If you’ve ever browsed YouTube, chances are you might have stumbled upon a video or two where the audio has been completely muted. This usually happens when YouTube detects that the video has used a copyrighted song that it wasn’t supposed to use. Interestingly enough it seems that Twitch has borrowed some of YouTube’s policies in a recent update.
In a blog post about the changes they will be making to videos on demand (VOD), Twitch announced audio recognition which will scan VODs past and future for music owned or controlled by the clients of Audible Magic. According to Twitch, “When music in the Audible Magic database is detected (“Flagged Content”), the affected portion of the VOD will be muted and volume controls for that VOD will be turned off.“
Now for Twitch streamers who love to play music in the background while they play their games, maybe it helps them concentrate, maybe they just generally prefer their own music to the game’s music, fret not because this does not affect you. It will affect your VODs, so for gamers who tend to rely on VODs to watch Twitch videos because they missed the stream, this audio recognition feature could prove to be annoying.
Many users have since voiced their displeasure, with some claiming that we don’t have to wait until YouTube purchases Twitch because some of their policies are already here. Twitch has also warned against false positives, claiming that audio recognition might not be 100% accurate. In any case what do you guys think of this latest change? Does this affect you?