A few days ago, popular musician Logic, real name Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, retired, saying that it’s time for him to focus on being “a great father.” He must be taking inspiration from people like Ben “DrLupo” Lupo, the daddest man on Twitch, because his post-retirement fatherhood plans now include an exclusive deal with the Amazon-owned streaming platform.
In an interview with The Verge, Logic, who already had a small Twitch channel on which he infrequently streamed prior to signing the deal, said the deal is worth seven figures. That puts it in line with deals signed by big-name video game streamers like Imane “Pokimane” Anys and the aforementioned Ben “DrLupo” Lupo—quite a haul for somebody who previously did not have much of a presence on the platform and whose audience may or may not migrate over in a way that makes Twitch’s investment worthwhile.
“I’m blessed enough to have millions of fans and followers. So it is a great partnership,” he told The Verge. “I’m going to bring new eyes to their service, they’re going to bring new money to my bank account, and—I’m just kidding.”
The deal certainly makes sense for Twitch, which was suddenly awash with mainstream musicians—and the eyeballs and ear holes that follow them—when the covid-19 pandemic first forced large swathes of the United States into lockdown. Twitch has been trying to expand into music for years now, though. The platform plays host to thousands of endemic musicians, and official Twitch events almost always include famous musicians. Logic himself performed at TwitchCon in San Diego last year. That’s not to say that the marriage between Twitch and music has been an entirely idyllic match made in heaven, however; in recent times, powerful entities in the music world have taken to cracking down on streamers who play copyrighted music in the background of their broadcasts.
Logic is the first musician Twitch has signed to an exclusive deal, but it’s hard to say if he’ll actually do anything musical on Twitch. He’s set to premiere his new and apparently final album on the platform tomorrow, but after that, all bets are off. In the past he’s mostly played video games like Call of Duty on Twitch, but he’s also freestyled over beats (while playing Call of Duty).
Though he’s now a retired and the proud father of a Twitch channel, Logic says he’ll probably still make music in some form or fashion.
“I’m not fooling myself,” he told The Verge. “I’m a musician, I’ll always be one. I’m still gonna, like, rap on songs that probably won’t come out.”