As one of the core agents in creating an enjoyable atmosphere, background music has seemingly become an inseparable part of online video production. However, since a great wave of DMCA takedowns plagued the Twitch streaming community throughout the second half of 2020, playing music on the biggest video game online streaming platform has become somewhat of a grey area.
After years of the liberal use of music content, Twitch has updated its Terms of Service (TOS) to comply with the DMCA rules, prohibiting streamers from using any tracks protected by copyright. Although Twitch is being transparent about its TOS for music, these rules are fairly complex and not always clear to everyone.
In this guide, Streams Charts covers everything you need to know about playing music on Twitch in order to avoid punishment.
What is DMCA?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, also commonly known as the DMCA, is a part of the US Federal Copyright Law, which addresses the rights and obligations of owners of copyrighted material who believe their rights have been infringed. It also addresses the rights and obligations of internet service providers on whose servers or networks the infringing material may be found.
First introduced in 1998, DMCA enables right holders to act on their suspicion and submit a notification of claimed infringement to the service to have the allegedly infringing material removed from the website.
In other words, the copyright law exists to protect creators, artists and inventors and makes sure they get paid for the works they created. It prohibits web users to upload content that doesn’t belong to them without the permission of the content’s owner. Violating DMCA policy may result in being forced to delete copyrighted material from the site.
Even though DMCA is a copyright law in the USA, the service is not exclusive to the US and has its takedown contracts signed with all the major hosting countries.
Twitch and DMCA
To avoid multi-million dollar lawsuits from copyright holders, Twitch has no other option but to comply with the DMCA requirements. That includes processing notifications of claimed infringement from rights holders and counter-notifications from account holders, as well as notifying the impacted parties.
Source: TheGamer.com
Because Twitch does not have the authority to make legal judgments regarding allegations of copyright infringement, the resolving of the dispute remains the responsibility of the rights holder and the account holder.
Repeat Infringer Policy
Similarly to YouTube’s system, Twitch uses the Repeat Infringer Policy or ‘the three-strike policy’ for the DMCA takedowns. Under this policy, the user will be considered a “repeat infringer” of copyrighted works on the platform if they earn three copyright strikes.
Streamers can generally earn a strike when Twitch receives a complete notification of infringement but does not receive a complete counter-notification regarding the alleged infringement or a retraction of the notification. Typically, the punishment is having VODs and clips muted or removed along with potential temporary bans. Three strikes will result in terminating an account holder’s access to the Twitch service.
However, strikes are not permanent, but rather are associated with an account for an unspecified amount of time, so that Twitch can determine whether creators are engaging in repeated infringement.
Furthermore, Twitch reserves the right to issue a ban in appropriate cases of users who blatantly and egregiously infringe the intellectual property rights of others, regardless of the number of strikes.
Twitch music guidelines
Naturally, it’s not completely forbidden to use music content on Twitch, as DMCA rules only apply to copyrighted materials. According to Twitch music guidelines, creators can only share content for which they have the appropriate rights or authority to share. This doesn’t concern only Twitch streams, but also all on-demand Twitch content, such as VODs, Past Broadcasts, Past Premieres, Highlights, Clips, and Uploads.
So what exactly is meant by appropriate rights or authority to share? There are three categories of music that is allowed to be played on Twitch:
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Music owned by you. This means original music (including lyrics) which was created or produced by you and for which you own or control all rights necessary to share and reproduce.
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Music licensed to you. Copyrighted music owned by someone else, for which you have secured a license to share.
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Music available on Soundtrack by Twitch. To provide creators with a simple way to add high-quality music to their live streams, Twitch has built a curated library of music fully licensed for use in live Twitch broadcasts. However, this music can’t be used in on-demand videos.
To address some specific cases that might occur, Twitch provides more examples of music that content streamers are not allowed to use in live streams or on-demand content (if they don’t hold the appropriate rights):
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Radio-Style Music Listening Show – A Twitch stream focused on playing copyrighted music.
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DJ Set – Playing and/or mixing pre-recorded music tracks that incorporate copyrighted music.
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Karaoke Performance – Singing or performing to a karaoke recording. This includes music-focused games such as Just Dance, Guitar Hero or osu!.
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Lip Synch Performance – Pantomiming, singing, or pretending to sing to copyrighted music.
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Visual Music Depiction – Lyrics, music notation, tablature, or any other visual representation of copyrighted music.
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Cover Song Performance – Performance of a copyrighted song, with the exception of a live performance. Such performances must include the song as written by the songwriter, and the performer should create all its audio elements themselves.
The copyright law doesn’t allow any exceptions such as playing only a part of the song, re-streaming radio or TV broadcasts or streaming purchased music. Typically, purchasing music or subscription to a music streaming service such as Spotify does not grant rights to share music on the internet. Furthermore, licensed soundtracks in game series such as GTA or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater are also protected by copyright law.
That said, Twitch acknowledges that not all unauthorized uses are infringing uses. The two examples of such cases might be the use of works in the public domain and the use of copyrighted works under fair use.
