Ultra Music Festival is now live on Twitch for the first time ever. Please enjoy the live coverage which starts now and will end at midnight EST tonight.
Here's today's live stream schedule:
Photo by Rukes
Twitch made a huge move into the EDM world today being named the video streaming platform of choice for the Ultra Music Festival (UMF). The Ultra Music Festival will take place in Miami and is set to start this weekend (March 27th - 29th). Historically Ultra has gained the loyalty of millions of online viewers to their UMF stream each year and it's fair to expect the same kind numbers this year.
I am a big fan of the Twitch network because of its gamer friendly platform that allowed a whole industry of streamers to make a living out of playing video games. The Twitch community is generally very tight knit with their own culture of emoticons. Newer visitors not used to the experience will find itbewildering at first, but don't worry because it's easy to pick up.
Twitch recently made moves to branch out of the e-sports world into music with their recently installed Beta Music Service category that allows labels like Monstercat to create a music channel that thousands of fans listen to at any given time.
The move to bring UMF to Twitch is a big move for both parties and it's going to be very interesting to see how music EDM fans and gamers will interact in the live chat. So get your kappa's ready as the EDM world is about invade Twitch - I can't wait!
The action starts on March 27th, click below to subscribe to the channel ASAP:
After a huge party live on Twitch last night, Jack U (Skrillex and Diplo) have come out with their long awaited album! The new album is 10 tracks long and includes collaborations with 2 Chainz, Justin Bieber, Snails, and more - this album is a must listen, enjoy:
With a brand new EP ready to drop, Jack U are giving fans a special 24 hour live Jack U broadcast on Twitch. It's on right now, check it out below:
Update: the cops stopped the broadcast a few hours before its conclusion - what a shame!
Today Twitch took important steps to embrace music that included the creation of a "Twitch Music Library" and the "beta Music category". The Twitch music library consists of tracks that are "pre-cleared for Twitch broadcaster to use live and with VODs". In other words, all Twitch video game streamers can now legally use this pre-cleared music in their broadcast while thousands of fans tune in. The "beta Music Category" will be listed among the game titles on Twitch and it is reserved for musicians to "use for creating, performing, and presenting original music".
This library consists of more than 500 tracks that includes label support from the likes of Mad Decent, Dim Mak, Spinnin' Records, OWSLA, Monstercat, Fool's Gold, and more. The fact that many electronic dance music labels have already embraced this new medium is huge as Twitch broadcasters love to stream music over their game playing and will expose thousands of fans to this type of music.
Monstercat, the Canadian label that is known for innovation, was the first out of the block to embrace Twitch as a major medium for distributing their music. They have an active stream in the "Music" category which is on 24 hours a day that garners anywhere between 700-3,000+ viewers at any given time. OWSLA recently streamed their Christmas party on Twitch while Deadmau5 has been seen streaming on the network a few times in late 2014. Even Steve Aoki had done some promo of his latest album on Twitch while playing Street Fighter for online fans.
The opportunity for major labels and burgeoning music producers alike to start streaming on the service is absolutely huge. In 2013 Twitch brought in 45 million viewers with each user averaging 107 minutes of content viewed a day. I could only imagine that this number has risen higher in 2014.
Seeing Twitch as a major new medium for music is still at its early stages, so if you are a label or music producer (established or not), then I highly suggest that you learn what OBS is and start making your Twitch plans this year.
(VIA Twitch Blog, Lessthan3, onGamers.com)
