Twitch has published some new information about the new DJ program, which starts next week on Thursday, on August 1st, 2024.

This program is a reaction to the fact that it has been unclear for years how you can actually “legally” stream music on Twitch. With the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the world, for many DJs, virtually came to an end. Events and therefore their gigs were canceled, and some people and even companies had to fear for their existence.
Streaming on Twitch came at just the right time. And the music industry was like, “Are we a joke to you?”

Twitch switched to paying money out of its pocket to copyright holders to fend off any lawsuits. This will remain partly the case, but in the future, the streamer and Twitch will share this fee.

What I found most exciting and best was the point that DJs have to opt in to the DJ program. When a streamer does not do this, strikes will be issued much more quickly, and the channel may even be blocked. Participation in this program should ensure that you no longer have VoD and clip features on your channel in the future. Not even if the stream is currently being played.

By the way, accounts activated for the program ALWAYS pay a percentage of all Twitch revenue (i.e., via subs, bits, etc.) to the rights holders, regardless of whether the channel is currently streaming music, playing a game, or broadcasting “just chatting”, IRL, whatever. In return, streamers are free to operate secondary channels with which they can generate revenue without paying a fee. But of course, these channels have to collect the reach first.

Another interesting thing is that streamers who are live in “Just Chatting”, but play music from a DJ playing in the background — there are a few famous examples, for example, from a pub in Bremen — must also participate in the DJ program. Otherwise, the strike-and-block story applies again. It’s going to be so much fun.

There is only a percentage value at the start of the program, which is deducted before Twitch pays out. The figures currently in circulation are around 20% of the revenue. So from just under €5 for a sub, the usual €2.50 is withheld by Twitch with the usual 50-50 rule, plus another euro for the levy to the rights holders. The streamer therefore receives around €1.50. These figures are, of course, only rough values, as the conversion between US dollars and euros often results in less.

But you are on the safe side.

Moreover, very interesting is that there will be an artist blacklist that will not participate in this rights’ holder issue on Twitch via or with their record company. There are currently about 70 artists worldwide on the list. That’s not a lot and will hardly be noticed. However, the artist Prince, Tafkap or whatever he called himself was mentioned as an example.

In the future, Twitch will also use music fingerprinting. This means that if pre-releases are played that are not on a whitelist or catalog for release, the DJ will have a hard time. This fingerprinting is used to distribute the money to the artists accordingly.

And what happens with your music or mashups, i.e., other people’s music mixed with other music? This is supposedly not a problem at this time. Let’s see how well the fingerprinting works. If it’s as great as on YouTube, it’ll be hilarious. But without VODs, it’s only half as bad, as you’re not deprived of monetization.