Generally, fair use permits the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works for a limited purpose such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. As for the public domain, it consists of all the creative work that is not protected by intellectual property rights, as they have either expired, been forfeited, waived or are inapplicable. An example of such work is the Happy Birthday song.
Workarounds
Despite all the rules and restrictions in place, plenty of streamers found a workaround and still play licensed music in their broadcasts. Relying on the fact that rights holders won’t notice their music being used during live broadcasts, creators use tools such as OBS’s second audio track feature, which adds a second audio track that is saved to the VOD instead of the stream audio or mutes the audio in the VOD.
For more information on how to separate audio from the stream, watch this tutorial:
To avoid being picked up by the audio recognition software, another solution used by some is to play the music significantly quieter than the rest of the stream, keep talking during the stream and even add sound effects to confuse the bot.
In the case of games containing licensed music, the safest option is to turn off the music in the game settings before going live.
A viable option for those who don't want to give up the copyrighted music but also want to avoid any DMCA strikes might be the Twitch extension named SpotifySynchronizer. The extension, which can be downloaded on Twitch, synchronizes the creator's Spotify account with those of viewers. This way, viewers can listen to the same music the streamer is listening to via official channels and musical artists still get paid.
Royalty-free music sources
Of course, the safest and the most ethical way to play music on Twitch is to play royalty-free music or actually secure a license to play copyrighted music. The latter can be quite a costly matter for most content creators, but there’s plenty of royalty-free music of various genres that is fully accessible to any internet user.
Created specifically for the needs of content creators, there's a number of subscription-based royalty-free music databases that offer hundreds of thousands of Twitch-safe music for a monthly subscription fee, ranging from cents to tens of US dollars.
Some of the most used subscription-based royalty-free music services are:
Lastly, there are numerous royalty-free playlists or collections available for anybody to use for free, such as:
Conclusion
For the most part, streaming not only goes hand in hand with music, but it also falls into the same product category — entertaining content. Although DMCA rules might be an annoyance for many, out of all people, content creators should know best how important respecting the copyright law is.
As demonstrated in this guide, there are multiple solutions to choose from when it comes to playing music on Twitch. Although the rules seem to be complex, the general rule to avoid any DMCA strikes and potential bans is pretty simple: don’t use what’s not yours. Plus, with the tips provided above, you’ll be able to find music for your stream in no time and enhance your content safely and ethically.
FAQ:
Am I allowed to play music on Twitch?
Yes, streaming music during Twitch live broadcasts is allowed. According to Twitch music guidelines, creators can only share content for which they have the appropriate rights or authority to share. This doesn’t concern only Twitch streams, but also all on-demand Twitch content, such as VODs, Past Broadcasts, Past Premieres, Highlights, Clips, and Uploads.
What music is safe to play on Twitch?
There are three categories of music that is allowed to be played on Twitch:
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Music owned by you.
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Music licensed to you.
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Music available on Soundtrack by Twitch.
What is DMCA?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a part of the US Federal Copyright Law, which exists to protect creators, artists and inventors and makes sure they get paid for the works they created. It prohibits web users to upload content that doesn’t belong to them without the permission of the content’s owner. Violating DMCA policy may result in being forced to delete copyrighted material from the site.
Even though DMCA is a copyright law in the USA, the service is not exclusive to the US and has its takedown contracts signed with all the major hosting countries.
What happens if I play licenced music on Twitch?
To keep track of DMCA violations, Twitch uses the Repeat Infringer Policy or “the three-strike policy”. Under this policy, the user will be considered a “repeat infringer” of copyrighted works on the platform if they earn three copyright strikes.
Streamers can generally earn a strike when Twitch receives a complete notification of infringement but does not receive a complete counter-notification regarding the alleged infringement or a retraction of the notification. The punishment is having VODs and clips muted or removed along with potential temporary bans. Three strikes will result in terminating an account holder’s access to the Twitch service.
Can I stream music from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music?
No, purchasing music or subscription to a music streaming service such as Spotify or Apple Music does not grant rights to share music on the internet.
Can I stream games that feature licensed music?
Licensed soundtracks in game series such as GTA or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater are protected by copyright law. Streaming such games is allowed only if the audio from the game is not being broadcasted. This includes music-focused games such as Just Dance, Guitar Hero or osu!.
Can I stream royalty-free music?
Yes. Royalty-free music can be freely copied, distributed and modified for any purpose.
Where can I find sources of royalty-free music?
There's a number of subscription-based royalty-free music databases that offer hundreds of thousands of Twitch-safe music for a monthly subscription fee, such as Epidemic Sound, Pretzel Rocks or Envato Elements.
Some of the royalty-free playlists or collections available for free are Free Music Archive, Royalty Free Music - No Copyright Music and Audio Library — Music for content creators.
How can I listen to music while streaming without broadcasting it to viewers?
Using additional tools, such as OBS Studio, allows streamers to isolate the audio track and prevent it from being picked up by streaming software. Moreover, OBS’s second audio track feature can add a second audio track that is saved to the VOD instead of the stream audio or mute the audio in the VOD.
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