Artists Rights Alliance speaks out against Amazon Music, Twitch integration

Twitch currently doesn’t have a license for allow music

On Tuesday (Sept 1st), Amazon Music announced that artists can now deliver live concerts, live streaming sessions, and other live content from Twitch directly to the Amazon Music mobile application. Earlier this month, the Artist Rights Alliance (ARA) sent a letter to Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos following up on his controversial testimony regarding Amazon’s Twitch streaming service. Under questioning at this month’s House Judiciary Committee hearing by Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Bezos claimed not to know if Twitch – which his company has owned since 2014 – allows users to stream unlicensed music.

“Time will tell if this service proves to be valuable to artists and fans or if it’s just window dressing by Amazon seeking to distract Congress and the creative community from the far more fundamental problem – Twitch’s failure to license and pay for music on its millions of streams and channels. A handful of one-off livestreams is no substitute for a sustainable music ecosystem with fair pay and fair treatment for creators every time their work is used,” the ARA says in response to Jeff Bezos not obtaining music licenses for the popular service.

The Artist Rights Alliance is an artist-run, non-profit organization fighting for songwriters and musicians in the modern music economy. It is led by a Board of Directors including GRAMMY winner Rosanne Cash, music manager Thomas Manzi, John McCrea of CAKE, critically acclaimed Americana singer/songwriter Tift Merritt, award-winning producer Ivan Barias, world guitar innovator Matthew Montfort, and Indie label executive and musician Maggie Vail. Longtime DC political strategist and former top House of Representatives staffer Ted Kalo is ARA’s Executive Director.

ARA works to ensure artists are at the table when decisions are made on policies that affect their lives and livelihoods and empowers artists to advocate directly for themselves through classes, events, and presentations to demystify music, politics, and the spaces where they intersect.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn