Twitch has risen in prominence over the years because of the gaming industry. Personalities play popular video games on the Twitch streams for huge audiences. The platform has expanded its role to other forms of entertainment recently. Twitch played a crucial role in the most viewed events in online history last weekend. The Logan Paul v KSI YouTube celebrity boxing match garnered over two-million online viewers between PPV buys and illegal YouTube, Twitch and online streams, the Washington Post reports. Twitch inadvertently broke new ground in the hip-hop industry last weekend as well. Danny Brown premiered unreleased music while playing video games with his followers.
When streaming “Persona 5,” a PlayStation role-playing video game, Brown randomly played unreleased tracks over his stream. Fans were quick to assume this was a sneak peak of Brown’s anticipated record, but Brown shut that down.
“Wasn’t songs from my new album,” Brown later tweeted. He said the songs were “only for Twitch.” Brown joked the listening party was the first album release on the platform, but he could be on to something. Twitch is garnering huge followings for more than just video games; Singers, comedians, and other entertainers are utilizing the platform to carve out a niche. Rappers and musicians could easily harness the platform for an interactive album release stream in the future.
It will be interesting to watch hip-hop music and Twitch evolve together in the future.
