Lofi Girl battling Twitch DMCAs by offering free music

Popular YouTube channel Lofi Girl, the persona behind the 24/7 music stream known as “lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to” is looking to help out streamers and content creators on Twitch. 

Lofi Girl is popular on YouTube for its calm, soothing music stream. The person behind it has tons of musical content at their disposal, which will now be free to use for streamers on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and TikTok. This is a major boon to streamers who have been under attack from record labels over the use of music while on air.

It’s no news that finding background music for Twitch live streams is a dangerous task in 2021. Streamers have to cherry-pick their tracks in order to dodge seemingly random DMCA strikes, with a crackdown forcing streamers to quickly delete thousands of old clips. Lofi Girl is the latest entity to support streamers and smaller content creators by making their music royalty-free. 

The radio channel has been producing calming streams tailored to students for years. The iconic animation of a girl studying in a green sweater while her cat lazed on a rainy windowsill is recognizable by fans worldwide. Over time, the lofi hip hop radio streams have grown to the point where they’re popular among almost all demographics. The channel has over eight million subscribers on YouTube with tens of thousands listening at any given moment.  

The official handle of Lofi Girl revealed that streamers could utilize the channel’s entire YouTube library without worrying about copyright claims. The channel has hundreds of soothing tracks that are excellent for background music in Just chatting screens. The touchstone “music to relax” theme is prominent across all tracks, making it fit for chill live streams and videos. 

While the music is free to use, crediting the artists is Lofi Girl does request users credit, asking artists to add the following to their description:

• Provided by Lofi Girl
• Watch: YouTube link to the music used
• Listen: Spotify link to the music used

Lofi Girl has explained that any recreation and reuploading of her music isn’t allowed. The channel “may take down your content if this happens.” The owner has clarified all the details that you may want to know before using her work in an FAQ blog. 

Why is LOFI in anime?

Originally, the “lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to” radio stream’s visuals used a gif from the Studio Ghibli film Whispers of the Heart, which fittingly showed the main character studying and relaxing. Since then, an original character has been used that shows a girl reading a book with headphones on as a cat lies down near her window.j