Musicians can now link their Twitch profiles to Amazon Music to let fans watch their live streams without leaving the music streaming app. The integration offers musicians a way to potentially reach even more people with their live streams, which — on Twitch, in particular — have become a go-to way to connect with audiences and earn money as the coronavirus pandemic limits their ability to tour.
After linking their accounts, a musician’s Twitch stream will appear on their artist page inside the Amazon Music app while they’re live, and a notification will be sent out to followers when they start streaming. Artists may also be included on a new “Live” page inside the app that highlights artists who are currently broadcasting.
The integration could help artists reach viewers who wouldn’t normally watch Twitch, which is owned by Amazon. Since it all happens within Amazon Music, fans won’t have to download any other app or sign up for another service. They’ll just be able to tap the notification and start watching a stream inside of a music app they already use. The big limitation seems to be a lack of a way for audiences to interact through the Amazon Music app. Fans will seemingly still have to head over to Twitch to chat or leave tips.
The other limitation is that this is limited to Amazon Music, which is one of the smaller streaming apps. Amazon says its music service has 55 million customers — a number it’s been touting since January — but that includes tiers with fairly limited service compared to a typical music subscription. Apple announced that it passed 60 million subscribers more than a year ago. Spotify has 138 million subscribers.
Twitch’s music category has been booming since the start of the pandemic. Last month, around 17.6 million hours were streamed, according to a report from StreamElements and Arsenal.gg. It’s still a tiny category for Twitch overall, but it’s seen rapid year-over-year growth. Artists’ ongoing need to find ways to remotely reach fans could help it keep going.
