Did your video on the twitch network get deleted recently? This is probably because you’re using a track twitch doesn’t permit as your background music. At this juncture, I know you’re thinking of how to find Twitch-Approved Music for Streaming.
Due to the high influx of DMCA Takedown requests the platform received recently, they’ve taken the use of songs that could potentially include copyrighted content under DMCA rules seriously. Twitch is an online platform for users to watch or broadcast live streaming or pre-recorded videos of broadcaster’s video game gameplay. A Twitch broadcast often includes audio commentary from the player, and video of the player might appear on the edge of the screen from their webcam. During this recording, it is likely that users include some background music using a favourite track. However, this user might not have the required rights to utilize this music for this purpose.
According to Wikipedia, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization. It makes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works illegal. In previous times, twitch ignored background music, but it is currently cracking down on streamers who violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on their videos.
Like any other digital content host, Twitch operates under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Although Twitch leverages the DMCA’s “safe harbour” provision which shields content-hosting platforms from the liability to copyright violations by the users on their sites, as long as they promptly respond to take-down requests from rights holders. This means that Twitch and any other streaming platform is legally obligated to remove any allegedly infringing content and notify the person who posted it of the takedown.
On Twitch, Streamers are given three strikes for copyright violations before their account gets banned from the platform. However, users who believe their content was flagged by mistake have the option of contesting the decision by submitting a counter-notification through the Twitch Support. Once a streamer issues a counter-notice, Twitch is required to manually review the complaint and notify the rights-holder (the music publisher), and potentially restore the content in question if the flag was a false positive.
Using Twitch, there is a general rule when using music on your streams: if you play any music for which you don’t have the proper licensing, you can be penalized by the legal owner. This includes anything on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, the radio, and so on. Due to the influx of DMCA takedown requests, twitch began working with Audible Magic to automatically remove unauthorized third-party audio from Videos on Demand (VODs). The VOD is an archive of content previously streamed live on Twitch, otherwise known as “Clips,” “Highlights,” and “Past Broadcasts.”
To avoid being hit by this wave of takedowns, it is advised to avoid using background music you don’t own rights to. This music includes but isn’t limited to the following type of music.
- Radio-style broadcast: A Twitch stream or VOD which focuses on playing music you don’t own isn’t licensed for you to share on Twitch.
- A lip-synching performance: Pantomiming, singing, or pretending to sing the music you don’t own isn’t licensed for you to share on Twitch.
- A cover of a song: Performance of any song owned by someone else, except a live performance on your Twitch stream. If you do perform a cover song in a live stream, make a good faith effort to perform the song as it was written by the songwriter. Create all audio elements yourself, without incorporating instrumental tracks, recordings, or any other element created or owned by others.
There are other rules to the content that should be uploaded to the platform. You can check out the full list of music you can’t use on Twitch on its community guidelines page. However, I’ll be sharing below how to find some safe to use background music for your Twitch Videos.
How to Find Twitch-Approved Music for Streaming
Finding a twitch-approved music platform is really easy. You only need to use music from royalty-free platforms. Royalty-Free Music refers to a type of music licensing that allows the purchaser to pay for the music license only once and to use the music as many times as possible and for as long as desired. You can use any music you own or have a license to use during your Twitch streams. Amazon Music provides much DMCA-safe music for monetized streams and VODs. You can easily use it on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, or Facebook without worrying about content strikes or muted content. Additionally, any of the following platforms below can be a great source of music for your twitch streams without giving you the worries of a DMCA red flag.
- PremiumBeat
PremiumBeat is a streaming platform owned by Shutterstock. It offers one of the most diverse and sizable collections of the royalty-free music on the internet. Having their music industry experts, they’ve organised over 10,000 tracks into groups by genre, mood, artists, instruments, beats per minute (BPM), and duration. Their music experts also present an amazing selection of Editor’s Pick playlist that has 857 of PremiumBeat’s best tracks to help you make the best possible soundtrack for your twitch videos. The link to their website is www.premiumbeat.com.
- Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound is another great platform collaborating with so many talented musicians in the industry. Epidemic Sound’s tracks are featured on YouTube and Facebook videos that rack up over 20 billion views each month. Epidemic Sound has over 725 albums of royalty-free music, spanning from genres like “Corporate” to “First Snow”, allowing you to create diverse and high-quality background music for your twitch video. You can visit their website on www.epidemicsound.com and their service is subscription-based.
- Music Vine
Music Vine is a royalty-free music platform where you can get twitch approved music from. With over 160 independent musicians who have produced more than 2,500 tracks, the tracks are segmented by style, mood, energy, vocals, and duration. They also sort collections for particular themes in filmmaking and video production. You can filter tracks by vibe, theme, genre, and environment. Additionally, Music Vine dedicates a section of their website to their artists, letting people follow them and explore their music. This is an amazing platform to get videos for background play on twitch. You can visit their website on www.musicvine.com.
- Soundstripe
Soundstripe is a royalty-free platform partnering with over 80 artists to produce songs that you can filter by mood, genre, pace, instruments, key, vocals, duration, and beats per minute. They’ve also curated over 50 playlists that span from genres like action & sport to weddings.
On Soundstripe, you can also create an account, follow artists, playlists, like songs, and create your playlists. If you need sound effects for your twitch videos, Soundstripe offers 29 categories of sound effects, ranging from construction to sci-fi. Be sure to visit their website on www.soundstripe.com.
- Filmstro
Filmstro is another royalty-free platform where you can find twitch approved music for your streams. They don’t offer only royalty-free music that spans over 65 different categories, like mood, film & video genre, music genre, and instrumental palette, they also allow you customize each track by its momentum, depth, and power. This gives you infinite creative possibilities to choose from when you are creating an amazing background for your twitch stream. You can visit them via www.filmstro.com
- Pond5
Pond5 is just the platform you should go to looking for twitch approved music as they offer one of the largest royalty-free music libraries in the world. Pond5 brags about having over 500,000 tracks in 36 different genres spanning from Hawaiian to action. Using Pond5, you can make music tracks for almost any video project as well as your twitch videos. You can visit Pond5 on www.pond5.com
This is to mention but a few. If you don’t have the cash to acquire a royalty-free licence or subscription and you need to find a twitch approved music for your streaming, you can find several DMCA free music on the web. On YouTube, there are several DMCA free music publishers. With a track from any of these platforms, you won’t get hit by DMCA takedowns. Some of these platforms include the following.
Audio Library is a YouTube channel dedicated to searching, cataloguing, sorting and publishing of No Copyright Music, Vlog Music and Royalty Free Music for content creators. You can easily find a suitable track on their channel to use for your twitch stream and feel safe that it’s a twitch approved music.
Chill Out Records music is a free background music channel for YouTube videos. However, you can use any music from their channel and be comfortable as it would be a twitch approved music.