After rumor broke of that Google was acquiring Twitch.tv for a reported $1 billion dollars, there was a lot of speculation about whether they would move into content areas outside of gaming, the market area where Twitch.tv not only made it’s name, but became a powerhouse in the gaming industry with their content strategy of live gaming broadcasts on a wide variety of games. While Google has their own Hangouts on Air, Twitch has a ton of experience in promoting and running live streaming content. And it turns out we won’t have to wait long after all.
Twitch is promoting their first mainstream streaming event outside of gaming with a live concert by electronic dance music star EDM superstar Steve Aoki. Aoki will be streaming a live concert on his own Twitch channel this Wednesday at 7pm PST / 10pm EST.
“This was really a serendipitous thing that came together really fast. We polled Twitch viewers about their appetite for watching live music, and the overwhelming sentiment was positive. We simultaneously had interest from some of our friends in the music business, so it all worked out in this instance. If this kind of thing turns out to be a good fit, we’ll certainly think about the best way to integrate music more fully into the platform,” Twitch VP of Marketing Matt DiPietro told Mashable.
In fact, it is currently against Twitch.tv rules to stream any content that isn’t gaming related, which has resulted in some people receiving bans. If Twitch begins promoting non-gaming content as part of their service, the rules will need to be changed to reflect this. There is an option for what game a person is playing to set it to “Music“.
Twitch currently boasts over 50 million active users every month, including 1.1 million who broadcast live every month. Twitch users watched 12 billion minutes of streams every month. The company is responsible for a remarkable 1.35% of all internet traffic in March 2014.
Jennifer Slegg
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