Universal Music Group expands deal with Twitch & Amazon Music

Universal Music Group has inked a new deal with Amazon-owned Twitch and Amazon Music.

Customers will have greater access to content on Amazon including live streams, high quality and spatial audio, artist merchandise, and exclusive experiences with UMG’s global roster.

Twitch and UMG will also work together to foster “new innovative opportunities” for artists and labels to engage with their fans and new audiences, according to a statement.

Michael Nash, EVP of digital strategy at UMG, called them “excellent strategic collaborators… with the breadth of their music services and products, and their dedicated focus on customers and creators.”

“Twitch embodies a creator-first culture, including empowering musicians,” Tracy Chan, head of music at Twitch, said.

Chan added that the updated deal would give UMG artists more tools to make more money on Twitch.

“UMG has been a strategic collaborator for us, as we continue to evolve our service and bring our customers even more ways to engage with their favorite artists, and discover new music,” added Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music.

“With these agreements, we’re strengthening and expanding how we can continue to work together to provide unique and exclusive experiences and create even more content for listeners.

Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers now have access to stream even more music in HD, Ultra HD, and spatial audio from UMG’s catalogue.

With UMG customers able to buy merchandise directly from Amazon’s app – including items from UMG’s merch company Bravo – it allows UMG acts to initiate campaigns around new releases.

In the last year, the companies worked on campaigns by Billie Eilish (Interscope), Selena Gomez (Interscope), and The Weeknd (Republic).

Twitch will provide commercial opportunities for UMG and its artists to engage directly with fans through its range of products.

UMG will create artist and label channels on Twitch and work closely with Twitch to produce artist features and experiences, as well as music-based content for Twitch.

The record company has also opted in to Twitch’s new music reporting process for targeting the unauthorised use of their artists’ music on live streams.

It is similar to Twitch’s agreements with Warner Music Group and America’s National Music Publishers Association, both from last September.

In August 2020, its first Asia Pacific vice president Sunita Kaur said it was expanding its Australian presence and away from its gaming-only roots into music, sport and comedy.

Globally the 11-year-old Twitch has 140 million monthly active user and 30 million daily users.

Australian user figures are hard to get. However we are told 75% of local users are male, which is higher than the global ratio of 60%, and most local users are in the 18 to 34 age group.

In January 2020, Amazon Music had 55 million customers worldwide