Dance music record labels appear to be entering a new phase in Twitch-readiness. Performing DJ sets on the streaming giant can land you with a takedown notice. Now, labels appear to be pre-clearing their catalogs with Twitch, greenlighting the way for DJs to stream without hitting the copyright wall.
Anjunadeep goes first
London-based deep house label Anjunadeep has announced that they’ve cleared 500+ tracks for playback on Twitch, This means that DJs who spin those tracks will not be hit with copyright infringement notices. This could potentially be very good news for the average streamer, professional DJ and others.
Pushback?
Whether or not there will be resistance from the music industry (and copyright holders) is unknown at present. It’s understandable that rights holders would want to be fairly compensated for plays of their work, something that livestreaming services aim to defend by issuing takedowns. But in the present gig drought, it’s more likely that producers will take what they can get in terms of hype and allow for more permissions to be granted to their DJ audience.
Official playlists
Ajunadeep appears to have manifested the best of both worlds by allowing only for the playback of songs listed on their official playlist. DJs are thus able to download any of up to 500+ and escape the copyright bots when they stream. Sure, 500 isn’t a lot (especially if everyone’s playing the same tunes), but it does set a welcome precedent in accessibility for DJs.
Copyright issues or none, Twitch is still the leading DJ streaming service and the shift by Anjunadeep towards pre-cleared song permissions may well prompt similar behaviour from other labels. This development signals a new direction for anyone looking to make a living from professional DJing - keep paying attention and level up with a course from DJ Courses Online.
John Bartmann is a music producer and DJ