Cindy Charles, Twitch’s head of music, dies in traffic accident

Twitch’s music head, Cindy Charlesdied after being involved in a traffic accident in the Netherlands last week. She was 69.

CEO of Twitch Daniel Clancy confirmed Charles’ death on LinkedIn on Friday (October 18). Clancy noted that “everyone who uses music on Twitch owes a debt of gratitude to Cindy’s work. She always had a bright smile on her face, even as she negotiated unprecedented music licensing deals for Twitch, including the recent DJ deal.

That deal, which specifically affects DJs who livestream on the platform, was announced in June and involved Twitch signing music licensing deals with all three major labels – Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment – ​​as well as many indie labels. represented by Merlin.

Charles was scheduled to speak on a panel on Thursday (October 17) at the Amsterdam Dance Event, an annual conference for the dance music industry in the Dutch capital, which offers expertise to DJs using Twitch.

At Twitch, Charles led the music team in cultivating industry relationships and building partnerships with labels, publishers and PROs while helping artists establish a presence on the platform. Previously, she spent three years at Amazon, where she served as head of business development in the music department of Amazon Tickets; she was also head of development in the Video Shorts department. Earlier in her career, she was a consultant in the digital music space, working with streaming platforms and music apps like Spotify and Beats Music to help them navigate the music business. She also spent seven years at Viacom, where she managed digital legal and business affairs for entities within MTV Networks, and more than eight years at MediaNet Digital as senior vp and general counsel.

In addition to these roles, Charles served as an advisor to the Board of Directors of the Recording Academy, co-founded Women in Digital, which has more than 1,500 members, and co-founded the San Francisco chapter of She is the Music.

Charles was based in Berkeley, California, and grew up in Queens, NY, where he studied political science at SUNY Buffalo. She is survived by her husband, Ricky Fishman, son Ben Charles and stepson Sam Fishman.

“Every success, every setback, every moment working on our shared mission felt deeply personal,” Twitch’s Kira Karlström wrote in memory of Charles, ‘because Cindy made it that way. She cared about her team with all her heart and our work was an extension of that care.”

“There will be no more filling the hole in the universe left by Cindy’s departure from this world,” her husband wrote on Facebook. “She gave love and she received love and built a network of friends unmatched by anyone I have ever known. There are so many people grieving right now.”

This story has been updated with additional details and context.