Emmett Shear

August 7, 2014

I am Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. Ask Me (almost) Anything.

It’s been about a year since our last AMA. A lot has happened since Twitch started three years ago, and there have been some big changes this week especially. We figured it would be a good time to check in again.

For reference, here are the last two AMAs:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1exa2k/hi_im_emmett_shear_founder_and_ceo_of_twitch_the/

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ncosm/we_are_twitchtv_the_worlds_largest_video_game/

Note: We cannot comment on acquisition rumors, but ask me anything else and I’m happy to answer.

Proof: Hi reddit!

EDIT: Thanks for all the questions. I want to summarize a bunch the answers to a bunch of questions I've seen repeatedly.

1) Live streaming on Twitch: We have no intention whatsoever of bringing audio-recognition to live streams on Twitch. This is a VOD-only change for Twitch.

2) In-game music: We have zero intention of flagging original in-game music. We do intend to flag copyrighted in-game music that's in Audible Magic's database. (This was unclear in the blog post, my apologies). In the cases where in-game music is being flagged incorrectly, we are working on a resolution and should have one soon. False positive flags will be unmuted.

For context, audio-recognition currently impacts approximately 2% of video views on Twitch (~10% of views are on VODs and ~20% of VODs are impacted at all). The vast majority of the flags appear to be correct according to our testing, though the mistakes are obviously very prominent.

3) Lack of communication ahead of time: This was our bad. I'm glad we communicated the change to VOD storage policy in advance, giving us a chance to address issues we missed like 2-hour highlights for speedrunners before the change went into effect. I'm not so glad we failed on communicating the audio-recognition change in advance, and wish we'd posted about it before it went into effect. That way we could have gotten community feedback first as we're doing now after the fact.

4) Long highlights for speedruns: This is a specific use case for highlights that we missed in our review process. We will be addressing the issue to support the use-case. This kind of thing is exactly why you share your plans in advance, so that you can make changes before policies go into effect.

EDIT2:

If you know of a specific VOD that you feel has been flagged in error, please report it to feedback@twitch.tv. To date we have received a total of 13 links to VODs. Given the size of this response, I expect there are probably a few more we've missed, but we can't find them if you don't tell us about them! We want to make the system more accurate, please give us a hand.

EDIT3:

5) 30 minute resolution for muting: Right now we mute the entire 30 minute chunk when a match occurs. In the future we'd like to improve the resolution further, and are working with Audible Magic to make this possible.

6) What are we doing to help small streamers get noticed? This is one of thing that host mode is trying to address, enabling large broadcasters to help promote smaller ones. We also want to improve recommendations and other discovery for small broadcasters, and we think experiments like our CS:GO directory point towards a way to do that by allowing new sorts and filters to the directory.

EDIT4:

I have to go. Look for a follow-up blog post soon with updates on changes we're making.

Most important question:

• How long will it be before Twitch goes full twitch chat and start going after livestreams and not just vods?

Can we get that in writing? Not to be an ass but a ton of people (myself included) believe it will happen in the future.

You mean you don't have any way of doing it right now. The question was whether you planned to do it or not.

Ah, you are well trained in the art of plausible deniability. You correctly use the present tense, and declare you have no intentions at the moment to do this. Of course the implication being, this could change next month, tomorrow or even a minute from now.

Is there a process a streamer can go through if they believe that their videos have been unfairly flagged and muted?

EDIT: Emmett's buried response

Shouldn't you have built an appeals process before implementing a system with these results?

My question for you is: How do you think you will support smaller streamer, with a viewer base of 50 or less viewer on peak, in the near future? All you offer is help to people who seem like to do fine anyway.

What are the future plans for the audio technology you're using?
Will it expand to live content?
and will we see any changes to the current VOD system?

Are you guys getting bought by Google, and is the music on VODs related?

Did Twitch need to change up things? Was there some sort of issue or problem that sparked this? If not, why then did Twitch change stuff?

Thank you for doing the AMA!

The language you've used to describe this system has been largely positive, both here and on the blog post- "helping broadcasters" and "work in the future you guys are REALLY going to like." As it stands now, NO ONE likes what you've done, and you haven't given out any details about what it is exactly that you're going to do that will make everyone so stoked. Can you give us any sort of detail on what these magical future improvements are going to be that make all of this worthwhile?

Will automatic muting be applied to the Twitch chat whenever the chorus to Sandstorm is typed out?

Hi Emmett,

As a Twitch enthusiast (watcher & streamer) and media research analyst, I have a few questions for you:

• If you could stream any game right now, which one would it be?
• In the near future, will there be any change in the order of live channels shown under each game? Are you planning on addressing the "richer get richer, poor get poorer" dynamic of the current way streams are listed? It seems very difficult for small & new streamers to get discovered
• Why is there no longer an option to locally download your VODs?
• What do you think the media landscape will be like 5 years from now? Do you think the traditional TV medium will be completely eclipsed by digital media? I was in a Nielsen conference yesterday and many people in the TV industry still seem to be in denial
• Are you/will you be hiring any media research analysts? Do you have an Ad Sales team? Do you have any recommendations for people who are interested in working at Twitch?

Thanks for doing this AMA.

Dear Twitch,

I've loved your site before its inception, back when it was only Justin.tv's gaming section. It's thanks to your service that I was able to turn my passion into a dream job.

However, several implemented changes to the site has made the site a worse experience. The streaming delay was the final straw for a lot of people, but I had faith that Twitch knew best. Around this time I was in San Francisco, and some Twitch employees told me in person that this change was necessary in order to maintain a profitable business, despite it hurting the quality of the site. Fine, whatever. I'll deal with it.

Deleting all past broadcasts and limiting highlights to 2 hours was extremely disappointing, and I hoped that workarounds were potentially possible and that you would listen to us. Yesterday myself, some speedrunners, and some Twitch staff members had a Skype conversation about this. Twitch staff were rather opposed to lengthening the Highlight VODs because of storage concerns, despite deleting petabytes of past broadcasts.

Breaking up highlights reminds me of when we had to record our speedruns in 2 hour chunks via DVD recorder. A bad limitation of old technology. Yet here we are in 2014 and we are having our content once again broken up into 2 hour segments. This severely impacts the usability of highlights. I have legitimate use cases for long highlights, as we archive our best speedrun times and use the VOD as proof. See: http://zeldaspeedruns.com/leaderboards/tww/any.

Forget all that, though. The 2 hour highlight limit is nothing compared to Content ID matching.

Applying Content ID matches on gaming music on a site that was built to stream videogames is absurd. Game music directly from the capture of the game itself is being taken down all over. Dealing with YouTube's overzealous policies on gaming content has been one of the most obnoxious things I've experienced as a content creator, and one of the reasons Twitch felt like home to me is because it's supposed to be a website focused on gaming content creation.

It certainly doesn't seem to be working out like that, though. Maybe it is due to needing to keep the company sustainable. Maybe it is fear of copyright issues now that Twitch has grown so much. Whatever it is, it is significantly impacting the user experience.

I have cancelled all my subscriptions and I will not renew Turbo. I am currently looking for alternative sites to stream on (perhaps hitbox.tv). The least I can do is give an alternative site a try, even if it hurts my income. I do hope an alternate site could work out, because Twitch has a near-monopoly on live gaming content at the moment.

I'm simply finding it rather hard to support a site that is so afraid of a legal grey-area that it pre-emptively begins to sabotage a large portion of its user base.

My question to you: Why should I keep streaming on Twitch as opposed to a different site that has none of these issues?

