Monday, August 10, 2020

ARA ups pressure on Amazon CEO over Twitch music licensing | Music Ally

We previously reported on the moment during the recent US antitrust hearing when Jeff Bezos was asked about music licensing for Amazon’s Twitch subsidiary, and answered “I don’t know”.

Now US industry body the Artists Rights Alliance (ARA) is writing to Bezos demanding a better answer. The Financial Times has seen a draft of its letter, which will be sent today.

“As Twitch uses music to grow its audience and shape its brand, the company owes creators more than the wilful blindness and vague platitudes you offered,” claimed ARA, in a letter that also criticised “the minimal and inadequate” licensing efforts of Twitch thus far.

Music rightsholders have already been upping the pressure on Twitch by sending a flurry of copyright takedown complaints to the platform for archived streams, while the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) also has Twitch in its sights.

Twitch is doing a lot of good and interesting things around music at the moment through its artist relations team, but actual licences are a sore point that threatens to overshadow this. Perhaps a now-briefed Jeff Bezos can break the deadlock…

Stuart Dredge


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