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Twitch announces programme to help music-makers navigate the livestreaming thing

By | Published on Wednesday 10 November 2021

Twitch

Twitch is launching a programme to help educate music-makers on how to build a following and generate revenue on the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform. Called The Collective, the scheme will create a number of invite-only groups that will bring together groups of musicians.

Talking about the scheme to Billboard, Twitch’s Head Of Music, Tracy Chan, said: “There’s a bunch of things that can make musicians successful on Twitch, but we’ve heard from a lot of musicians that it can be perceived to be difficult to get started”.

“We really wanted to form a programme to help make sure that creators are successful on our service”, he added. “We want to help artists learn that livestream playbook for music. This is a new format, we know there are certain behaviours, certain tools, certain software setups that really help musicians be successful”.

Twitch has been actively courting music-makers for a while now, of course, as it seeks to expand its community of creators far beyond the gamers that were originally its focus. That has resulted in much sparring between the Amazon business and the record companies and music publishers, which have become much more vocal about all the unlicensed music that appears in streams on the platform.

Some licensing and partnership deals have been secured with music companies, though at the same time Twitch has been reaching out to artists directly, pitching livestreaming on the platform as both a fanbase building tactic and a new direct-to-fan revenue stream that will outlive the COVID-caused spike in livestreamed music that occurred last year.

Some artists have found audiences on the platform and are now monetising their livestreaming activity, though plenty of other music-makers who have dabbled with Twitch have struggled to gain any traction on the service. That’s possibly because they just don’t have the right kind of fanbase for such activity, or maybe they are just doing it wrong. If it’s the latter, Twitch hopes The Collective will help.

The Amazon service is partnering with various DIY distributors to recruit grassroots artists to take part in the programme, including DistroKid, UnitedMasters and TuneCore.

Confirming TuneCore’s involvement, its CEO Andreea Gleeson said: “Twitch has built and continues to foster a strong, loyal community, and by turning its attention to independent artists, the service shows limitless possibilities for the music industry. TuneCore is excited to partner with Twitch in launching The Collective, a livestreaming incubator that will provide artists with access to mentors and tools”.

“There is so much potential for emerging artists on Twitch”, she added, “through livestreaming, they can earn revenue, find new audiences, connect directly with fans in real time, and build community – our hope is that this programme will lead to more TuneCore artists creating their own channels and growing their brands alongside their music in order to move forward in their careers”.



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