-Cosmo Wright

If you honestly cared about streamers and twitch viewers you wouldn't be making these changes. There has been nothing but backlash from this

This is probably the question I would like answered the most. There are some alternatives out there. Small ones, but they exist. What they currently offer is worlds better than twitch with its new policies.

EDIT: Did everyone suddenly forget that twitch was once the little guy as well? Yes, as alternative sites grow their issues will become more congruent with the ones twitch faces now, but as far as the whole audio thing goes, that was done voluntarily. I seriously doubt there was any pressure by the music industry. Why would twitch take all the punches from their user base instead of simply being transparent and helping us understand that they're being bullied? It's not like that's illegal or anything.

EDIT 2: This question was answered, but since you all decided to downvote the bajesus out of it I figured I'd put it here so no one assumes the question was ignored

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2cwfu2/i_am_twitch_ceo_emmett_shear_ask_me_almost/cjjorrh

Repost my comment here: Why make it so that only 2 hour highlights are "permanent"? Why not also give users a finite space where they can save videos "permanently"? I know speedrunners are a big part of your community, as I associate with the SpeedDemosArchive/SpeedRunsLive community (the guys/girls who do Awesome Games Done Quick), and speedrunners need more than 2 hours.

its because its fucking cosmo.

I particularly like "If that's happening (and it appears it is)", like "well, you know, we're not sure; we've heard a few people mention that maybe some clips are affected possibly, can't confirm that". Like they're not aware that the International clips were muted

Because he's bullshitting. Fuck twitch.

No highlights are longer than 2 hours? How about just about EVERY TOURNAMENT YOU'VE EVER AIRED?

This is just a complete and utter lie.

Thank you for responding.

To clarify: Are you saying that it is intended for licensed in-game music (for example, songs heard on the in-game radio in Grand Theft Auto games) to be muted, but that it is not intended for a game's soundtrack/background music to be muted?

No highlights are longer than 2 hours? How about just about EVERY TOURNAMENT YOU'VE EVER AIRED?

This is just a complete and utter lie.

Because we care about you and your viewers, and we want every broadcaster on Twitch to be protected from potential liability. No matter how remote you might feel the issue is, we aren't willing to run the risk someone's life gets ruined over this.

Holy shit that's laughable. How you could even be bothered to type that out is beyond me. Why did you answer the question if you were just going to b.s. us like that?

What is this "good" you speak of? I have yet to see any positive impact from the changes you rolled out.

"These videos still infringe copyright. There is nothing magical about audio; images from a game are also copyrighted and Twitch has left the video up, which means they are still violating copyright. That Mario sprite is ©Nintendo and if the audio isn't covered under fair use, the video isn't either." -- Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica

The above comment was made with regard to Twitch's new, aggressive muting of all copyrighted music on the site, regardless of owner intent (including now-infamously muting Valve's The International 4 VODs because they included in-game music from DOTA 2... which Valve owns the rights to).

Could you comment on why Twitch is aggressively, proactively enforcing copyrights on audio while doing nothing about copyrighted video?

Are you taking the stance that streaming audio isn't fair use? If you believe it is not, what is your rationale for believing streaming video is fair use?

Twitch seems to have backed itself into a corner (legally) by voluntarily adopting this aggressive muting policy.

EDIT: Thank you for responding.

EDIT 2: Thank you for the gold, anonymous benefactor!

Game companies have the public stance (and private stance directly with Twitch) that they allow anyone to stream their games. See for example.

So why is Dota 2 content (even The International) flagged, when Valve is part of that list of companies you linked to?

Game companies have the public stance (and private stance directly with Twitch) that they allow anyone to stream their games. See for example.

So why is Dota 2 content (even The International) flagged, when Valve is part of that list of companies you linked to?

How could you release a system so incompetent that it can't differentiate between crowd noise and music? I know it's just released but did you even bother with the most basic testing? Like oh a huge percentage of our viewers use twitch for this one specific thing we should make sure the system works for them. No one thought about that?

It is better to allow flagged stuff through than to block any false positives. Your system is harmful and anti-american.

Also there is no such thing as a false positive when it comes to audio matching.

How are streamers such as "kaceytron" allowed to stream on Twitch when they are breaking your own T&C's and are profiting from it. For example, when watching a stream by herself last night entitled "Tired of people saying that I show cleavage whenever I don't" this is the what was being broadcast source http://i.imgur.com/P21KHxw.png past broadcast http://www.twitch.tv/kaceytron/b/555307469

In your own legal T&C's it is written (2nd c, down) source http://www.twitch.tv/user/legal

13. c, Content that is unlawful, libellous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, suggestive, harassing, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory, fraudulent or otherwise objectionable;

It is quite apparent she shows no regard for this statement in her title and is playing oblivious for the views, donations and subscriptions. This in turn draws in extra viewers who are only there to inflame on her chat to try and evoke a reaction from her, resulting in more advertisement revenue.

She is also quoted in her previous broadcast as saying she abides to all Twitch T&C's time: 2:43:31

While she may be hosting gaming related content, her webcam content is extremely obscene, indecent, lewd and suggestive. The way she also speaks to her viewers in chat is inflammatory and a lot of times she is abusive to any criticism she is giving, this can be said about the people in her chat too.

During this stream, it was also noted that a member of Twitch staff and a Twitch admin were viewing the stream for around 30 minutes and no action was taken of any kind. (sorry no screen shot)

How can this be justified when someone is showing complete disregard to your T&C's and is profiting from it without consequences?

p.s Thanks for doing this AMA, it's given us all a chance to ask what we want to :)

Edit: Just to be clear , this is about someone who is breaking a websites T&C's in more than one place and getting away with it whereas other user will have the ban hammer slapped down on them for much more minor things. Not that she has boobs.

Why was no advanced notice given before these policy changes were implemented? (Specifically, Justin.tv shutdown and Audible Magic muting)

This is the most dodgy thing I've ever seen a CEO of a big company say.

"We made HUGE negative changes, guess we just forgot to tell you guys beforehand. Oh well, shit happens :D"

I hate to say this but doing the old "It's easier to apologize afterwards then ask for permission". You knew people would freak and you guys simply took the easy way of claiming to be sorry for the lack of communication. This was destined to be a shitstorm and there's no way you guys didn't see this coming, this tactic is ages old and people still fall for it...uguh

Hello Emmett, and thanks for doing this AMA.

I have some questions primary about the recent changes to twitch.

1. With the new VOD audio copyright policy, how would you justify the muting of "in-game and ambient music"? I feel they are essential parts of many games; in many cases music is unable to be disabled short of having no game audio at all.
2. Can you ensure that these checks are accurate? For instance the system wouldn't mute an official twitch VOD accidentally.
3. Why doesn't the video feed fall under the policy as it may contain copyrighted assets as the majority of games are also under copyright "protection", not only their soundtracks?

3. Is there any plans on extending the checking to live-streams? Twitch Support responses have been concerning. EDIT: Answered below, nope

Nothing slipped through the gaps, the blog post at http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/3136/ specifically states that the Audible Magic thing affects in-game music. You all knew.

Nothing slipped through the gaps, the blog post at http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/3136/ specifically states that the Audible Magic thing affects in-game music. You all knew.

Why is this necessary? Is this just a way to cover your ass for copyright purposes? Because I seriously doubt record labels are losing money off some random song in a GTA clip.

Then how would you explain MonHun videos being muted on both Youtube and Twitch? Monster Hunter doesn't have any 'licensed' music in it, as far as I'm aware.

Muting original in-game music is a mistake. We're working on it if something slipped through the gaps. Ambient music (playing Britney Spears in the background) is not allowed on Twitch unless you've licensed it for that purpose.

