I'm really not sure why some of the other comments here are focusing on the playing of music on the stream. Obviously they've never watched someone gaming on twitch. Nobody watches twitch for the music someone is playing. People watch it to see other people play and talk about games. Music may be in the background but is often obscured by dialog and game sounds. It's not even close to the quality a youtube video for music supplies.

Music isn't obviously not the focus of any Twitch stream, but nevertheless, people are breaking copyright laws by playing copyrighted music on their streams. And if Twitch becomes a part of YouTube, they might have to crack down on copyrighted music on streams, due to pressure from the copyright holders.

Moving away from the music for a second, the public streaming of gameplay doesn't constitute copyright infringement? I'm no legal expert but it seems to me a bit of a stretch to call it fair use - especially for single player games.

The game which I play (Runescape) actively supports and advocates streaming of it's gameplay as a way to increase user numbers through popularity.

Music is a good differentiation between streams. When I used to watch a lot of LoL streams that was one of my deciding factors on who to watch. Why watch someone playing all top 40 stuff when there's someone else playing music I enjoy?

Why do you have to use copyrighted background music for streaming of a game?

Because 90% of all music enjoyed by most people is under copyright and searching for music not under copyright that you can listen to and genuinely enjoy is not anybody's idea of a good time.

Nobody wants to worry about this stuff.

As long as the purpose of the stream is not just streaming music i don't see the problem however I'm certain the MPAA and RIAA would not agree.

Why don't people just play the music they want in the background when watching these videos?

Probably because it's a lot more fun to have an interactive player where people can vote what to play.

Beside if you always play the usual 200 songs you listen to when are you going to find new songs to listen to.

Listening to music is a group activity a lot of the times and you find new songs by doing it.

There's only 3 ways to find new songs and 2 of them suck

1. Listening to top hits in hopes that a few match your taste

2. Using recommendation algorithms on Spotify and other streaming sites

3. And the on that give you the best results hanging out with like minded people in real life or on the internet and seeing what their listening to.

Bear in mind, copyrighted music doesn't just mean "Stuff from the top 40s". Music that's in the soundtrack of a game is under copyright.

So the answer to the question "Why do you have to use copyrighted background music for streaming of a game" is "Because playing a game with the volume at zero kind of sucks".

edit: And obviously that's not the entirety of the concern; there are definitely some streamers who play essentially radio music (or anime music or whatever) over the soundtrack on broadcast. I agree that stuff like that doesn't necessarily need to happen. But using a broad brush to say "No broadcasting copyright music on twitchtube" is both not a good idea, and exactly what people are worried will happen.

Because part of listening to music is that I listen to music which I like, which means Rise Against, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, et al.

To be honest, you're living on borrowed time. The only reason twitch would allow this is because it has flown under the radar so far. It's not a reasonable expectation that you can forever have a service that will let you stream copyrighted material to people.

If they are good or not, the laws exist. Once Twich is under Google's umbrella, they will be pressure by the content owners to enforce those copyrights. Maybe that's not happening today because Twich's community is smallish (compared to Youtube) but once they are "integrated" into the copyright notification/enforcement framework, end of story.

what kind of a question is that? Are you a human being?

maybe a restatement of the question would help

why do you expect to be able to broadcast copyrighted music for your own enrichment without paying the copyright holder?

If you are going to use the music to entertain your customers, pay for it like you're supposed to.

How? Reaching contracts with all major copyright owners in order to stream your out-of-garage hobby?

Buying music (I assume that is what you meant), will not let streamers use it, thus there is no meaningful solution as of yet.

Just because contracts are difficult to get doesn't mean you have free rein to do whatever you want. There are plenty of meaningful solutions to this "problem". Don't play music at all. Play music you are allowed to play (be it paid or just music that allows streamers to use it). It may not be what people want to hear, but obviously the music is of value to shanelja's audience as they requesting songs.

That might be a solution, but as OP was saying, that is likely do draw people away.

Get a license with something like ASCAP[1]. I think that's what most businesses using music in a public setting do.

Legally using copyrighted music is not exactly an impossible task. I mean, it's basically the entire business of some radio stations, and some stations are quite small.

Now, is it worth the effort and cost for a Twitch stream? It depends on how much value the music brings. There's also CC or royalty-free music, if a streamer just wants some music playing.

[1] http://www.ascap.com/licensing/licensefinder

That does not give you license to steal other people's content and profit from it.

If you want music but you don't want to purchase rights, there is plenty of creative commons licensed music available.

Why don't you propose a solution?

Why is it that pointing out a problem requires one to provide a solution to that problem or the point is somehow invalid?

Learn to play the harp and compose your own songs.