Spotify Exec Tracy Chan Joins Twitch Music Team
Twitch has hired Spotify executive Tracy Chan as Head of Product and Engineering for Music
With venues worldwide shutdown during the pandemic, Twitch has exploded as a free vehicle for artists to perform live online with major music companies including Amazon Music and Bandsintown launching channels with regular music programming there.
Chan was the Director of Product Management at Spotify. He led development for the streamed Spotify’s extensive creator platforms Spotify for Artists and Spotify Analytics.
His startup CrowdAlbum, a social, photo, and video aggregator that created a “visual history” of musical events from around the world, was acquired by Spotify in 2016. Prior to that, Chan was a product manager at YouTube, where he designed and launched YouTube Insight, the analytics platform for Creators.
Mike Olson’s Twitch Music Team Grows
Chan is the newest addition to a growing Twitch music team under Mike Olson, SVP, Head of Music and will focus on evolving the Twitch experience specifically for live music and helping artists and fans better connect in real-time.
Earlier this year, Athena Koumis, formerly of XITE and Spotify, also joined the team as the Music Partnerships Manager.
“The music category on Twitch has been growing organically for quite some time and we have some amazing artists and talent using the service to create and share live, interactive experiences with their fans,” said Mike Olson. “At a fundamental level, Twitch was built for Creators and we are investing more heavily in building unique product and monetization tools for our music Creators. Tracy is joining our team at a critical moment as we continue to see growing interest from both new and established musical talent joining Twitch.”
A Tool For Artists
Through Twitch, artists can perform to a global audience in a single setting and connect with their fans in real-time via Twitch Chat.
John Legend, Diplo, Willie Nelson, Lady Antebellum, The Roots and others have performed on Twitch in recent weeks, But there is also a growing community of smaller musicians and Twitch is investing in new streaming and monetization tools to support them, including partnering with Soundcloud and Bandsintown to help establish Affiliate status on Twitch.
“I have spent my career building Creator tools and I believe there is a massive opportunity to help artists connect with their fans through virtual performances and live streaming, which is what led me to Twitch,” said Tracy Chan. “Across the board, and especially at this moment in time, we are seeing disruption in the music industry as artists are having to find new ways to both make money and interact with fans.”
