Facing intense challenges, musicians and their fans have turned to livestreaming, something gamers have done for years. Music data analytics platform Chartmetric is watching livestreams and platforms like Twitch go from cool niche to increasingly necessary.
Twitch’s musical side highlights how much music and gaming are entwined, as musicians mix gameplay with performance and gamers seek out music on their favorite streaming platform.
Chartmetric has been tracking more than 5,000 musicians, labels, and music-centric users on Twitch since May 15, 2020. It homes in on new Twitch streams with music as their focus by grabbing data from the top streamers in the Music category every few hours. Artists can also manually register to get their data to Chartmetric with a few clicks, allowing the platform to track followers and viewer-hours.
Chartmetric has created four new charts for music on Twitch: Weekly Top Users by Viewer-Hours, Monthly Top Users by Viewer-Hours, Weekly Top Users by Followers, and All-Time Top Users by Followers. “We feel these charts give a great overview of who’s gaining traction, as well as what level and kind of engagement they’re getting on Twitch,” says CEO Sung Cho. “We think these charts will prove valuable to music professionals of all sorts as they try to see how livestreaming fits into the business.”
Like TikTok, Twitch has nurtured its own crop of music creators, some of whom hail from the gaming world or incorporate gameplay or game culture into their music making. For example, the most followed Twitch streamer Chartmetric is tracking is Spain-based Ibai “Ibai” Llanos, the former League of Legends gamer and current G2 Esports creator who currently boasts some 2.2M Twitch followers. At No. 2, American streamer LilyPichu (1.4M followers) takes a more hybrid approach, blending music and gaming content, as she draws, plays piano, and games. In parallel to Twitch, she’s built a sizable music audience on other platforms (68.5K Spotify followers & 191.4K monthly listeners; 2.3M YouTube channel subscribers & 244M channel views).
Recently, musicians and labels from different countries, scenes, and eras have also managed to build and sustain impressive audiences on Twitch. Take, for example, the most followed label, Monstercat (791K), which alternates 24/7 streams of the label’s music with live performances and listening parties. Recently retired rapper Logic (374K followers) is now streaming frequently and gaining new fans, as have deadmau5 (469K followers) and Brendon Urie (391K).
Twitch and other livestreaming platforms have given new windows of opportunity to a range of international players like LiveKiss, a Taiwanese radio station that has the most viewer-hours in the week of Sept. 8 (522K), beating out Beatport, Insomniac, and Dirtybird electronic music channels to top the charts.
“We love the stories data can tell, and these new Twitch tracking features and analytics add to the robust, helpful information we provide to our artists, managers, labels, and other professionals looking to understand what’s going on with music, no matter what the platform,” notes Cho. “Now they can get an even deeper glimpse into their story, or the story of the music they care about.”
Platform & Stream 