The nonprofit organization is calling on the Amazon CEO to clarify his statement regarding unlicensed music on Twitch during his recent testimony to Congress.
The Board of Directors of the artist-run nonprofit organization Artist Rights Alliance, which is dedicated to protecting musicians and songwriters, has penned an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos after his recent testimony to Congress. After Bezos and other tech industry leaders spoke on a variety of topics, including their data collection practices, the organization wants him to follow up on his ambiguous answer to a question regarding Twitch’s hosting and delivery of unlicensed music.
As explained in the document, US Representative Kelly Armstrong asked Bezos if Twitch allows users to stream unlicensed music. He responded, “I don’t know,” and said he’d look into the issue. The ARA is now calling on Bezos to answer the question as he may have had time to gather the information needed to formulate a response. The organization also goes on to explain how musicians’ collection of royalties is crucial to their survival, since the revenue earned is used on housing, healthcare, and other necessities.
In the conclusion of the letter, the ARA challenges the Amazon boss to disclose whether or not he knows the answer to the question and if so, explain how he plans to stop the streaming of unlicensed music on the platform.
…we ask you to provide a public answer to Congressman Armstrong’s question – does the Twitch platform allow users to post or stream unlicensed music? If the answer is “yes” we further ask you to explain what you are doing or plan to do to proactively stop that from happening and ensure that artists and songwriters are paid fair market value for the work when it is performed on Twitch?
You can view the Artist Rights Alliance’s letter to Jeff Bezos regarding unlicensed music on Twitch in its entirety here.
