Rolling Stone magazine is launching a video channel on Twitch, a move that makes the famed music and pop culture magazine the first mainstream publication to build a presence on Amazon Inc.’s AMZN 0.39% live-video streaming service.
The service, to be called “Rolling Stone on Twitch,” will go live March 1, and will broadcast for several hours a day, five days a week, said Gus Wenner, Rolling Stone’s president and chief operating officer, in an interview.
The deal helps Rolling Stone, which was founded in 1967 and built its success covering the biggest rock stars of the baby boomer generation, in its efforts to appeal to younger audiences and deepen its position in the digital media space. It also helps Twitch, a platform mostly used by videogame enthusiasts, to broaden its reach.
Programming will feature intimate live performances from established and up-and-coming musicians, Mr. Wenner said. The channel will also air interviews of musicians by other musicians, shows detailing how famous songs came to be and news programming focused on music and culture.
The channel will primarily focus on selling advertising and sponsorships for its programs to finance operations, Mr. Wenner said. Rolling Stone has built a studio inside its Manhattan offices to use for the channel, although much of the content in its early days will rely on remote feeds from artists’ homes due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The magazine has hired five full-time staffers for the project. Hosts will include Tia Hill, formerly of the song lyric annotating site Genius, and Jon Weigell, who had previously been a video producer for Condé Nast’s Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit and Epicurious.
“ “Gamers also have a lot of interests beyond gaming” ”
Rolling Stone, like many legacy magazines, has struggled in recent years to reach younger audiences as readers and advertisers transitioned online. In 2016, Singapore-based BandLab Technologies Ltd. acquired a 49% stake in the magazine with the rest being sold to Penske Media Corp. the following year. In 2019, Penske Media bought out BandLab and took control of 100% of Rolling Stone.
Mr. Wenner said Twitch’s model would enable greater interaction between viewers and artists. The channel will also seek to highlight unknown artists who have their own feeds on the platform.
For Twitch, which is mainly focused around the world of games—broadcasting esports tournaments, personal streams of players, and game-related talk shows—the addition of a music channel will allow it to expand its audience while offering more to its existing viewers.
“Though Twitch is primarily known for its gaming community, it is really a platform for creators of all sorts,” said Tracy Chan, Twitch’s vice president in charge of music. “Gamers also have a lot of interests beyond gaming; many love music and are into sports.”
In a similar arrangement, Twitch has been broadcasting Thursday Night Football games for the past few seasons, as part of a bigger deal between the league and Amazon Prime.
In September, Twitch signed a deal with AMC Networks to create a channel focused on the hit zombie franchise, “The Walking Dead.” The channel is made up mainly of fan-created content but also includes original programming created by the network for the streaming service.
Write to Lukas I. Alpert at [email protected]
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