A Letter from the CEO – August 25, 2014

Emmett Shear:

It’s almost unbelievable that slightly more than 3 years ago, Twitch didn’t exist. The moment we launched, we knew we had stumbled across something special. But what followed surprised us as much as anyone else, and the impact it’s had on both the community and us has been truly profound.

[Neoninja]

Holy smokes! Well this certainly came out of the blue. Don't know if this will be a good thing or bad thing, but we'll find out soon enough I suppose.

Anyone know if twitch ever fixed that thing that was muting people while streaming and the videos in the archives?

[DLConspiracy]

They are still ironing it out. Just a small hump. It will get fixed. I have a few appeals myself. Its a bit of a pain but its their business. I just don't use music much anymore for highlights.

[Mr Pumblechook]

Amazon is interested in gaming. Too early to say if they are good or bad for the service but that statement from the Twitch CEO says Amazon will be hands off.

What this move shows is that if Microsoft ever offered Xbox for sale I think Amazon would jump at the chance to buy it.

[SoapShoes]

I would much prefer Amazon Xbox over Microsoft Xbox. Maybe we could have an Xbox console built for gamers finally.

[longcat]

^^^^^

I think Warner Brothers may also have some interest in Xbox brand.

EDIT : Content ID system would have killed twitch. We all know it.

[darthv72]

Amazon has been making some moves lately. Their fire TV, their fire phone, their fire tablets...looks like the fire is really heating things up.

[donthate]

soap:

Really?

Have you seen the crappy state of Amazon Prime app?

Built by Amazon and far worse than even the Netflix app. Kindle is decent not great, so is their handset and so on.

Amazon is a champion of offering low cost services, not innovative and radically changed software sans maybe their cloud services.

I think MS is the best company out there to helm Xbox and one of the few that is able to push Sony to the brink keeping competition.

The poor man left out is unfortunately Nintendo, but they have their awesome first party games.

That said, I am extremely glad Amazon bought Twitch and NOT Google. Google will just integrate it with their sh!tty profile crap. Google isn't what it used to be.

[dasbeer88]

Way better than Google.

[Ashlen]

^

[SilentNegotiator]

What? You don't want them to add copyright protection that ends your stream if your fart kind of sounds like a bar from a Nicki Minaj song?

[pompombrum]

Was thinking the same. If amazon promote twitch on their main websites, it could actually be huge boost for twitch/gaming/streamers.

[nosferatuzodd]

at least its not Google, Google ruin you tube thank god they wont get the chance to do the same to twitch

[nX]

I think that's better than Google, Amazon is a good company. Imagine Google owning Youtube AND Twitch, that could've gone bad.

[DLConspiracy]

See I think it was more convenient. In fact a lot of you tuber personalities are also twitch personalities. So it kind of made sense to have them work together. Hope this doesn't change the export feature to YouTube now...

[famoussasjohn]

Quite a few Youtubers switched over to Twitch because YouTube/Google were cracking down on them with those music copy right laws that were bogus half the time. Guys like GoldGlove or Russianbadger literally just upload videos from Twitch to YouTube now most of the time. Now that the music thing has gone to Twitch as well, it makes it all a little irrelevant though which hurts the experience with Twitch because people would just request music to play while they were streaming.

[DLConspiracy]

@famoussasjohn

It only makes sense when you see how a lot of twitch users are making a living on streaming. A lot of this can be accredited to the fact they can't control who plays music or not. Not everyone can pay for the rights to use someone elses music. I am a musician and I would appreciate it if someone at least asked me before using my music. As it's my music. Not so much about the money, but that's because record companies are the business end of that. They always are looking for a few cents more.

My point though is that they have to honor peoples rights of their own music. It's just the way it is. TV shows, Movies and any form of media have to ask for permission to use someones art when they are making money off their stream, show, movie etc. OR they have to pay for the rights to use it. At the very least it's common courtesy.

[Baka-akaB]

I doubt majors and big artists will have the time or will to answer each amateur youtubers and players requesting to use particular tunes for their personal videos .

And it reeks of negativity . It's very low , imo when a kid upload a lousy video on FB he wasted editing for quite a while in sharefactory , and then he's told after a possibly slow and constraining process . "Nope ! No can do ! How dare you use a Billboard hit to illustrate your lousy killstreaks ?"

It sends a bad image . Go hunt people obviously aiming at getting popular , money and a big viewership .. but not nobodies just trying to have some fun on their own .

If not they are killing a cheap and free source of advertisement for the music , as well . Be they small or famous artists .

I remember plenty local kids that didnt know Kraddy's music at all . And it spread like wild fire in some circles because of ps share music videos on top of soundcloud .

people making profits in the process ? Yeah go get them

[Soldierone]

@DLC A lot of them switch, and most of them use both as a source of money. You combine them like that, then I would assume they would lose half their source. Why would Google/Youtube pay their users twice? It'd all fall under one branch, and Google pays less.

