Live-stream gaming platform Twitch has been a key location for music since its launch in 2011, with dance and metal performing especially well as background music and acts like Prodigy, deadmau5, Steve Aoki and Kasabian all flocking to it.
Its early years were beset with licensing problems, with gamers often having audio muted on their playback videos following copyright claims. Twitch moved to address this by offering pre-cleared tracks to use in videos, reaching 1,000 titles in early 2015. It even launched its own karaoke offering (Twitch Sings) in October last year.
Now UK dance label Anjunabeats has jumped in to offer over 350 tracks for streamers on the Amazon-owned gaming platform. On 10th May, the label tweeted news of the deal. “Starting today, we’ve made 350+ tracks available to soundtrack your @Twitch livestream!” it said. “Throw down without fear of being muted with our playlist of Twitch-ready tracks here – happy streaming!”
It added a link to the Anjunabeats X Twitch playlist on both Spotify and Apple Music for “Twitch-ready music”. The description there reads, “Soundtrack your livestream with our selection of cleared tracks from Above & Beyond, ilan Bluestone, Yotto, Lane 8, Dusky, Mat Zo and more.”
It currently runs to almost 30 hours of music and has tracks that go deep into the Anjuna catalogue as well as having brand new releases on there. It is not the only dance label to see the huge opportunities here. Monstercat has its own “gold” subscription that licenses its music for use on Twitch as well as YouTube and Mixer for $5 a month.
Billboard reports that the deal gives gamers “royalty-free access” to the Anjuna tracks and the label put on DJ sets from Ilan Bluestone, Jason Ross, Luttrell, Spencer Brown and others at Twitch’s offices in San Francisco to announce the partnership.
This is an encouraging sign of a label seeing where its music connects with a community and, rather than putting licensing barriers in their way, makes things as easy as possible for gamers while giving its acts a significant foot up in that world.