Except you guys posted this. Whoops?

http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/3136/

Tries to back it up with

It effects licensed in-game music but not original in-game music. Sorry we weren't clearer.

Too bad original in game music has been muted as well. In multiple games.

Muting original in-game music is a mistake. We're working on it if something slipped through the gaps.

So you just shove in a system that's extremely broken without any fore notice?

Simply put: we screwed up and should have announced it ahead of time. Sorry.

Oh sorry. A billion dollar company is sorry. Nice.

As for the future

We did need to change things. This is laying groundwork for some work in the future you guys are REALLY going to like. We've been intending to do this for some time, but it took us a while to identify and select a content identification partner and get the system up and reliable.

Groundwork for the future that you're really going to like

YEAH, just like the stream delay that NOBODY wanted right?

And as for the detection on live streams.

We have absolutely no intention of running any audio recognition against live video, period.

Too bad Youtube, the company that now owns you and has free will of your choices, already has this in place.

I don't trust Twitch, the CEO who's purely here for damage control, or Youtube at all anymore.

I'll be on Azubu. I really hope they open their streaming to more than just competitive because Twitch is going downhill fast.

Twitch Staff,

I just want to say you guys have built a great website over the years. HOWEVER, your recent changes to the website might have jeopardized your future. I understand why you had to limit copyrighted music. Piracy is illegal and should be illegal. However, muting VOD's is not the way to go. Muting VOD's has affected almost everyone. Here are a few examples.

1. Thejustinflynn. Flynn has friendships with a lot of Admins and was one of the hosts at Twitch's booth at E3. Justin is in a band with a fellow streamer ohnickel and frequently uses their music onstream. However, yesterday a ton of his replays were muted because they used HIS music. Not only that, but Justin is also in a competition to win a contract at Intel and he might lose it because he might Have no time to stream due to exporting everything.

2. TSM. League of Legends is consistently the most popular game on Twitch and the Championship series usually brings about 200k viewers. That is a ton of revenue for you guys. However, TSM, arguably the most popular LoL team on twitch was recently muted for playing music they own. Not only that but almost every LoL streamer does the same thing

3. Speedrunners. Most speedrunners speedruns are more than 2 hours. Due to this time limit the speedrunning community will have no place to save their videos. They might not have a choice but to migrate to Hitbox.

So my question is why, WHY are you doing this Twitch?

HTML5? Ever? Its 2014, flash is pretty much dead. Updates? anything?

Hitbox.tv seems to be using it just fine.

It uses HTML5 for the player controls while flash for the video.

Edit 2: Before people jump the wagon, at the time the flashcontrol extension I was using wasn't detecting flash at all. Now it is.

I'm going to assume its for DRM issues. Its one (of many) reasons Netflix isn't using HTML5 and continues to use Silverlight. Netflix has to abandon Silverlight at some point though since Microsoft has halted support for Silverlight.

Why doesn't Twitch implement a system of loading the player in the best way possible? I.e. Chrome users get HTML5 streaming, older browsers only load flash, etc.

On your blog post, you make the following claim with regards to your change to VOD storage:

"To be clear: this is not a move to economize on space. Due to the triple redundancy, it will actually require us to substantially increase our total amount of storage."

I don't understand how you are claiming that you have to increase storage to triple store the last three weeks of content, versus single storing the last several years of content. It sounds to me like triple-storing the last three weeks is roughly analogous to single-storing the last nine weeks, right? And you are currently single-storing WAY more than the last nine weeks. So in what way does going from single-storing several years of content to triple-storing three weeks of content require you to "substantially increase your total amount of storage"?

[Note: Twitch is probably my favorite site on the internet, so I only ask this out of love.]

Hello! Thanks for doing this AMA. I must say, I wish it had happened before you actually rolled out the recent platform changes. That would have helped us trust you; as it is, everyone is saying this is "just damage control".

I choose to believe that you are going through a stressful reorganization, and it's understandable that things weren't thought through perfectly. The hilariousness of official Twitch vods and many game devs' own streams getting muted is part of why I think so, and the poor timing of your community communications can be seen as part of the same thing. Hopefully, it's not too late for us to have a meaningful dialogue, and for things to be a little less hilariously terrible than they have been for the last ~18 hours.

So, here's my question: which of the following are on the table?

Audio:

• Turning off audio muting altogether. Sounds like you're under a lot of pressure on this, but hey, maybe it's possible.
• Removing video game OSTs from the database. You are a video game streaming service; it is fair use for people to stream and save recordings of gameplay; it is completely absurd that your system is flagging the very content your platform is intended to host
• Muting things much more selectively. Half hour chunks are the most heavy-handed, experience-ruining way to do this; only a tiny fraction of copyrighted songs last anywhere near that long; you are removing access to huge amounts of your content creators' hard work. Why not just mute the actual part that matches?
• Increasing the stringency of the content-owner submission process, to avoid abuse cases like this one that we've seen across youtube for a while now.
• Treating users as innocent until proven guilty when making counterclaims. Given the erratic nature of the detection algorithm, the inevitable slowness of any manual investigation process, and the fact that videos are most relevant to communities shortly after they are released, it would be a HUGE improvement to user experience and community health if contested mutes were reversed until investigated.

Saving VoDs:

• Only deleting old saved VoDs that haven't been watched. You mentioned in your blog post that "80% of [y]our storage capacity is filled with past broadcasts that are never watched." So, go ahead and delete those! But don't delete the archives of famous streamers who are no longer active! That is valuable history! Preserve it!
• Allowing us to save VoDs forever again, at reduced capacity. Maybe only once they cross a viewership threshold?
• Allowing highlights to be longer than 2 hours. Many speedruns, e.g. Wind Waker, take longer than this. Making everyone painstakingly break their runs into 2-hour chunks is sad :(

I fully understand that not everything I'm asking for here is possible; my intention is to get a sense of what is possible. Our trust in you is shaken, but you have a golden opportunity to regain it. Show us what you're willing to do!

You recently promoted a broadcast by Steve Aoki (at twitch.tv/steveaoki) which did not contain any gaming related content. When other, smaller streamers (such as gootecks) tried to cast similar party/concert streams, you told them to go to a different website, since the Twitch Rules of Conduct specify that Twitch isn't for non-gaming content. What is the reason for this?

Why do you still hate the FGC?

I'd like to state that I understand why these changes are being made and that while it doesn't make me particularly happy, it is necessary to improve and grow the service. However, I think the way this is being handled is poor and the timing at which all these changes are happening is also terrible. A bit of work can be done on Twitch's side to ease the adoption of these policies.

Regarding the VODs, I agree that not everything needs to be kept forever. I run my own redundant arrays at home and I too, tend to clean up from time to time as space isn't unlimited nor free. However, the metrics you are using to justify the 14 day policy is flawed. The reason why nothing gets viewed past that timeline is not because there is no interest, it's because the tools we are offered are pretty bad. If you want to view past broadcasts, you have to either remember the title of the broadcast to find it or search for it through different means that are all independent and lacking.

For example, it is currently impossible to search for a streamer playing a particular game. You can search for a streamer, or a game, but a simple concatenation of both is impossible. I think there are improvements to be made to the way we can search material, and these improvements could change your data considerably.

I was going to comment on the highlight creation tool being very impractical. But it seems it has improved a bit since last I used it (and gave up on it entirely back then). Keep up the good work on that end to make creating highlights and editing easier.

Moving on to the bigger issue, muting streams that has soundtrack that violates some form of copyright. Whenever I play games (streaming or not), I enjoy listening to music. Now if I decide to stream, I will have to turn off my music or my VODs (and I assume the stream itself eventually) will be muted.

