Twitch Debuts Live Streaming Music Concerts, Twitch Broadcasters Can Play Host
Twitch is an odd seeming thing, a platform primarily for live streaming video gameplay, that is incredibly popular. Since at least May various reports have it that Google is buying them. So far it's only been confirmed by "sources" and it's hard to say what that would really mean for Twitch. But there are lots of people watching Twitch and though there is music on the site in various forms, yesterday they supported their first official livestreamed concert featuring dj Steve Aoki.
Twitch is a true phenomenon with:
"more than 50 million monthly active users"
"more than 1.1 million members who broadcast videos each month"
"more than 13 billion minutes of video are watched per month on Twitch"
"in March, Twitch represented 1.35 percent of all Internet traffic"
So Twitch is doing great as it is but they say they "surveyed the Twitch community" and that a full 80% answered yes to the question:
“Would you be interested in watching your favorite artists perform live on Twitch?”
Apparently the music industry is quite aware of the promotional potential of live streamed concerts on Twitch:
"Some friends in the music industry have been interested in sharing free live concerts on Twitch for some time."
And to further integrate such shows, beginning with yesterday's stream of Aoki's Playhouse from Ibiza, Twitch now has Host Mode:
"Imagine you’re done broadcasting for the day, and about to go offline. Rather than just signing off, Engage Host Mode! Your chatroom remains entirely the same, but your video player is replaced with an embedded version of whichever channel’s stream you decide to host. Now you and your chat community can continue to hang out even after you’ve gone offline."
For an artist like Steve Aoki Twitch is offering a great tool for promoting his new album, "Neon Future." In fact, given that this is the first show on his Twitch channel, the stats of 529,980 views and 17,778 followers should be essentially for the show.
Keep in mind that Twitch has a Partner Program that includes monetization so Twitch's potential power for music goes beyond promotion alone.
There are also issues with unlicensed music playing during video gameplay cause people listen to music while they play games. So if Google has bought them, we're looking at many of the same problems and possibilities raised by YouTube but on a livestreaming platform.
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) also blogs at DanceLand. Send news about music tech startups and services, DIY music biz and music marketing to: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
