Twitch is undoubtedly one of the biggest social media platforms right now. Enabling the ability for influencers to play video games and create a full-time income from their passion, the phenomenon of e-sports has certainly taken over the entire world. With multiple stadiums being sold out for e-sports events, and the activity gaining a cult-like following online, it’s certainly something worth paying attention to. In this article, we’re going to discuss the importance of the platform, and how it can potentially benefit your career within the music industry.
As most people will generally be aware, eSports became widely accepted within the entertainment industry when Drake & Ninja got together during a stream of the popular game Fortnite. Creating hype and excitement over Twitter (and pretty much every single other social platform), it provided a strong awareness of the platform amongst a mainstream consumer audience. Proceeding that strong moment within entertainment culture, people within the music industry began realizing the potential benefits that Twitch collaborations can have towards your brand.
Attention is an extremely valuable asset that artists can use in order to provide exposure for their brand. After all, if a consumer isn’t listening to your music, there’s a strong probability that they’re listening to someone else’s. Spotify playlists have become so important within the music industry because they provide exposure of a song to (potentially) millions of people.
Likewise, a YouTube music promotion channel will be important due to the mass distribution opportunities a platform such as Trap Nation offers towards a track. Essentially, attention is something that everyone within the music industry is constantly chasing. With over 40 billion minutes worth of content watched every single month, it comes as no surprise to learn that Twitch could be the next frontier for music promotion. Here’s an example of Marshmello collaborating with Ninja for his “Gaming with Marshmello” series. As Ninja will be promoting the episode on his social platforms, it provides a lot of exposure towards Marshmello’s music brand.
But despite there being a strong dominance of streamers on the Twitch streaming platform (owned by Amazon), music producers have been utilizing the platform for live streams and other activities such as listening to record label demos. As the content is all streamed live within Twitch, it provides an opportunity for the streamer to interact and create a direct relationship with the fans watching a broadcast. For example, deadmau5 regularly uses the platform to stream himself in his studio for demo listening and other things within his channel. As users are able to donate money towards a streamer via PayPal, it can be a potentially lucrative opportunity for people wanting to create a full-time income from the platform.
With the multitude of opportunities available in the e-sports landscape for promoting your music, it comes as no surprise to learn that Twitch has the potential to change your career. Having already achieved cultural crossovers with the likes of Drake and Marshmello, this is quite possibly just the beginning of multiple collaborations between both music and eSports. Whether it’s getting gaming influencers to use your music, or actually collaborating with them on a piece of content, the potential to gain millions of streams on your music is now a real possibility for almost anyone within the music industry. Get ahead of the market before the market gets ahead of you.