Riot Games is responsible for some the world's most streamed games like League of Legends and Valorant. A common struggle for streamers in general is the hassle of playing background music without receiving copyright strikes—fortunately, Riot Games has launched Sessions: Vi, an album just to get around this.
Streaming has become a quite expansive market of video entertainment, ranging from people simply talking over a game they are playing, to more laid back, conversational streams, revolving around the streamer interacting with fans. In either case, it is not unusual for streamers to play music in the background, but doing so always comes with a risk. As seen earlier this month when many Twitch streamers got bombarded with copyright strikes, streamers take a risk every time they play background music, especially if it is copyrighted.
On July 2 Riot Games Music released Sessions: Vi, a free 37-track album created specifically for copyright-free content creation. The album is a compilation of mostly instrumental tracks featuring artists like chromonicci, junior state, and Hanz. According to the FAQ on the official Sessions website, Riot Games details its purpose for Sessions, stating, "A year ago we made a promise to players and creators: we would create a new music project that is safe to stream and free to use." Playing Sessions: Vi versus any other copyrighted music is one definitive way to avoid a DMCA takedown on Twitch.
Importantly, Riot Games makes it clear that this album is not exclusive to members of its League Partner Program or streamers of its games in general. "Sessions is open to any and all creators interested in some great music for their content," Riot Games continues on the FAQ. Sessions is apparently the first of many releases, meaning the music library is only going to grow. It is impressive that despite Riot Games' massive successes in Valorant and League of Legends, it is also making strides musically for creators as well.
While Sessions: Vi is free to the public and using it should not result in any DMCA takedowns, streamers must still adhere to the "Legal Jibber Jabber" as Riot Games calls it. As with any content that is not one's own creation, Riot Games asks that creators still give credits to the artists involved on Sessions: Vi where applicable. Music copyright and distribution is a messy field that punishes those who are not careful with the types of music they incorporate. DMCA takedowns have become more manageable, with Twitch adding new tools to deal with them, but it is better to avoid the DMCA bear entirely than to poke it in the first place.
Riot Games' Sessions: Vi can be streamed on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify and YouTube Music.
Source: Riot Games