The Music Industry vs. Twitch: Licensing Tensions Heat Up as Clips Come Down

It is important to know that many composers of music (film, television, and video games) don't do work-for-hire arrangements, they license their work to the producer, developer, or publisher. That license does NOT extended to the end user.

A stream playing existing music, including video game music, will need the following licenses: master, mechanical, synchronization, and public performance. On rare occasions a print license will be needed. There is no obligation for copyright owners to grant a master, synchronization, or print license and the rate isn't fixed, it is negotiated for each use as are terms and conditions.

Twitch has stated they have public performance licenses for content. In the United Sates, these licenses are obtained from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

The master license is for an existing audio recording that someone else made, including samples.

The mechanical license is for audio distribution, whether it be physical or digital. Fees are $0.091 for songs five minutes or less and $0.0175 per minute or fraction thereof for songs over five minutes. This rate is set by the Copyright Royalty Board, part of the Library of Congress, for United States territories only.

The synchronization license is for video distribution.

The print license is for printing song lyrics or musical notes.