Streaming with music has become the norm. As the industry evolves, the rules are still being written. Copyright owners are not always pleased with the way their music is being used in Twitch streams. Some owners are very open to the idea, but others are very protective.
Before you go on a hunt for sources of copyright free music for your twitch channel, it's important that you understand Twitch's music policy. Many live streamers experienced an increase in Twitch DMCA notices during the past year as music labels started targeting the platform and its creators. In response, Twitch has strengthened its copyright policies and integrated new rules into its platform. In this article, we'll shed some light on whether and, if so, what music content you're allowed to use in your Twitch livestream. We'll also provide a set of resources and services that allow you to get access to a variety of copyright-free music for your Twitch streams.
First, all copyright rules, both national and international ones, apply to Twitch just as they do for other platforms such as YouTube or Facebook. Therefore, you have to comply with them in order to ensure that your account stays safe. If you use any unlicensed music in your livestream or videos, even just for a couple of seconds, you may receive a copyright takedown or ban.
The following guidelines give a general idea of what music is allowed on Twitch and what's not, so that you won't receive any copyright issues in your next Twitch livestream:
Self-produced music:
You're allowed to use any piece of music in your stream if you're the creator of said music. Before using your own music, however, make sure you have full rights to do so and that you're not infringing upon any other's rights, such as your record label or potential co-creators. If everything is cleared, you're free to use your own stream safe music in your next stream.
Licensed music
Secondly, you're allowed to use music you or your streaming services have previously acquired a license for. You may either have directly contacted the artists to receive one or sign up for services such as EpidemicSound, which allows you to get access to a multitude of songs. Make sure, however, that your license explicitly will enable you to use music on Twitch and also to monetize your streams.
Music provided by Twitch
Twitch just recently launched Soundtrack by Twitch, its proprietary services that offers royalty-free music to Twitch creators. The offering is still in Beta, but already offers a wide variety of dmca free background music. We'll cover more about Soundtrack below.
Twitch, the leading video game broadcasting platform owned by Amazon.com, is used by millions of gamers around the world to broadcast their in-game moments for their fans. It's not just about sharing in-game moments, but also bring friends and communities together. As Twitch becomes more popular with esports growing in popularity, it is important that they remain protected from any copyright infringement claims. In this blog post, we will therefore address different ways for Twitch streamers to get access to copyright free music that they can use in their streams.
At BinaryBeats, we want to bring two communities together: small musicians and streamers and content creators in need of qualitative background music for their streams. We, therefore, have collaborated with several artists to create a set of royalty-free songs in different musical genres that creators can use in their streams...for free! The idea is quite simple: Our entire library of free background music is available to stream for free on different streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music. Streamers can simply play our playlists, or specific songs within them, as background music in their streams. For each stream, the song artists receive a small amount from the platform on which his/her songs has been played.
The service is entirely free for all creators and live streamers. Using our music, streamers no longer have to worry about copyright takedown notices or any other type of copyright issue. And the best of it all: Streamers are able to use highlight clips from their streams and upload them to other platforms such as Facebook or YouTube, a fact that often is not allowed by other providers of royalty-free music. Feel free to check out some of our playlists at https://binary-beats.com. There, you'll find a list of all our royalty-free songs and playlists, as well as our license agreement that allows you to use our high-quality music in your Twitch channel livestreams.
Over the past years, Epidemic Sound has grown to become one of the most popular destinations for copyright-free music. The service allows you to get access to 35,000 tracks for a small fee of only $10 per month. You can use all songs on major platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. New users can access and test the service for free with a 30-day trial period.
While Epidemic Sound appears to be a good fit for most creators, it may not be suited for Twitch streamers. If you're planning on using the service in your streams, you'll have to curate each song individually into a playlist that you can use in your stream. This can be a time-consuming process, and you'll have to create several playlists if you want to use the service on multiple platforms. Additionally, streamers must also select which songs they want to highlight or promote in their streams. If this sounds like something that's not right for your needs, you may be more interested in already curated playlists.
There are a plethora of no-copyright music channels on YouTube, such as NoCopyrightSounds. These channels claim to only upload music that is royalty-free and hence can be used for free without risking any copyright issues. While these channel often offer a large variety of songs, re-using any of them is highly risky as creators and streamers never can be sure whether the song is, or will be, licensed for use in the future.
In response to the increase in DMCA issues occurring on Twitch in the last year, Twitch has launched its own music library, Soundtrack by Twitch. The music library consists of songs that can be used during livestreams, as all music is cleared by Twitch. Twitch creators, hence, do not have to worry about any copyright issues. Soundtrack by Twitch can easily be implemented into your stream via OBS.
Twitch's proprietary solution however, has one major drawback: You're only allowed to play any of it's cleared music within your stream. Having music in recorded or highlight-clips is not permitted. You're also not allowed to re-upload parts of your stream to other platforms such as YouTube if it contains music cleared by Soundtrack by Twitch.
Lastly, Pretzel is a service similar to Soundtrack by Twitch. For a monthly free, Pretzel Music grants you access to its music library of cleared songs that you're allowed to use on Twitch, Facebook or YouTube. You can either play the music in the proprietary music player provided by Pretzel Music, or through your web browser. Pro access to Pretzel and its entire catalog of copyright free background music is available for $14.99 in the monthly subscription and $149 if you want to pay yearly.
We've presented a set of sources for copyright-free music for your Twitch channel, as well as for other platforms, in this article. With these resources and some careful consideration, you'll be able to make your next livestream even more exiting.