As Twitch Rebrands To Prime Gaming, Amazon Faces Questions On Platform's Music Rights

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN announced a rebrand of their Twitch Prime streaming platform to Prime Gaming.

Prime Gaming will still include the features that Twitch Prime offered, including free games, exclusive gaming content and a free monthly Twitch subscription.

Amazon Aligns Prime Brands: The announcement aligns the gaming content with other Amazon Prime features including Prime Video.

Popular game producers such as Riot Games and Take-Two Interactive’s TTWO Rockstar Games have entered an agreement with Amazon to provide exclusive in-game content for Prime members.

Prime Gaming will be available in 200 countries and territories where Amazon offers Prime membership and services. 

Amazon’s gaming service cannot escape calls to action regarding streaming of unlicensed music.

The Debate Over Music On Twitch: On Monday, the executive board of the Artist Rights Alliance sent a letter to Jeff Bezo asking for more information about whether Twitch’s platform allows for unlicensed music streaming. 

During Bezos' testimony before the House Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee last month, U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong asked Bezos whether Twitch allows users to stream music without Twitch obtaining a license. 

Bezos answered that he didn't know, and said he would look into the matter.

The streaming of unlicensed music harms artists who make a living off their streaming royalties, the Artist Rights Alliance said. 

The letter asks Bezos 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?”