Careful what you listen to while streaming on Twitch -- because Twitch is listening, too.
The live streaming site announced Wednesday that it will start muting unauthorized audio.
Twitch has partnered with Audible Magic to identify and mute unauthorized music during playback of videos on its service. (After muting, Twitch will display a message explaining its reasoning.)
The site warns that its new system isn’t perfect. Audible Magic still picks up false positives and has even accidentally muted some of Twitch’s own content.
For the time being, the muting only applies to Video on Demand, or VOD, which is playback of previously recorded Twitch sessions. Live streaming is unaffected, but if you’re playing unlicensed music while live, it won't necessarily be available in the recorded version later.
Twitch has also announced plans to cull its collection of saved video after its metrics showed VODs accrue most views within two weeks. The rest of the time, they’re more or less gathering dust; 80% of saved VODs have never been viewed, according to the site’s statistics.
Shorter highlight clips will still be saved indefinitely, but Twitch says it simply doesn’t have the storage space to keep full videos around.
A new video manager is available to create and save highlights, and export any existing VODs before they are wiped from servers. This process will begin Aug. 27.