Again, I understand why these changes are being made, but I think there should be some work done between Twitch and streaming platforms to develop ways to allow music.

Currently, most streaming platform (OBS, twitch to name the bigger ones) allow scenes where you can select what can be viewed. However, nothing exists to select what can be listened to. I understand that Twitch has no direct role in helping develop this, but at this time, Twitch is ready to enforce something that will hurt streamers, and I do think in the end it will hurt Twitch itself. I believe it's worth investigating this path as it will please the streamers, the viewers (a lot prefer music-less streams) and possibly improve your image towards the community.

Hopefully this gets your attention and doesn't get lost in the reddit blackhole. You have done great work up to now, and I understand there is a timeline to follow when <rumors> happen, but you should not lose focus on your community.

And now for the actual questions:

1. Are there any plans to improve the search engine for VODs?

2. Are the current VOD lifetime values set in stone or are you willing to re-evaluate (shorter or longer)?

3. Is Twitch interested in improving the streamer's experience by working with streaming platforms?

3.1. If not, does Twitch have a plan to help the streamer to extract the infringing audio while leaving the rest intact?

Thank you,

lorcas

Could you guys PLEASE add a feature that allows the broadcaster to select their own stream delay?

I know that the delay was added with good intentions in order to stop things like stream sniping and ghosting, but there are many streamers who like to have interaction with their chat and it is very awkward for the streamer who reads chat and for the viewers when there's a question asked by either of them and they have to wait 20-40 seconds for a response.

I believe many people who don't really care about being stream-sniped (it still happens anyway), or just want to have interactions with their fans while streaming would appreciate the ability to set their own stream delay. I know Hitbox has this, so it would be a very wonderful feature on Twitch.

I was a streamer for twitch.tv up until a month ago when I was banned from your services without given any reason.

It took a week of asking staff why I was banned for one staff member to tell me he banned me because he suspected me of cheating in an online game. I was not cheating in an online game and my VoD's and past broadcasts were solid proof that that was not true.

I have tried for weeks to contact twitch, including messaging you on reddit, emmett shear. I have gotten no responses in almost a month now and I'm starting to wonder if twitch.tv cares about customer support.

I loved streaming, I did it every day and absolutely would never do anything to jeopardize my stream. I just want my stream back and I feel like deserve it because a staff member closed my stream for something I absolutely did not do.

Sincerely, Grimmybear

Why did you decide to use such an archaic system that doesn't even care/know where the music is coming from? Why even use this if it even contains video game music when 99% of streamers' content are video games themselves and the sound they emit is part of the experience of watching a streamer?

I'm tearing my hair out at this, it blows my mind you went through with this.

On your blog, you've encouraged people to get permission to stream the music that they're playing. In principle, I understand why this is important. When someone turns off the game music and plays "Darude - Sandstorm" instead, certainly Darude deserves the chance to get royalties from that.

However, you've signed up with a ContentID system, which just detects that music they (probably) cover is (probably) being played. They don't have any way to know that you have permission.

Suppose someone does get permission to play a particular artist's music, but that music is indexed by Audible Magic. How will Audible Magic know that they have permission? Do you see any realistic outcome that's better than:

• Streamer plays music with permission
• Audible Magic recognizes the music and mutes it
• Streamer appeals the muting through some appeals process that doesn't exist yet
• E-mails ensue where the streamer has to prove they have permission
• The audio comes back, much later
• Repeat every time they put up a new highlight or VOD

And are you talking to your "partner" Audible Magic about the fact that their content matching is so inappropriate for Twitch so far?

Hey Emmett, just another concerned twitch streamer.

I understand the need for copyright protection, as the site gets bigger and bigger it probably gains more attention from copyright holders too. However the current implementation has some issues but I'm sure everyone is going to post about that.

My actual question is, every time some massive drama happens (first thing that comes to mind is the Horror mod drama over banning of several accounts) your (or rather twitch) talk about how you understand that your communication was bad in the situation and you will improve. However this never seems to happen in the ways I and others would like. While you are completely transparent about your changes in your blog and emails, tweets etc. You never announce these changes BEFORE they happen. Everyone who uses twitch never gets a chance to give feedback BEFORE you make sweeping changes to the service.

Like I said, I understand WHY you made the changes, I don't necessarily agree with them, however I feel that the backlash from the community would be much smaller if you just gave people the chance to voice their concerns before they have no choice. Even if you didn't change anything (you've already begun doing it, etc) if you understand they're concerns and promise to make improvements BEFORE it happens maybe people would be happier about it.

Basically, why are you (twitch) super transparent AFTER these changes, but not BEFORE when you can give people the chance to give feedback before the changes are forced upon them?

Edit: People who don't understand downvote button downvoting his answer. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2cwfu2/i_am_twitch_ceo_emmett_shear_ask_me_almost/cjjqdbd

• What actions have you taken against Twitch employees abusing their power, as evidenced countless times before, escalating with the infamous Horror incident?

• Why do you feel it's fair that big companies can conveniently sidestep your ToS which you feel need to enforce to smaller streamers? (Concert streams, for example - there is simply no way you can spin it that makes it OK for Valve to stream Darude while your employees are going after small streams that don't have a game running on the screen)

• Why are you throttling bandwidth of small streams (<50 people) so that many people can't watch them at all because of the constant buffering every couple of seconds, while any partnered streams are just fine? Do you feel it's a fair way to give a chance to new talent?

• Do you understand that by recent changed to VODs you absolutely destroyed the whole speedrunning userbase on Twitch?

• And lastly, why in the name of God do you think it's acceptable to mute original game music and ambience on your server meant to stream videogames? Do you want people to play their games muted, having dead air when there's nothing to say? Is that what you think of when you think of good production values and entertaining content?

Why is video game music that we have full rights to flagged? this system uses a guilty until proven innocent approach, which is disgusting. please elaborate and make efforts to improve the algorithms to only include music that isn't allowed. not only that, but this effects your cash flow. so why are you doing this? it certainly isn't for the betterment of the community. dont bs us.

I don't think your problem is so much with the content ID system as it is the implementation. People can understand the need to protect yourselves and the general user base, but there are far more elegant solutions to the problem.

With the new ID system, why not allow content creators to accept the claim on individual VODS via their dashboard? The monetization could then be either turned off entirely or redirected to the owners of the claim? Either of those solutions would be infinitely more acceptable and less frustrating than carpet bombing with mute and having no way to recover.

I'm not a programmer or anything but I don't expect that would be an enormous hurdle, at least when it comes to removing monetization entirely. Redirecting it I imagine would be far more difficult but I would be surprised if users will ever be ok with the current implementation.

I'm not a big streamer but I am a partner, and while I've got a lot of patience with growing pains in this industry I also don't want to have to fight the system needlessly. I hope I don't find it necessary to jump ship but it's becoming more and more difficult.

Does the shutdown of Justin TV have anything to do with Twitch?

Hi Emmet, i have a few questions.

Why the 2 hour limit on Highlights now? That will hurt the speedrunning community TREMENDOUSLY as most game runs are over 2 hours, and nobody wants to split runs into multiple parts. Not to mention, the audio copyright flag thing is confradictory, as it blocks video game music ON A WEBSITE BUILT TO STREAM VIDEO GAMES!

Hi Twitch guy!

Is there any evidence that third-party music on Twitch is actually taking business AWAY from the music industry? Whenever the subject is brought up, many users mention that they've been introduced to new artists through Twitch, and they've subsequently purchased their music. I've never heard of people using Twitch streams as an alternative to buying/streaming their own music.

