Keeping watch

Twitch’s troubled history with music copyright

JUNE 2011

Justin.tv spins its gaming content off into a new division called Twitch – its popularity leads it to subsume the company.

AUGUST 2014

Twitch first starts using software to automatically detect and mute copyrighted music in archived streams.

JANUARY 2015

Twitch offers a library of royalty- free music for creators to use in their streams.

JUNE 2020

Twitch receives a huge amount of DMCA takedown notices related to copyrighted music in archived content.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Twitch Soundtrack is announced – a library of pre-approved music to use in streams.

OCTOBER 2020

Streamers are forced to delete archived streams featuring copyrighted music at short notice.

NOVEMBER 2020

Twitch issues a sort-of apology for DMCA issues and publishes a guide for creators

FEBRUARY 2021

Metallica’s BlizzCon performance is dubbed over with what sounds like easy-listening elevator music.