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Metallica is one of the most popular bands with a massive global reach. They were headlining Blizzcon 2021, which was probably one of the biggest gaming calendar events this year. Metallica headlining any event is bound to be a tremendous success. However, this didn't wasn't the case.
With announcements about Diablo and Overwatch 2, Blizzcon 2021 was a spectacular event. But during a performance of their own music, Twitch muted the headliners.
Streamers mute Metallica concert and play their own music to prevent DMCA strikes
In the above tweet, Metallica can be seen performing live. However, the music doesn't sync with the video. That is because Twitch Gaming muted the band's audio and replaced it with 8-bit audio to avoid DMCA strikes.
While everyone could still enjoy the stream live on Blizzard's official Twitch channel, other streamers enjoying the event on their own channel had to mute the entire concert to avoid copyright strikes.
Although it seems like Félix "xQc" Lengyel was one of the few streamers which wasn't bothered by the threat of copyright strikes because he was using the audio.
It's a sorry state of affairs with Twitch and the DMCA debacle. This issue has been going on since 2020, where streamers were forced to delete all VOD which did not contain original music or risk copyright strikes.
In an odd twist of events, the internet was reminded of the actions taken by Lars Ulrich, Metallica's drummer, over 20 years ago concerning music sharing platforms and piracy. Ulrich is particular about the ownership of his work.
The entire incident made Twitch a laughing stock on the internet. People don't take very kindly to such situations and make the most of it by sharing memes.
This incident was also an embarrassment for Twitch. However, some users believe that it's odd for Twitch to do something like this. In contrast, other users believe that Twitch as a platform needs to shell out the money to license the music because Metallica loves to sue, especially when it comes to protecting their music.
Overall, the internet believed it was ironic that Metallica had to face the heat because of something Ulrich started with Napster in the early 2000s.
