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Comment by peauc | Hacker News Reader

That's pretty cool. I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out with records companies though..

This is a licence that has been negotiated with record companies and music publishers. So they are on board.

Have you got a reference for how they are tackling publishing rights? I've been looking for it and only found references to labels so far.

They haven't licensed publishing (at least not yet). Source: am publisher

They have, via the NMPA deal in 2021. (See my comment a couple above)

You can read more about what that deal covered — and didn’t cover — here on NMPA’s site:

https://www.nmpa.org/twitch-makes-deal-with-nmpa-but-streame...

Twitch is already licensed for publishing after it did a deal with the NMPA back in 2021

https://www.nmpa.org/nmpa-and-twitch-announce-agreement/

That’s primarily via the PROs - ASCAP, BMI, SESAC.

E.g. ASCAP says “Fortunately, most popular live-streaming platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram Live, Soundcloud and Twitch are licensed by ASCAP”

See third accordion here: https://www.ascap.com/help/ascap-licensing

I’m assuming because DJ performances via twitch are considered non-interactive streaming they - like Pandora’s free tier - don’t need a mechanical licence, at least in the US.

How that then translates to other territories though I’m not entirely sure. In Europe I’m pretty sure they’d need to have a mechanical licence in place whether or not they are interactive.

My only concern is that actually the big guys get the big cut, and the DJ and the original artists (that are not wildly popular) the shortest end of the stick.

This is an ongoing issue

Welcome to the music business, baby!

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