Is there a plan to explore this subject further? Maybe doing some market research, and using it to push back against whatever drove you in this direction? I'm sure a partnership could even be made between the gaming and music industries, as they seem to be in the same boat in regards to whether streaming is helping or hurting their markets.

Basically, a little button that says "buy this album now!" is much more logical than a muted VOD. Benefits both parties, and benefits customers.

I'm rather new to twitch and within my first week of subbing to 2 channels I've also bought 4 different albums just from the streamers I watch having their Artist info/song labeled on the side of the stream. Why can't a policy where all music must be labeled and displayed be implemented?

Do you guys run your own servers?

What does the Twitch offices look like?

Bacon or beef jerky?

As someone who doesn't use Twitch, why should I use your site?

What's the most unexpected use of your service thus far?

Question: Wouldn't disabling adverts on Vods that have copyrighted musics have the same effect as muting them. The person is no longer making revenue from Vods with copyrighted music.

Users (Such as myself) who can't watch streams they like because of time zones can enjoy the vods with no 30 minute audio gaps.

I understand you also lose revenue from that move. But doesn't it provide more good faith than the current system.

Alternatively you could still keep the ads on the vods but the revenue goes to the license holder. Majority of streamers make their money from the stream not the vods. But this method everyone wins?...right?????

Any plans to add access to archived videos on XBOX's twitch app? My hours don't exactly line up with the best streamers.

How do you feel about Twitch's own stream getting flagged for Content ID?

http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/c/4691978

Hello Twitch,

I'm a small time streamer. I've seriously never pulled in anymore than 10 viewers at once and have never topped 25 followers. That's fine, and low numbers aren't going to prevent me from streaming, albeit discouraging. As someone who has the intentions of streaming to educate players as best as I can, I feel like I'm not accomplishing what I came and set myself out to do because there's no one there. Sure, I'm not the most entertaining person, but I'm buried hundreds upon hundreds of streamers that everyone already knows. I don't feel like I have a chance, despite me using services for nearly 5 years. Would you guys be willing to put any changes into that, because it feels to me that you guys don't really care about us small guys. One day on Hitbox.tv made me feel happy as I felt I was worth something there. I talked to their support directly over Twitter, but even that made me feel like I was a human, and not a user.

Another question I'd like to bring up is in regards to the changes made to the VOD system. Sure, VOD's aren't the biggest deal to most streamers, as most of the attention is focused on the actual stream itself. However, as someone who plays MMO's often on my stream, I will usually play music over it. That grind gets pretty boring sometimes, and the game music just doesn't service hundreds of hours of listening often. Now, perhaps something really special happens, and I want to share it. There shouldn't be an issue with that, unless it happens to be caught in that huge, 30 minute block in which the music was caught. That's awful. Absolutely awful. Why 30 minutes?

Also, it was stated through official blogs and the like that implementing this system was in the best interest for the company and it's users. However, I don't ever recall seeing that someone playing music over their stream actually causing issue for you guys or a streamer. We've been doing it since the beginning, and the users have put you where you are now. If we put you there without our suffering, and we weren't putting ourselves through any suffering, why would you put this down on us?

Also, hearing that it's affecting in game music is not OK. I've been wanting to get into speed running for a while, and knowing that if I did anything that was worthwhile, and having that segment muted, that voids any commentary that could assist the community or inform the player. That goes completely against what I started streaming for in the first place, and as it seems with these changes, and what we feel may come next, Twitch doesn't feel like a home to me anymore. The delay which makes my life harder to keep what little viewers I have come in, my inability to edit most of my VOD's now and the unexpected deletion of many (that I can't go back and get now) makes me feel like Twitch doesn't care about me as a person.

Twitch used to feel like a home, but now it feels like a cheap service. What can you do for someone like me that would make me want to continue using your service? What can you provide that will help me grow and feel motivated to continue streaming, expanding not only me, but you?

Hate to say this buuuut my channel has had most of its content whiped in the past month. No warnings nothing. It's ok we will be migrating to a provider that's capable of holding the VODs. Not Impressed with the way Twitch has handled the current events...

Will you guys be supporting Chromecast anytime in the near future?

The fact that this is already the biggest trainwreck in Reddit AMA history is pretty unbelievable.

Why did the PR department allow this to happen?!

So 2 hours for vods... what about Speedrunners?

What about things like marathons where its over 7 days of content?

False positives are certain to be a huge issue here, and it has proven to already be one. Automatic systems such as those put on YouTube often generate these false positives, but the power isn't in our hands to do anything about it. I've legitimately recorded a clip of me talking to my webcam before with no extra music and uploaded it to YouTube, and they denied me access to monetize the content with no accessible means to refute the claim.

Especially considering that I work in server support and often handle abuse complaints, I'm familiar with DMCA and the counter notice process. It's not an easy one, scares off typical users, and is incredibly inaccessible. Not to mention the turn-around is very poor in most situations.

Do you have a system planned for removing these audio blocks if they are false? You say you have no intentions of blocking in-game audio, but it's going to happen, and we've seen it. It could be as much of a grey area as a GTA run with the radio playing, or general game audio from something like DOTA or Zelda (I have had in game Zelda tracks picked up for copyright on YouTube). I do not want to have to submit a legally binding DMCA counter notice every time this might happen, nor do I want 30 minutes of audio blocked for maybe only a minute of possibly infringing audio that I did not intend to happen. I feel that I am safe to say that I speak for the majority on this.

I have been a partner with Twitch for years, and over this time response times have been worse from staff, with a general disconnect between staff and broadcaster, which is why I enjoyed my recent time with MLG since it felt the exact opposite - as staff there was always available to work with me on any issues and were very accommodating to myself - a partnered and contracted streamer. With Twitch's failing response times as the site grows larger coupled with a DMCA process that completely takes the power out of our hands - how are we expected to get through this process easily?

-CLASH Tournaments

Thank you very much for the response. Can you please shed any light on this process? I figure it's appropriate since we're being explained the process on them being removed and seeing it in action now, yet we don't have any knowledge on the counter process. I would like to see it be able to be done without official counter-claims being done, since this is a legal mess that many do not understand and are scared to do. There are plenty of young streamers on Twitch too, and you can't be alienating to them. After all two of the members on my team who stream are under 18 years old, and I would hate for them to be scared off due to potential legal nonsense from this.

I understand the need for an automatic process, but there needs to be a manual and prompt process to remove false positives. I would imagine such a fast process with prompt response times can at least be implemented for partners, since we are users on the site that you should be able to trust and we're the ones that help generate revenue for you business. Whether it means if your automatic system notices a block of audio that may be blocked, we are first emailed about it and given 24 hours to respond (or it's blocked automatically) to accept the block or note it as a false positive. Or perhaps give us the ability using the new Video Manager to mute out (or swap the track of) specific parts of the highlight then have it be re-checked. I don't want 30 minutes of audio being muted for say a one minute part when you could give us the ability to go in there and mute the one minute ourselves (or replace the track).

There's a lot that can be done here, and I hope that a lot of this can be implemented before this system continued to be used.

Why is your service and the site in general getting worse instead of better?

Have you thought about shaving the hair on your neck?

Dear Twith CEO,

Why is the stream delay necessary to keep it profitable?

Hi Emmett!

I'm Ryan Clark, the creator of Crypt of the NecroDancer. VODs of our game are currently being flagged by your system erroneously (including our very own dev streams!: http://www.twitch.tv/powerupaudio/c/4808261 )

My question is: Why can't you employ a system similar to YouTube's? Instead of muting when there's a content ID match, can't you keep the audio audible and share the ad revenue with the matched party?

