Nothing is funnier than watching Metallica headbanging to royalty-free kiddies music. That’s another strike for Twitch’s charred history regarding copyrighted music.
Blizzard’s yearly conference, BlizzCon, went virtual this year and brought some fantastic moments with it. Not only did we receive details surrounding news games such as Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, plus an exclusive performance from Metallica, but we also got to witness one of the most bizarre moments in Twitch’s recent history.
Twitch, in an astounding move to follow their own frankly ridiculous DMCA guidelines, muted Metallica’s performance on their platform. Then, they overdubbed it with music that sounds like it came from the soundtrack of a medieval mobile game. The cherry on top is getting to watch the heavy metal gods headbang to the sounds of a child’s xylophone.
A few viewers responded negatively at first, spamming the chat with F’s and a variety of emotes expressing their displeasure with Metallica’s new artistic direction. However. many seemed to come onboard after Lars and the gang dropped their first certified trap banger.
More chatters came around to the new music as they realised they were witnessing something very special indeed – the birth of a meme.
The State of DMCA
Due to many people believing that Metallica’s high profile case against Napster was an event that caused many of these controversial laws, some users viewed the event as some sort of full-circle poetic justice.
Twitter user @future_of_music was quick to dispel this belief.
Forgot to mention: the DMCA became law in 1998. Metallica’s lawsuit against Napster was in 2000. There are a lot of things that are frustrating about the state of the DMCA, but blaming Metallica for them makes no sense!
— Future of Music Coalition (@future_of_music) February 20, 2021
DMCA takedowns have, for some time, been a pressing issue for the platform. Twitch’s ruthless approach to enforcing copyright laws have caught them a lot of flack from users. Twitch has even stated that they have poorly handled the whole DMCA situation in the past, and are looking to find a solution for streamers.
Unfortunately, Twitch’s unwillingness to pay for licensing will continue to screw over content creators. Let’s hope Bezos can unfurl that velcro wallet and start paying his dues soon enough.
Jeff Bezos is worth $197 Billion. Twitch can afford to pay for music licensing! And any artist who controls their own publishing has the ability to waive their exclusive rights if they want to perform their own material and don't mind that the service isn't paying them.
— Future of Music Coalition (@future_of_music) February 20, 2021
In the meantime, many streamers have started switching to Facebook Gaming, who started paying for music licensing rights in over 90 countries as of September last year. This allowed partnered streamers to play licensed music in the background of their streams which will hopefully get extended to all streamers soon.
Youtube has also become a popular alternative – notably it was the neutral ground for DragonForce guitarist Herman Li after he was banned from Twitch for playing his own band’s music.
