True

I have serious doubts that Mixcloud is legally licensed in the United States.

Either they have somehow secured agreements with every record label both domestic and foreign (which is very unlikely unless they have a team of full-time attorneys) or else they are operating under the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board statutory license and paying SoundExchange $500 per channel.

According to the SoundExchange site, it would appear to be the latter at first glance:

https://www.soundexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2018-Jan-Mar-Licensee-List.pdf

However, it raises the question how Mixcloud possibly offsets the annual $500 per channel license fee to SoundExchange with a meager $15 membership fee per broadcaster. Something about that arrangement isn't adding up.

What is really needed is a long-term solution for the entire industry, not a stopgap that is service-specific.

Mixcloud did the dirty work for DJ mixes that were getting taken down everywhere else and has launched Mixcloud Live where you can livestream your sets and have an audio version after. Their biggest hurdle is storing the sets, but all of the copyright and licensing is done in their technology that they developed. Twitch should team with up with Mixcloud and work together to solve this issue especially in this changing landscape of music and streams.

I have the appropriate APRE local license to play protected music, stream online, post online videos with said content and there is no way to notify twitch. There should be a way to connect my license which i have paid handsomely for. Its ridiculous there arent any ways to tie it to my license and having to appeal 20-30 songs each VOD is painful. I have the right, why is it so hard.

Well, Facebook Gaming did it for their partner streamers, and now they can freely use music from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Kobalt Music Group, BMG Publishing, Merlin... that makes a pretty large choice of popular artists.

use that ad revenue that you are forcing to "benefit" streamers to contact every label and make agreements with them greedy little *****

I have serious doubts that Mixcloud is legally licensed in the United States.

Either they have somehow secured agreements with every record label both domestic and foreign (which is very unlikely unless they have a team of full-time attorneys) or else they are operating under the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board statutory license and paying SoundExchange $500 per channel.

If it's the latter, then that raises the question how Mixcloud offsets the annual $500 per channel license fee to SoundExchange with a meager $15 membership fee per broadcaster. Something about that arrangement isn't adding up.

That's a lot easier said than done. it would require an army of lawyers to contact ever single record label both domestic and overseas to secure such rights -- and then to maintain such agreements for the foreseeable future. And even that doesn't account for the hundreds of thousands of indie and unsigned artists which would also need to be individually cleared.

I am a DJ and I pay Mixcloud $15 per month to livestream on their service. Paying this monthly fee entitles me to play copyrighted music in my DJ sets, which completely protects me from a DMCA takedown. The revenue which Mixcloud receives from my monthly payment directly compensates Performing Rights Organzations (such as BMI, SESAC, ASCAP, SOCAN, GMR) who then pay royalties to the artists & music labels. I believe Twitch should implement a "pay to play" model similar to this, which would effectively protect a streamer if they were to play copyrighted music during a livestream (or if it's present in a past/archived broadcast or a clip). Additionally if this system were to be implemented, a streamer should be identified on the front-end as "DMCA Safe" (with an additional back-end status that designates that they're protected if they play copyrighted music). The front-end designation would help inform viewers (and potentially anyone considering placing a DMCA takedown request) that the streamer is part of the copyrighted music program.

I currently have ASCAP, BMI and several other licenses to legitimately play music with my Twitch account listed as the platform. As a former radio station program director and on-air DJ, I've been involved with these issues for a long time. If there was a way where we could upload our licensing credentials to prove that we have legal rights to play these songs, that would resolve my anxiety doing DJ streams on the platform.

Rather than mute or penalize streamers for streaming copyrighted content, license music from record labels so that streamers can legally stream the music.