This would not resolve the problems with erroneous matches, such as those that are happening with our game, but it would at least allow Twitch streamers to have VODs that work!

Thanks :)

You guys sure are getting a whole lot of "specific erroneous match issues". Crypt of the Necrodancer, TI4, Pokemon, Punchout, various original compositions and your own fucking developer vlogs.

Did it ever occur to you to actually test this system before implementing it across the entire site or are you just trying to commit corporate seppuku?

Okay, let me put this in all caps rudeness, i apologize for it but it needs to be done:

WHY START THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE IF IT WAS NOT READY AND TESTED?!

Why did you implement this system only to come out and backtrack most of it's features with "we plan to add this functionality in the future" or some likewise capitulation?

Not all of these are going to be erroneous matches. Some music in those auto-matching systems are deliberately claimed by the wrong companies. On YouTube, they do this to steal ad revenue from the original owner, especially if said owner wasn't interested in getting royalties from the music in the first place.

Is there a way to enter music into this system and class it as "allow anyone to use this"? If not then the original creators will never be able to protect against this happening.

From what I understand, Justin.tv was a Y Combinator company. What was it like working with the organization?

If you had to go back in time to the start of your company, what would you do differently?

I'm asking as somebody who hopes to startup his own company in the coming months, and as somebody who really admires what Twitch has managed to do in such a short time.

Hi Emmett, thanks for doing this AMA. As much as you're getting hate, I wanted first and foremost to thank you for actually answering the tricky questions and not shying away like I see in most controversial AMAs, despite the fact that you probably already knew the comments that would follow.

And now I have a question for you that isn't related to muting music in VODs! Hooray!!

Do you have any plans to improve the Twitch chat for end users rather than the streamers themselves? I've got loads of suggestions.

1. When you click and drag the scrollbar up to see a message someone typed farther up and new messages are entered, the chat flicks down and then back up. I'd really love it if when you scrolled it froze the chat so I could actually read it.
2. There's tons of spam in Twitch chat, as I'm sure you well know. The only way to fight it right now is to mute users who spam. Unfortunately there's a bug where the popup that tells you that you muted someone successfully stays on my screen, so when I'm going on a mass muting spree I have to refresh the page fairly often just to get rid of all these unsightly popups.
3. Could we pretty, pretty, pretty please get the option to turn on our own user-side filter like r9k or something? I'd love to be able to read a chat with more than 50 users that wasn't an amalgam of caps lock spam, emoticons, and copy pasterino. I've been strongly considering making a Chrome add-on that does this for me, or maybe one exists and I don't know about it.

Basically I feel like Twitch has put in a lot of effort to make the user experience for streamers good, but hasn't put as much effort on the experience of the viewers themselves! Do I have any improvements to look forward to?

Thanks again for your AMA!

This is a rather overarching question, and it's about copyrights again.

Why is it that every company that uses automated copyright detection software tunes it for "overkill" instead of "undershoot"?

As YouTube has already proven, there are a gazillion ways to get around copyright detection software such that even if you flag everything remotely similar to a given copyrighted segment, one could still squeak through a mildly edited version of the copyrighted content (pitch-up, nightcore, etc). So, no matter what, companies are going to be chasing after loose ends, and you're not going to be able to cover everything no matter how hard you try.

I understand that the automated detection software is currently necessary for the longevity of Twitch, but having it tuned as a draconian, paranoid dictator has consistently shown (again, with YouTube as proof) that you end up hurting a lot of people who haven't broken copyrights, or even own copyrights to their own material.

I do understand the legal implications, but how bad would "undershoot" detection be compared to "overkill"?

I've been a long time broadcaster at twitch.tv - and very proud. I have met a number of very talented streamers who just can't seem to get their streams to grow. Over the years, I've noticed a trend where it seems to be that popular streamers grow more popular while some talented streamers just can't seem to get there. There are always exceptions but I don't think there's any question that the ratio between extremely popular streamers and smaller time streamers is ridiculous. Are there any plans to help small time streamers grow? I think Twitch would be a much healthier platform with a larger number of successful streamers.

There are a few things you could possibly do: guarantee a small time streamer will always have one of the front page slot, or always have a promo game on the front page that has a smaller view count, or even remove view counts from game directories in the first place! If a viewer goes to twitch to watch a certain game, they will have no trouble finding said game. But if they are more in search of a community stream, it's harder to do so. Perhaps you could also allow broadcasters to tag themselves with a few short words that describe their stream.

Thanks for your time and thanks for working to help Twitch grow!

What is the incentive for larger streamers to help smaller streamers with the hosting tool?

The benefits I've seen for larger streamers so far are:

• They get to host their equally popular or almost-as-popular friends on their channel. (This causes the bigger channels to keep on getting bigger, and the little guy who needs the attention most, sitting at like 10 viewers loses again).

• They get to host a partnered channel they aren't subbed to, and use their own chat to have discussions about the hosted channel (without subbing to the actual hostee and chatting over in their channel). This deprives the hosted channel of potential revenue... unless they can refuse being hosted?

• They get the good feeling in their chest that comes with helping out a random small time streamer who could really use their help (ok, I haven't seen this happen, but it probably does).

• They get to promote their friends over and over and over. (See my first point again, I guess.)

I will not name any names, but I have stopped watching some channels because the hosting circlejerks are getting really annoying. The cross promotion of the same people over and over again just makes me want to watch both the host and the hostee less.

I apologize if I sound a bit cynical, but hosting just doesn't appear to be achieving that specific goal, of helping smaller streamers gaining notice unless the larger streamer is either a) good friends with them, or b) or unusually dedicated to charity.

And who can blame the bigger channels for being selective? They don't want to accidentally promote someone who will take their viewers, right? Or host a terrible channel and ruin their own channel's rep, right?

We need more tools to allow smaller channels to grow. We've needed this for a long time, and unfortunately, we still do.

Guys you need to stop downvoting OPs answers even if you don't like them. If we can't see the answers then what is the point of the AMA. I came here, as I'm sure many others did, to read Twitch's response to many of the current issues, but if you downvote the answer because you don't like it then it turns into 'this is what we want to hear, so we'll bury what you have to say because we don't like it.' It's not helpful and completely contrary to the point of an AMA.

Anyway, my questions (since this is top level anyway):Would it be possible for you to have exceptions to the mute bot? It seems odd that someones content would be muted, even when it was previously supported or explicitly allowed (League BGM causing muting for example.) Why or why not?

Also is there any chance that the VOD policy could be changed/modified/extended?

In what other industry is a failure rate as bad as this audio flagging seems? How acceptable would it be if "in general it seems" your mail arrives at its destination, for example.

The system is defective by design as it pretty clearly is overzealously flagging items which are permitted and even should not be in the database to begin with. I definitely respect the rights of copyright holders that want to participate in this system but this system is clearly not good enough to reliably identify legitimate occurrences, and more importantly, NOT false positive. The policy is anti-partner and anti-consumer.

Please have the courage to challenge these ridiculous laws. It has been shown time and again with Youtube how abused the system is, where free/unencumbered content gets flagged and revenue gets transferred to someone who doesn't even own the rights, and there is no punishment for abusing the system in this way, assuming that an appeal is even heard.

Some streamers have already had to adjust (scale back) their streaming content to not include fan made music because of Youtube's policy. If this policy was implemented for legal reasons, please have the courage to stand up to the insane status quo. Your company moreso than any person will have the chance to change things for the better but you must be willing to take the risk, the reward will be worth it.

