEO of live streaming platform Twitch, says DJs using its platform to stream sets will soon have to share their revenue with labels. However, Twitch will be splitting the costs with you.
Clancy proposes that in order for this to happen, Twitch may need to track all music played by DJs. If it detects copyrighted music, it will require the streamer to disclose the money earned from the stream to the applicable labels.
No information on when this new system will come into play is yet available, but it will reportedly apply only to DJ streams (as per DJ Mag), and not live streams and videos on demand, which have different regulations regarding the use of copyrighted music.
Clancy made the statement during a live interview with TweakMusicClips hosted on Twitch, in which he said: “Pretty soon we’re gonna have a structure so that in the end we are gonna have to share money with the labels, it doesn’t come for free.
“I’ve already told a number of DJs this, and they realise of course they would rather not have to share some money but we’re gonna kind of split whatever the cost is. So we’re gonna pay a portion of it, and then the streamer will need to contribute a portion in terms of the revenue.”
Take a look below:
Twitch will soon require DJs to share part of their revenue with the music industry.
"We're going to have a structure, where we are going to have to share money with the labels, it doesn't come for free… we're going to split whatever the cost is."#TwitchNews #TOSg pic.twitter.com/YndPV8JIcH
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) April 10, 2024
Clany seemingly hopes that this new change will prevent DJs from receiving takedown notices, and allow both artists and the platform to share revenue. Interestingly, Engadget reports that currently, Twitch pays labels money for the use of copyrighted tracks, but “it’s not a sustainable long-term solution”.
The website also says that the labels are only okay with this deal for now because “they know Twitch is working on another solution that will make them (more) money”.
