Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Rap battle league King of the Dot inks global partnership with Twitch | Music Business Worldwide

Rap battle league King of the Dot (KOTD) has entered into an exclusive worldwide partnership with Twitch.

King of the Dot regularly hosts celebrity guests from the worlds of tech, entertainment and politics, including artists such as Deadmau5, Drake and Method Man as well as professional athletes.

As part of the deal, King of the Dot will offer free access to all of their battles for subscribers.

KOTD’s recently-announced Grand Prix 2020 tournament will air live battles every Sunday, starting September 20, until the end of the year where a champion will be awarded.

Alongside the main event battles, the league will offer a slate of ancillary content focused on sports, gaming, music and culture with their artists and celebrity guests at the center of it.

The partnership comes on the back of months of speculation about where KOTD would take their live-stream rights after almost a decade of pioneering media models, Pay-Per-View productions and tech innovation in the battle rap space.

“Other platforms may have announced first but, like always, we’d rather build the ecosystem for the culture than take the first cheque that comes to us.”

Travis “Organik” Fleetwood, KOTD

Founder, Travis “Organik” Fleetwood, said: “For over a decade, we’ve been first-movers in battle rap. Our Pay-Per-View model, our production team, our creative format for events and tournaments are all second to none and imitated around the world for good reason.

“Other platforms may have announced first but, like always, we’d rather build the ecosystem for the culture than take the first cheque that comes to us.”

“We had conversations with all of the major services and the only team that made it feel right from the start was Twitch.”

Charles Morgan, King of the Dot

Charles Morgan, co-owner of King of the Dot, added: “Twitch is the perfect fit for KOTD. The team has assured us that they are committed to augmenting the culture for our audiences and artists alike.

“We had conversations with all of the major services and the only team that made it feel right from the start was Twitch.”

“We’re working to create a virtual experience that captures the best parts of in-person events, with world-class content.”

Will Farrell-Green, Twitch

Will Farrell-Green, Head of Music Content at Twitch, added: “Rap battles are about an artist’s creativity and ability to engage with the energy of the audience.

“We’re working to create a virtual experience that captures the best parts of in-person events, with world-class content.

“Our global community loves Hip Hop, and rap battles are our next development as part of that strategy.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with King of the Dot, who are a leader in this space, bringing their rap battles to the Twitch stage.”


Elsewhere in the livestreamed rap battle world, in February this year, live broadcasting platform Caffeine inked a multi-year exclusive partnership with Drake.

As a part of that deal, Caffeine streams and co-produces Rap Battles in collaboration with Battle Rap platform, URL.

Caffeine raised $113 million in a series D funding round in July.Music Business Worldwide

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