Various music rightsholders have made no secret of their desire for Twitch to sign platform-wide music licensing deals, with pressure from the publishing and recordings sectors alike mounting on the Amazon subsidiary. It should come as no surprise that a report published by Midia Research in partnership with Twitch focuses on the other side of the story: the positive benefits for artists that have “engaged fully with live-streaming platforms”.
And while its provenance may lead some rightsholders to write it off with a snort, there are some interesting nuggets contained within the report. Such as the call for artists and music companies to “explore deals and strategies that are designed to be more native to gameplay environments, whether it be revenue share on in-game items, or ‘renting out digital real estate’ for a digital festival, with the right to sell items inside the virtual festival environment”.
Meanwhile, the case studies of artists (mxmtoon and Johnny and Heidi) and tips on livestreaming best practices are useful too, although the possibly-not-intended subtext is how much more might be done if those licensing disputes could be settled sooner rather than later.
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