You are growing so fast soon you probably won't care any more (I realize it's already a foregone conclusion, but I wish for the sake of competition on the internet that you weren't bought by Google), I am writing because you have given us the opportunity to reach out before you grow too big. Thanks and good luck.

Wouldn't that just be a reported error rate? Since you don't send any notification to the author of the vods that they have muted highlights/archives (which seems like something you should have had set up before implementing this), so most mutes are probably completely unchecked by humans so far.

Here's one that looks to be an error: http://www.twitch.tv/ariablarg/c/4476589

Hi Emmett! Long shot here, but can you check put my application for the software engineering gig? ^{_^} Can Pm you info! :-)

PS: wouldn't it be the coolest story to tell everyone?

@optimizeprime: Do you think Twitch needs to support multiple audio streams? and why?

:)

You said you're sorry about not giving any notice about the major changes on Twitch, but can you prove it?

What changes are going to be made to Twitch in the coming months? Now is your chance to not make the same mistake.

Your blog about the change was yesterday. Where did you make an official announcement before that?

I hope you understand that audible magic is going to cause you a lot of trouble with your users. Some might even quit using twitch. Personally, I like watching someone play with commentaries but, with not without music and since most streamers will want to keep their vods for the whole 14 days wretch of a new delay for vods, they won't listen to music.

Tell me how selling out to Google will impact positively users ? I hope you realise Google will probably terminate twitch.tv by bringing live streaming to Youtube in a couple years if not less since they have been experiencing with it for a while.

How did you come up with the name, and what does it mean?

Any intentions on working on the Stream-Delay? I'm kinda annoyed by the fact that you can't really communicate with the chat/streamer anymore. It worked just fine back in the day.

Technical question. When is twitch going to make the switch to html5 from flash. Wouldn't using html5 to display the video enable twitch to use multicast to reduce bandwidth usage and bottlenecks?

Why would anyone who cares about their archive of streamed content ever want to use Twitch again?

If a competitor appears and becomes popular, should Google buy them too to protect your (their) business? How many companies should Google be allowed to own before they are busted up for the Internet monopoly they are?

When exactly did you realize you needed to do this damage control AMA as soon as possible?

Why are you guys a bunch of pussies selling out your company and fucking over your user base? Money grabbing fuckers.

Would there be improvements to server locations? I live in New Zealand and have had problems for a long time watching streams in high quality. My internet speed is around 100mbps so I should be able to watch all streams on high or source. Yet I'm unable to even on low. If this went away, then I may be more interested in staying with twitch.tv, if not, I will probably move to one that consistently works.

Why is twitch for android so shit?

For context, audio-recognition currently impacts approximately 2% of video views on Twitch (~10% of views are on VODs and ~20% of VODs are impacted at all).

Nice way of massaging the stats there. While VODs are obviously less viewed than other content, it impacts more than 2% of VODs being viewed. Instead of spewing PR at us such as:

"To date we have received a total of 13 links to VODs."

Why don't you just tell us how many VODs have been flagged total? Oh. That's right. Giving people transparency would only piss them off. Thanks for your time though.

Why is the ratio so important to you?

In the words of Sir William Blackstone,

'It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer'

Why is it acceptable for any system to have any false flags? Why punish the few for the deeds of the many?

Have you ever raised your dongers?

Do you need a good android developer? :D

Was it true that you guys paid the guy doing Twitch Plays Pokemon to implement democracy mode in order to keep people paying attention to it? It kinda ruined everything.

Seriously, what does Twitch do and why do people enjoy it?

I'd love to pose these to you in a form other than a question, but this is an AMA after all, so I'll play along.

Why do you find it acceptable to give such a sweeping change to the service that would obviously have a huge impact on the platform such little warning as to the fact that it was coming and such little exposure now that it's here? There are people who have archived thousands of hours of their personal lives on Twitch, shared with the community, YOUR community, that are literally destroyed with no recourse. More than just the music is removed, and more than just potentially small portions with music are removed, entire segments, entire broadcasts are neutered. But that's acceptable to do with little to no warning?

How is this system you willing added that labels your lifeblood, no, not the viewers, no, not the people providing you ad revenue and ads, the Broadcaster as a criminal considered acceptable? One that doesn't take into account if they have permission to play said, "copyright" music, one that falsely flags people when no music is playing whatsoever, one that cuts giant portions of their broadcasts out for something that may be four seconds of a ring tone or a car driving by with music playing loudly (These two particular things may or may not have happened yet, but that doesn't fucking matter considering that this very thing has happened on Youtube, automated), one that labels the very game music for the game that is being played as, "copyright" content that isn't acceptable to be played. Guilty until proven innocent is acceptable in Googles World and apparently it's acceptable in yours. If somebody believes they are being harmed, let them claim the content for themselves and bring it to court if the person doesn't back down. No, you rather the cowards way out that hurts both your viewers and broadcasters and frankly likely doesn't help the people providing ads and ad revenue to you or yourself. Because you are afraid of lawsuits that would never get anywhere. Coward.

Who are you to define when it's acceptable to break copyright and when it isn't? Are we suddenly living in a dictatorship with you our sole lawmaker and governing body? I don't believe that to be the case, so following that logic why is it okay for you to arbitrarily add a program in that randomly flags segments of broadcasts as copyright? I don't care if this has been addressed already, the very video content being displayed on Twitch is just as liable, if not more liable for claims of copyright as the audio content considering that is the most prominent display of the stream next to arguably the broadcaster, so why then is it only the audio you are flagging? Is it because flagging the video would hurt your bottom line? Oh, but you also aren't flagging audio for live broadcasts! Clearly you are doing this to benefit your broadcasters and viewers, except for the fact that you already explained the capabilities of Audible Magic and it very clearly isn't capable of handling live broadcasts. So basically, you aren't helping your broadcasters, you aren't helping your viewers, you aren't helping the people providing you ads and ad revenue and you aren't even really taking care of potential copyright issues and concerns? Seems like an amazing plan.

I should probably leave it at that, but considering the emotional investment I have with some broadcasters on Twitch, ones that I've shared sadness, happiness, tears and laughter with I can't.

Let me ask you why you deem it acceptable to completely screw over, "2%" of your viewer base. Is it because you only care about your bottom line? I can't think of a single other legitimate reason. You do understand the changes you are making won't save you from any lawsuits that would've otherwise happened, correct? Hell you basically just gave the A OKAY to fucking broadcast music live even if it is copyrighted and they don't have consent. But let's just bone the people who enjoy watching VoD's either because they are trying to catch up with a casters play through or can't watch a caster while they are live? This will directly impact people who have subbed to and support a broadcaster but can't watch them live due to time differences. But, I mean, it's okay, it's only 2%. Well, if only 2% is okay, how about you eat 2% of my shit for the rest of your life.

Oh, there's one more question I have, how does it feel to illicit so much hate from me that despite never even considering making a Reddit account until now the very arrogance and ineptitude of your post had the anger boiling within me so brilliantly that I was nearly frothing at the mouth just to tell you to go sod yourself?

What flavor of Gatorade should I buy?

How will VOD changes impact speedrunners who run relatively long games (like, say, FF6)? With regular ole VODs not lasting forever, it's hard for them to keep their PB videos up. And if they break them into highlight videos, the two hour cap means that they may have to make multiple "highlight" videos to cover a single PB.

Hey Emmet!

There are some smaller streamers that I beleive deserve a chance to get aprtnered (or at least front paged) anything in the works to get a "Streamers you might not know" section on the front page?

