Twitch announced recently that Warner Music Group (WMG) is the first big recording company to join the streaming site, barely one week after reaching an agreement with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) to de-escalate music licensing issues on its platform.
This, like the NMPA agreement, has no bearing on how streamers can use music on their streams. Instead, Twitch has announced that WMG has consented to the platform’s new, more flexible DMCA approach.
This agreement still allows these record labels to preserve the music they possess. Users will, however, be more likely to receive copyright warnings rather than penalties if they “inadvertently or incidentally” utilize music for which they do not have the rights.
This relationship with WMG, according to Twitch, “brings various recording artists to Twitch and creates a standalone music space featuring premium music-centric programming.”
Here’s what Twitch said; “This marks our first partnership with a major record company, bringing the Twitch community new ways to interact with music-related content on the service, and granting artists a more direct connection with fans. We know there are still questions around this new process, and we are looking forward to sharing more with you all shortly.”
However, both of these recent announcements have been lacking any clear clarification as to how they’ll alter the platform’s DMCA process or whether streamers will have any new options to combat copyright claims. For the time being, it appears that this is simply a means for Twitch to begin more serious discussions inside the music industry.