Monstercat Backpedals On Controversial Twitch Affiliate Fast-Track Offer

After Monstercat, the popular electronic music record label, announced a controversial partnership with Twitch allowing Monstercat Gold subscribers to automatically gain Affiliate status on the streaming platform, the label is now claiming that the deal never affected how Twitch streamers become Affiliates. However, various emails and now-deleted pages on the company’s website claiming otherwise led to uproar online before the retraction.

On November 17, Monstercat announced it would be partnering with Twitch to “fast-track” Affiliate status on the platform for those who pay the $5 a month subscription fee to Monstercat Gold. This deal offered a library of claim-free music from the record label’s vast pool of musical artists including the famed Marshmello. In a press release regarding the partnership, Monstercat’s Head of Gaming Gavin Johnson stated, “This alignment further empowers content creators by opening access to premium music and monetization for their channel.” The release stated that existing Monstercat Gold users will be able to “immediately apply” to become Affiliates on Twitch, while new subscribers would be able to apply after 30 days.

Now, Monstercat has backpedaled, claiming that its partnership with Twitch was never meant to allow Monstercat Gold subscribers to easily become Affiliates. In a tweet posted as a reply to the original announcement, Monstercat states, “All current Gold subscribers must meet Twitch’s Affiliate criteria. Our goal was never to take away from the achievements that Affiliates worked for in their time streaming on Twitch.” However, Monstercat has yet to clarify what it means by “fast-tracking” Affiliate status for its subscribers. The host of Twitch News, Zach Bussey, posted various screenshots of Monstercat’s website before and after the new announcement which shows that Monstercat has changed its verbiage to fit its new claims.

In order to get its story straight, Monstercat has gone so far as to delete an entire page from its website that outlined how the partnership with Twitch would affect Affiliate streamers. The Monstercat Gold subscription page has been edited to remove any mention of instant Affiliate status. In the initial press release, and on the Monstercat website before it was edited, Monstercat claimed that Gold subscribers would receive an invitation to the Twitch Affiliate program within a few days after submitting their username. Now, Monstercat is claiming that the applications will be manually reviewed by Twitch, which is not the case under normal circumstances, as Twitch’s Affiliate program is an automated service.

To clarify, Twitch and Monstercat have evidently enacted a partnership that does virtually nothing outside of what Monstercat Gold already offers its subscribers. Monstercat has either made a massive change to what the partnership was going to offer after streamers were upset with the new Affiliate-for-a-fee scheme, or the usage of the term “fast-track” was misinterpreted by the Twitch community. Regardless, Monstercat owes its subscribers and Twitch’s community an explanation of what the partnership actually entails if, in fact, it offers any additional benefits other than streamable licensed music.

Source: Monstercat, Zach Bussey

About The Author