I rely on "VoDs" to watch a lot of streams, but I don't get to watch a lot of them because they load slow (no quality settings), and old ones get deleted. It sounds like they're going to load faster now, and maybe there will be a longer record of past streams, but they're going to be muted. If you actually fixed the videos no one's watching, people would be watching them. Instead you're fixing them by making them un-watchable.

You admit no one watches VoDs, but somehow it's a problem that there's music in them?

20%!!!!!!!! 20. Twenty percent. 20/100. 1/5. I had to say it a couple different ways, so maybe you get it. 1/5 of all broadcasts will be muted. And, the "appeal" process will then get so crowded it will be useless. Please just kill it while you have the chance. Please.

Why do twitch partner vods get muted but Riot Games vods are full sound?

I noticed that you answered a few more questions, and figured I'd try to squeeze in a late one if it's not too much trouble:

I (And I surely don't speak for just myself) am very grateful that you've agreed to remove the time limit on highlights, and will be adding an appeal button to flagged VODs. I'm just curious, if it isn't too much trouble, would be possible for the streamer to know what the content was flagged as?

I'm sure by now you're tired of having us draw parallels between Twitch and Youtube, but for comparison's sake, Youtube will give some information on what the flagged audio was detected as.

Here's an example from a Youtube video of Mega Man:

9:18
"Capcom Sound Team-Boss (NES ver.)", sound recording administered by: 
  IDOL
  UMG
  [Merlin] Phonofile 

I believe that it would make the appeals process easier if people knew what was being flagged. Especially since we can't listen to it after the muting has occurred.

What is your favorite meal?

Why do you answer to someone who insults you rather than someone who has a serious question?

Do you think that law enforcement around the world should use the same Guilty until proven approach? So like they can put you or anyone in jail for 14 days until evidence has to be shown ?.

I mean i know that murders, rape and such isnt as bad as copyright infringement. Still it would be nice to know. I feel like a legal system should work the same. You cant have innocent until proven guilty for some crimes and then guilty until proven innocent in others.

Thanks.

Just curious, what is Twitch doing to protect its user's accounts from being hacked?

I don't know exactly how it works but, would there be any way that a site like twitch could get a Blanket licence for music like the BBC has?

Favorite programming language?

Cool! I've been doing a lot of visualization stuff with Twitch chat in Python, want to check it out?

https://github.com/popcorncolonel/Chat_stats

It really sucks that music copyright stuff now applies to twitch too, your streamer, destiny, has been a huge influence in my musical taste and it makes me sad that I might not be able to listen to his music anymore.

How do you personally feel about having to do it? Do you think you are doing the right thing or is it just giving in to legal pressure?

Why is the segment that is cut out 30 minutes long? Wouldn't it be better to remove 5 minutes? Or 10?

A 30 minute removal of sound seems like it could be defined as an extreme punishment and not a preventative measure. What is your response to that?

So with the new audio thing, what is the rules when using Pandora.com ? Pandora allows its users to use this and its all registered, so whats the difference in a streamer playing it on stream, and everybody being in the same physical room and listening to the pandora? The streamer isn't earning money off it, so whats the issue?

Does Twitch have any plan to officially support casting to Chromecast?

I know Ember, will you hire me?

Will you allow APLfisher to host the Youtube game on twitch please?

1): With the shutdown of Justin.TV, shouldn't this provide Twitch with almost 2x the space to keep things how they were?

2): How do you feel about stream "raids"? (When a streamer is about to go offline, etc., and directs all his viewers to another streamer with a chat message to put in their chat, resulting in an almost "takeover" of the chat until several minutes or seconds later, depending on the size of the "raid". This is very very appreciated in the speedrunning community, however I've heard of streamers and such in the "other corners / areas" of Twitch frowning upon this and timing-out / banning for this. What is your personal opinion on this?

3): What prompted Twitch staff to initially bring up the proposition to the community to see their thoughts on having Twitch stream music concerts, etc.. (Such as Steve Aoki).

Why no chromecast support?

Hello,

I have some silly questions that require answering;

• Favorite TV show/series?
• When can we expect a Twitch episode of MTV Cribs?
• Does the CEO of Twitch allow pets in the office?
• Favorite kind of Snack from the office?
• How many people do work at Twitch?
  • How many of those people make use of the monthly massages?
• Do you have any personal favorite streamers?
• Who would be victorious in a fight between 100 duck-sized horses and one horse-sized duck?

"We have no intention whatsoever of bringing audio-recognition to live streams on Twitch."

"We do intend to flag copyrighted in-game music"

????

What has been your favorite moment in the history of twitch?

I'm a bit late to the AMA, so this probably won't be seen, but I have a few concerns regarding the video muting policy.

• Are there any intentions of implementing a system that will message a broadcaster to notify them of what got their VOD muted?

• If not, why not?

At present it is very difficult to know why a VOD got muted, which makes it even more difficult to request that it get unmuted for whatever reason, and near impossible to discover the offending music and remove it from the playlist or wherever it came from so future VODs will not be muted.

Why are you deleting VODs? I rarely have time to catch streams so I end up spending time watching VODs.

Twitch is growing as a platform for editorial and critical endeavors (for da video games), work that clearly falls under fair use exemptions.

In situations where the editorial works are illegally claimed, such as with specific reference to multiple claims on Jim Sterling's channel on Youtube, how does your system protect critics and journalists? What avenues do you provide to counter-claim?

The technology as it stands, I believe, censors all material without due consideration. How are we supposed to defend our work?

Hello there optimizeprime I do hope you can get to read this. My question hopefully is not answered already, if I were to stream music GIVEN THE OK to stream publicly.. Like actual music from a few bands I truly know and can provide valid sources from the record Company stating so (Mojo records known for their 90's music and SKA.) Will I have to worry about my audio being botted out in vods? Will I have to worry in the future about being flagged by a bot in my live stream for playing something other than game music? I feel like this is going to be a tough process to deal with and I can already see a lot of aggravation from many streamers who also have granted rights to them from other companies.

Are these policies financially motivated?

Dear twitch, what is a vod?

When you say "almost" anything, what kind of question popped into your mind that made you think you should add the "almost"?

Why isnt twitch compatible with chromecast?

What questions can't we ask?

This is the shittiest AMA I've ever seen on reddit. Why aren't you answering the top questions? I believe they are more than significant and you ignoring them only makes you look worse.

"Live streaming on Twitch: We have no intention whatsoever of bringing audio-recognition to live streams on Twitch. This is a VOD-only change for Twitch."

Keyword is INTENTION. You haven't said you never will, or what stops you. So, will you never bring it to live streams? Please answer Yes or No.

Also, if the above is no, what stops you presently?

Answer that, pretty please.

Or won't your handlers let you?

Nospin

Goodbye Twitch, it was a fun run. Thanks for doing the AMA knowing you would get ass raped. My question is where can I find music that WON'T be muted? It seems that ANY music used right now will get muted despite having a license.

Thanks, Smyttie

Could you please consider cutting your neck hair?
http://i.imgur.com/GMhAhEY.jpg

Do you see the video game livestreaming industry moving to television? Is this something you see Twitch doing?

Whats your favorite thing to watch on twitch?

Personally I think that this whole copyright thing is fine. But, it has one huge problem. That is the thirty minute segments. Fifteen seconds of music could have played, but due to this a whole thirty minutes of content is muted.

My question is, do you plan on ever reducing the muted area to actually the copyrighted part?

When are you gonna support 4k @ 60 FPS?

How did you come up with the idea of starting twitch?

This interview was transcribed from an "ask me anything" question and answer session with Emmett Shear conducted on Reddit on 2014-08-07. The Reddit AMA can be found here.