For all of the progress that Twitch has made since its inception in mid-2011, the service has been hamstrung by a nagging issue: how to enforce copyright laws as it pertains to gamers that play music during their gameplay sessions.
Just before its acquisition last August, the company employed an automated system from Audible Magic to scan archived streams. If Twitch detected copyrighted music in an archived clip, they'd simply mute the clip - regardless of it was background music (a radio station in Grand Theft Auto V, for example) or even someone singing a tune.
Needless to say, this method riled some feathers, especially as it was seen by some as a way of making itself a better acquisition target.
With the service now under Amazon's ownership, the company is finally addressing the matter with the launch of the Twitch Music Library.
Twitch Music Library is a collection of pre-approved songs that broadcasters can use in their live and archived videos without fear of being muted. At present, the library features more than 500 songs provided by labels including Mad Decent, Dim Mak, Spinnin' Records, OWSLA, Monstercat and Fool's Gold, just to name a few.
In related news, Twitch also announced an experiment with music content creators. The beta Music category lets musicians create, perform and present their original music for anyone to check out.
The company was quick to remind users that gaming will always be their core focus and they simply see music as an expansion of that.