Twitch is rolling out its licensed DJ Program to allow music live streamers to pursue their craft without having to deal with takedown notices. The popular gaming platform, owned by Amazon, has been dealing with copyright infringement complaints, and now offers what it calls a “first-of-its-kind” compliance solution that provides creators who opt-in with “millions of tracks” that will be legally safe to use. Participating DJs will be required to pay copyright holders a percentage of their earnings from the stream in which the music is used. Twitch did not disclose the percentage but said it would split the cost 50/50 with creators.

Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music and “hundreds more” mostly independent labels licensed via Merlin, have signed on to participate, Twitch explains on the program’s homepage.

To help DJs adjust to the new arrangement, Twitch will segue into the program by “subsidizing the difference through a 1 year on-ramp, while the service grows,” according to the company.

During their initial 12 months of enrollment, participating creators who earn enough to cover the cost of the program will see the entire fee covered by Twitch (which says those creators will continue to receive 100 percent of their payouts in year one).

That subsidy will then decrease in stages in the 13th to 24th months. “Twitch is covering the costs for DJs who aren’t yet monetizing,” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy says in a blog post that clarifies “the program applies only “to those who live stream as DJs, and does not apply to other uses of music.

Terms prohibit using the licensed music on Twitch replays via VOD or highlights, which “involve different rights than live streams.” Those who use music “in the background of a gaming or Just Chatting streams” do not qualify and will presumably still be subject to take-downs if they infringe. A Twitch FAQ explains who qualifies.

Clancy tells Music Business Worldwide he would like to see the program expanded “but there are a variety of complexities” with regard to use case and rights that vary by territory, making live streaming — which is Twitch’s core business — a logical place to start.

The Twitch DJ Program “is part of a larger initiative to avoid DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices,” reports TechCrunch, explaining the notices “have been a consistent problem for the many DJ streamers on Twitch.”

“The number of DJs streaming on the platform more than quadrupled, with 15,000 of them monetizing off streams,” notes TechCrunch. Since May 2020, “thousands of weekly music-related DMCA notifications from record labels” have been issued to those creators.