A few months after the initial shock of shows and tours being postponed indefinitely, I discovered Twitch. Twitch is primarily a streaming app for gamers, but it has a growing music and performing arts section with a swirling vortex of supportive creative energy. It’s more like an interactive music television show than a traditional livestream on social media, Youtube, or other virtual music venues. Music streamers on Twitch have regular weekly stream schedules and some stream for hours at a time. There is a large focus on engagement with your viewers in chat, streams are structured to be monetized, and you are able to expand your audience through a thing called “raids.”
Isn’t a “raid” a bad thing? Not on Twitch! Let’s define some lingo. A “raid” is when a streamer ends their stream, and they choose another stream to bring their audience to. You can sit on Twitch all day and ride the train from stream to stream. Twitch facilitates a monetized fan to artist relationship through subscriptions (aka “subs”), gift subs (viewers can purchase subscriptions for other viewers in the chat), tips (aka “bits”), and direct donations. If you become a subscriber, you get a custom set of “emotes” (aka emojis) that the streamer designs. A “hype train” is triggered when viewers all start subscribing, gifting subs, and cheering bits all at the same time. Sounds exhilarating, right? Now that you’ve got the Twitch vocabulary basics, here are six Twitch music streamers to check out now.
Aaron Goldberg
Aaron Goldberg is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, freestyle rapper, and one hell of a dancer from West Hills, California. He has been doing entirely improvisational 4-6 hour streams every night since May. He is the definition of a genre bender – over the course of his stream you’ll see a mix of funk, hip hop, ambient and classic rock. He also plays the harmonium, flute, didgeridoo, and samples vinyl records. His main intention is to make people happy, and feels that generating an endless cycle of positivity and good vibes with his music is exactly what the world needs right now.
“To me, the most beautiful thing about Twitch as a platform is its incredible community. As a newcomer to Twitch as a whole, I immediately felt welcomed and supported by people who had been on the platform for years building their own communities. Almost right away, established creators were finding my channel and actively putting in effort to get their own viewers or other streamers to check me out. The closest comparison to the Twitch community I have seen in real life besides my own close friends, is at open mic nights. Everyone is there to either perform and support, or just enjoy art. I really feel like I have found a home for my art on the internet.”
CA in LA
CA in LA are two best friends, filmmakers and musicians named Courtney and Ashleigh. The first time I stumbled into their stream they were crying out of gratitude. Every time I’ve been in their stream since they exude so much genuine warmth. They moved from Maryland to Los Angeles together four years ago and have a large collection of short films and covers on their YouTube channel. They are a prolific multifaceted duo who are always working on new material and have the best harmonies on Twitch!
“We have no idea where we would be as artists, filmmakers and musicians without Twitch. Twitch has driven us to push our creative limits and pursue creating original music on top of leveling up with cinematic storytelling. In the last two years, we’ve been introduced to artists and musicians alike from all around the world – even some who live five minutes away from us! Twitch has been the gateway for us being able to share our story and art with the world in a way never before possible and accessible to indie artists.
As filmmakers, we’ve never been or felt more supported than with our Twitch family. Part of being a filmmaker is submitting to film festivals with audience votes and such and we finally have that platform to be on a competitive level! We can’t testify enough to how incredibly loved we’ve felt, setting goals for new film equipment, projects and music equipment only to have those goals met time after time. Our community has been the most pivotal part of our lives. Our Ohana push us to seek new and greater heights for ourselves and are alway there supporting and loving us. In their words, ‘Big dreams, big results!’
Courtney and I grew up in the 2000s and loved our girl jams. Before we knew each other, we loved the girl group Dream. I, Ashleigh, in particular, loved Melissa Schuman. I mean to the level that I invited them to my birthday party as a 13 year old. Understandably, they were touring the world and being famous and things.
Fast forward to 2020, in the midst of this crazy pandemic, the viewership on Twitch has excelled a lot. One of our community members asked us to cover a song from Dream and stated Melissa streams and they would pass our cover over to her. This being the internet, we took everything with a grain of salt. Low and behold not a week later, Melissa Schuman showed up in our stream and was watching our cover of Dream’s music on her stream as well. We have since connected and chatted. It’s been beyond a dream come true to meet one of our idols as young women. All made possible by Twitch!”
Fantastic Plastics
Fantastic Plastics were my gateway into the weird Twitch world. They encourage many of their friends and musicians to create Twitch channels – including Weird Paul (see below)! They are a futurist duo who play party music, including a whole lot of Devo covers. They also recently premiered their Space Ghost-influenced talk show every Wednesday.
“After years of playing gigs and touring, we feel like we’ve finally found our ‘Plastic Party’ on Twitch. Not only have we made new fans on Twitch, but friends as well – people we’ve never actually met! Through the chat we feel like we get to know a bit of their personalities and senses of humor. One funny aspect of live streaming on Twitch is that the community can save short video clips of the live stream. Whether they are funny things we said or did, or cool moments during a song performance or just something random that happened, we always get a kick out of watching the clips afterwards.”
Sabrina Solo Show
Sabrina Solo Show is just that: one woman that plays guitar, kazoo, and kick drum, performing originals alongside a huge repertoire of cover songs from the 1940s to the 2000s. Her super stoked energy and raspy voice will hook you in to hang in her stream for hours. Sabrina has enjoyed the transition to streaming and even feels more connected now to her audience than she did with an in-person live experience.
“To say I love Twitch would be a serious understatement. I’m a one-woman band; I sing, strum the guitar, and play drums with my feet. I play covers and originals and along with my (behind the scenes) audio engineering fiancé, Justin, we stream three times a week.
I’d been playing gigs at dive bars and small venues for over a decade. Loved it! Never really resonated with any online platform; I’m into that LIVE experience. We started our Twitch channel in January of this year (2020) and it feels closer to live gigs than I ever imagined! I actually connect with people in chat much easier than those bar gigs and I also feel more encouraged to be myself than ever before.
I just discovered last week that my originals are requested more often than the 300+ cover songs I have on my set list, which floors me! The Twitch community really rewards you for being your true self. They’ve already spoiled us with some much-needed gear upgrades and sponsored our upcoming album! We have a blast just being goofy and playing classic rock tunes. It really does feel like a dream. Love my Twitch fam!”
Sun Fyre
Sun Fyre is hilarious, quirky and mega talented. She is an incredible drummer from Costa Rica currently residing in Buffalo, New York who performs under a black light, glowing with UV paint and jams out with a double bass pedal to metal and rock covers. You can always catch her playing in various costumes and cosplays, and she also does a variety of exercise and cooking streams.
“Being the only Hispanic female drummer with this stream setup is quite unique in this streaming industry and I’m proud to represent my Latin American background through music as well. You will find me speaking English, Spanish and Portuguese on my streams while laughing about nonsense with the chat. I mainly bring a quirky personality while performing heavy metal most of the time. Pretty much I’m known as the ‘only’ metal female drummer on Twitch.
One of the funniest stories would be the time there was a bee in my stream room and I had to stop everything to get it out because I’m afraid of bugs and I couldn’t concentrate. I have also been Rick Rolled more than 100 times on my stream – we have a Rick counter.”
Weird Paul
Weird Paul is an internet sensation. He is the original “vlogger,” making and sharing homemade videos for over 30 years. It only makes sense that he would become huge on Twitch with his brand of VHS tape nostalgia. He’s prolific in both quality and quantity, having written over 800 songs that make you feel like you’re a loopy 6th grader at your best friends sleepover.
