Subscribe
Gaming

Twitch Overdubs Metallica With Royalty-Free Music

Twitch users saw the funny side of things when the gaming channel of the live streaming service played unintentionally hilarious royalty-free music over Metallica’s performance at BlizzCon 2021.

As part of the BlizzCon 2021 opening ceremony, Metallica performed live with a rendition of For Whom the Bell Tolls from the 1984 album Ride the Lightning.

Prior to the live performance, as guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield was introducing the band and acknowledging their first BlizzCon appearance back in 2014, a caption was shown at the bottom of the screen which read, ‘The upcoming musical performance is subject to copyright protection by the applicable copyright holder’.

The generic, royalty-free music was played over the band’s audio to avoid a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown order. It appears only the Twitch gaming channel replaced the music.

The incident then began trending on Twitter, with fans of the band pointing out that Metallica are one the most outspoken acts when it came to creating musical streaming laws, famously suing Napster in 2000.

Last year, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett said the band's battle against streaming was – in hindsight – a lost cause.

"We didn't make a difference," Hammett told Dean Delray on the Let There Be Talk podcast. "It happened, and we couldn't stop it because it was just bigger than any of us, this trend that happened that fucking sunk the fucking music industry.

"There was no way that we could stop it. What had happened was all of a sudden, it was just more convenient to get music and it was less convenient to pay for it, and there you have it."