Twitch, the popular livestreaming site, announced it had a change of heart regarding video uploads. For years, the Amazon-owned streaming site only offered broadcasters the option to stream video live. Today, it’s opening the doors to those that prefer a more edited approach to video sharing.
The big reveal happened today at a fan event, TwitchCon, and it enables anyone with a Twitch account to upload videos from their existing video-manager dashboard. While livestreams were captured and archived on the platform (if the feature is enabled by the broadcaster), they expire after a set period. For partners and turbo subscribers, this was 60 days, while your typical broadcaster only had 14 day archival.
Uploaded videos won’t expire. With the new capacity for uploads and non-expiring videos, content creators on Twitch are now free to make polished, professional videos. This addresses one of the biggest problems with the platform by its creators, the inability to create great video for their fans for fear of the work involved in creating a non-permanent video.
Additionally, some had bemoaned the lack of time off due to a pressing need to release new content daily (or even multiple times daily) in order to appease their fans and make a living through Twitch’s profit sharing program.
Today’s changes should be music to Twitch broadcasters’ ears.
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