Move over Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, rise of Twitch streaming is shaking up the music industry
- DJs like Kenny Beats, Diplo and Sofi Tukker now post to Twitch multiple times per week to appeal to a wider audience and build up their fan base
- As thousands of indie artists found themselves stuck at home amid coronavirus lockdowns, many tried out Twitch, and the rewards have been huge
Kenneth Blume wanted to talk about white privilege. The 29-year-old DJ from Greenwich, in the US state of Connecticut, has produced beats for some of the biggest rappers in the game, including Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs and Jpegmafia, under the pseudonym Kenny Beats. Having benefited directly from black culture, he felt an urge to speak out after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota days earlier.
To vent, he turned to Twitch, a video site owned by Amazon.com. He began his performance, which would go on for more than two hours, by saying he was in a foul mood. He then responded to a viewer question about the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit organisation that bails out low-income people from jail. Blume urged his viewers to donate.
“A lot of us who grew up poor have white privilege,” he says. “I’m trying to normalise the idea of talking about this.”
Such outpourings, often in response to questions from fans, have earned Blume a large and growing following on Twitch, the most popular service for live streaming in the US. Since starting his Twitch channel in March, Blume has amassed more than 100,000 followers. Every time he goes live, thousands of people tune in to hear him talk about his artistic process and to observe how he interacts with musicians and fellow producers.