@DLC second comment. Not entirely. Plenty of indie bands simply love exposure because it gets them noticed. If a popular youtube is playing your music, someone will go "whats the song?" and it gets you sales. If anything you shouldn't be requesting removal and fines, you should be requesting information on the video to provide links to your music etc...

Also it isn't like people are just playing full songs. A lot of people edit out songs or use clips of a song and still get striked. Others are simply letting music in the game play and get striked. You hear a lot of big Youtubers tell each other "keep talking otherwise the system will strike the music!" Others just mute it all together, It's annoying.

[Mr Pumblechook]

i wonder how it fits in with Amazon's plan to deliver video services.

[Baka-akaB]

it's better for now , but amazon isnt always good news . THey've had some policies lately that will harm and affect a few sectors .

It's just currently better than concentrating all of streaming-dom into the hands of google

[HighResHero]

First part is possibly an understatement.
The general public probably won't care though.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[lameguy]

If you're referring to the book sector, well then I'm cautiously on the side that thinks it would actually improve that - like Steam.

The math doesn't lie in either case. Cheaper prices in lieu of more sales typically comes out greater for both sides.

[Baka-akaB]

Not solely books . Well technically yes with digital comics , with a few issues since they purchased comixology . Even if even there they've made some good inroads about DRM with a select few publishers .

But they arent shy about taking bluray customers pre-orders hostages , in their fight and ongoing negotiations with publishers like Disney . As seen with upcoming Marvel movies bluray .

benevolent giants are nice and all , but once they turn on you , you're already weak and at their disposal . Hell look at the opinions changeing a bit about google , compared to a few years ago

[Soldierone]

You are talking about them fighting FOR YOU and calling it bad?

Everything you are referencing is for the better of the consumer. NA is all about profit these days and less about service or helping, Amazon is simply attempting to change that formula.

Books - They want lower prices so MORE people can buy them. Publishers don't want lower prices and simply can't provide a reasoning behind it beyond "we lose the profit margin" which Amazon demonstrated increases with lower prices due to higher demand.

Comics - I self publish those, and Amazon actually has the best route to getting out there. Completely free to us to use. They changed a few DRM policies that sucked before they stepped in. Before Amazon stepped in, we actually were not allowed to sell on Comixology, and now we can.

Blu-ray - How can you defend publishers when they are the ones that raised prices at retail, raised Redbox prices (and deny them from new releases!) and raised Netflix price (Oh and deny them movies too!) It was publishers that forced Starz to leave Netflix, forced Redbox to wait to offer new releases (even though they legally bought them), and constantly force higher prices. Amazon simply said enough is enough and is using their power to turn the table. Amazon may be "refusing to sell" the DVD's, but look at the publishers doing it too in order to raise prices.

[Baka-akaB]

That's your take from my post , and i dont feel like developing tonight as much as you did . And i did mention positive changes with the DRM on the new comixology direction . And i'm 100% into digital comics as oppposed to the oppresive retail system led by Diamond . Beyond that I dont put too much faith on my well being , in either too powerful camps . It's literally Goliath vs Goliath (and goliath)

[slinky123456]

Freaking all the other sites saying it's confirmed by google to buy them. What idiots that don't know true journalism. IGN, specifically looking at you. Horrible rep you have now that's twice in the last 3 months you deem something confirmed and it's actually not.

[Godmars290]

Given that Twitch is still using Youtube's policies, which aren't very popular, does it really make a difference?

[leemo19]

Very good news, I'm sure Amazon will help Twitch in much better way than what Google probably had in mind.

[Summons75]

That's a twist, the Kindles have been going down hill but hopefully Amazon will leave Twitch to it's own.

[gamerfan0909]

It always makes me happy when young entrepreneur become multi millionaires by working hard and living out their dream. Congrats.

[listenkids]

Sign up for Prime for unlimited access! :D

[DarthBigE]

I thought google/ youtube already bought twitch?
Guess I missed the news.
Anyway, I like amazon. Good for them.

[gameon1985]

That's cool i guess but I'm kind of wondering what was their purpose of buying it. I mean this is a gaming streaming service and they have a very small presence in the gaming world. Oh well I guess you can look at is been impressive watching a company that was once strictly a online book store evolve into what it is today.

[Baka-akaB]

They have an increasingly strong presence in content streaming with their videos on demand and Amazon Prime . They already own device to propagate those contents , and they are making obvious game studios purchase .

[cell989]

Im glad it was Amazon and not Facebook, Google, or Microsoft

[Sm00thNinja]

Amazon Prime members get higher streaming quality options incoming! Just kidding I love amazon. Proud prime member since 2009. Amazon can only be good for the industry.

[Revengeance]

YES! Someone NOT Google bought them!