New Twitch DJ Program Allows Streamers to Play Copyrighted Music For a Fee

Twitch announced a new program last week that allows DJ live streamers to share a portion of their earnings with record labels for the rights to use songs in their live streams. The popular live-streaming platform will provide these copyrighted tracks to creators in a new DJ category, which is part of the Twitch DJ Program launching in July/August 2024.

Twitch has signed agreements with major record labels like Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music, as well as numerous independent labels represented by licensing agency Merlin according to the company blog post.

Under the new program, monetizing DJs who opt-in can share a percentage of their earnings to cover music rights costs, which wasn’t possible before. While Twitch hasn’t disclosed the fee publicly, CEO Dan Clancy stated it will vary based on channel monetization methods.

The company hopes that this program will give DJs a secure and long-term live-streaming platform while mitigating the risks of bans associated with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices.

This became especially significant as the number of DJs streaming on the platform surged more than fourfold since 2020, with 15,000 of them monetizing their streams, according to TechCrunch. DJ streamers were reportedly receiving thousands of weekly DMCA notices beginning in May 2020.

“It’s crucial that DJs understand the status quo on Twitch was not sustainable, and any viable future for the community required we find a solution,” Clancy wrote in a blog post. Clancy underscored this point in an April interview with the TweakMusicTips channel, suggesting the inevitability of a revenue-sharing model between record labels and DJs.

The program was welcomed by many in the Twitch DJ Community. “Still thanks for thinking of us DJs, this will stop those copyright emails every week,” said one creator on X.

“Good to see they are thinking about DJ streams [as] a category (and sounds like there might be product improvements that make discoverability of this category easier). Obviously sucks to have to pay but I suppose some level of rev share was an inevitability,” said another creator on Reddit.

However, there are lingering questions among the community regarding the payment of licensing fees, particularly among creators who already pay in other forms outside of Twitch. Other concerns come from streamers who use their channels to stream more than just DJ content.

“It’s crazy to see how this will actually be enforced. There are streamers that broadcast live DJs while gaming … Also, what about those DJs that already pay for a licensing fee for multiple labels because they are in the industry?!?! So many questions!!” said one X user in response to Twitch’s announcement on the platform.

During the first year, Twitch will cover the entire royalty costs for existing DJs on the platform. However, over the course of 12 months, the subsidy will gradually decrease. Following the subsidy period, the typical cost-sharing arrangement with Twitch will be a 50/50 split.

This change will not affect the financial viability of non-monetizing DJs and channels featuring other uses of music, like self-composed songs.