The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and Amazon-owned live streaming platform Twitch announced a deal that, in a statement, will see them “work together to build productive partnerships between the service and publishers. of music”.
According to NMPA, Twitch will offer “new opportunities” to music publishers, who will be offered a membership agreement, which, he adds, will allow for future collaborations “to bring new facets to both the play experience and exposure of songwriters “.
NMPA added in a statement that “these collaborations will create an even more dynamic and expansive environment for people to discover, watch and interact with songwriters.”
Additionally, Twitch has created a new process where participating music rights holders can choose to report certain uses of their music, to address instances where creators inadvertently or accidentally use music in their streams.
According to a press release, the deal announced today “paves the way for the economy of new game models to increase the visibility and revenue of songwriters.”
He adds, “From virtual shows to studio sessions, the partnerships resulting from this agreement will connect the Twitch community in many ways to the music they enjoy.”
“Through our discussions, Twitch is committed to valuing musicians and creating new ways to connect them with fans in this growing and exciting space.”
David Israelite, NMPA
NMPA President and CEO David Israelite said, “Both NMPA and Twitch are creator-focused and our respective communities will benefit greatly from this agreement, which respects the rights of songwriters and opens the door to the path to future relationships between our publisher members, songwriters and the service. .
“Through our discussions, Twitch is committed to valuing musicians and creating new ways to connect them with fans in this growing and exciting space.”
“We are thrilled to enter into this agreement with NMPA and excited about our shared commitment to enable songwriters and other creators to share their work and passions while connecting with audiences. “
Tracy Chan, Twitch
Twitch Head of Music, Tracy Chan, added, “We are thrilled to enter into this agreement with NMPA and excited about our shared commitment to enable songwriters and other creators to share their work and passions while connecting. with the public.
“That’s the essence of Twitch, and we know that great music starts with a great song. We look forward to innovative collaborations that will further unleash the incredible potential of our service and community for music publishers and their songwriter partners. “
News of NMPA-Twitch deal comes two months later
The company told its users in an email that these new DMCA takedown notices included “approximately 1,000 individual complaints” regarding the use of copyrighted music played in the background of recorded VODs (videos on demand).
This series of DMCA takedown requests in June followed news in October 2020 that “thousands†of videos had been deleted by Twitch following infringement notices.
The platform is legally required to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) withdrawal requests from rights holders (e.g. a record company) or by an entity on behalf of a rights holder, such as the RIAA in order to be protected under United States Safe Harbor laws and will not be liable for any violation of user-generated content on its platform.
The massive removal in October 2020 came after last year’s announcement that a number of prominent Twitch users had received notices of platform copyright infringement for music used in games. clips posted on their channels over the previous year, with the company threatening to terminate the accounts. of “repeat offendersâ€.
In July 2020, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos told the House Judiciary Committee in an antitrust hearing that he was unsure whether Twitch had authorized his music or not.
In November, Twitch apologized for the copyright issues arising on its platform, writing in a bog post at the time that “over the past few months we’ve been doing our best to handle this situation on behalf of both rights holders and creators â€.
He added: “One of the mistakes we made was not creating adequate tools to allow creators to manage their own VOD and clip libraries.”
In March, the site added tools to make it easier for users to manage takedown requests and remove clips to avoid strikes against their channels.Music trade around the world
