A week after coming to a consensus with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), Twitch has signed a deal with Warner Music Group. In partnering with the record label, a first for the Amazon-owned platform, the company says Warner Music will launch dedicated channels for some of its artists, including the likes of Bella Poarch and Saweetie. The label will also create a standalone channel that will air original programming from its IMGN production house.
Twitch has made a similar deal with Warner Music Group (WMG) to what they made last week with the NMPA.
Streamers *cannot* play WMG music on stream. Nothing changes as it relates to playing copyright music you don't have the rights to.#TwitchNews pic.twitter.com/A7bLZXLH0O
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) September 27, 2021
But if you’re a content creator on Twitch, those are secondary to the other part of the deal. Much like its pact with the NMPA, this isn’t a licensing agreement; creators can’t include music from WMG artists in their streams. As part of the agreement, WMG has agreed to use the new process Twitch recently put in place to allow rights holders to report content. In an email last week to creators, the company said the new system is more forgiving towards individuals who may have inadvertently played music they weren’t authorized to use.