Twitch’s Head of Music, Cindy Charles, has died at the age of 69.
“Last week we received some truly tragic news at @Twitch about the passing of Cindy Charles,” the streaming platform’s CEO, Daniel Clancy, wrote in a lengthy X statement on Friday, October 18. “Cindy was killed in a traffic accident when she was traveling in the Netherlands. Most of the members of the Twitch community are probably not familiar with Cindy’s work, but she has been leading our team that manages our relationship with the music industry.”
According to Dutch news outlet Het Parool, Charles was hit by a garbage truck while walking by the Passeerdersgracht canal on October 14. She was reportedly dead by the time emergency services arrived on the scene. Charles was set to speak on a panel at the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) on Thursday, October 17, before her death. (Us Weekly has reached out to the ADE for comment.)
Clancy, 60, continued: “Anyone that 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 agreements for Twitch including the recent DJ agreement. Anyone that worked with Cindy knows how much she cared about everyone with whom she worked. I know everyone that has worked with her was shocked to hear the news. We will all dearly miss her and we are sorry to see her go.”
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A music licensing agreement between Twitch and with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, as well as indie labels represented by Merlin, was announced in June, per Billboard.
“I send my most heartfelt sympathy to her husband [Ricky Fishman] and her two sons,” Clancy concluded his post.”
Charles’ husband broke news of her death via Facebook on October 15, revealing she had died in a “traffic accident in Amsterdam” the day prior. “There will be no filling the hole in the universe left by Cindy’s departure from this world,” he wrote alongside photos of Charles from over the years. “She gave love and she received love, building a network of friends unrivaled by any person I have ever known. So many are grieving right now.”
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Calling his late spouse “an icon in the music biz,” Fishman stated: “She will be missed deeply by friends and family, her beloved son Ben, my son Sam, and so many more. So hug those you hold closely, tell them that you love them … a lot. Life is such a fragile affair, and what we have today, we may not, tomorrow. Sending love to you all, but especially to Cindy, who graced the world with her presence. Her life was cut short, but it burned brightly as her memory surely will.”
Twitch’s Head of Music Label Relations and Content Development and Programming, Kira Karlstrom, paid tribute to Charles in a Medium blog post on Friday, calling her late coworker “the heart and soul of our team, and a force for good in everything she touched.”
She added: “The love we shared was something rare and special. And now, there’s a hole in the universe and in my heart that’s immeasurable. Cindy was one of a kind. … Cindy’s song may have ended far too soon, but her melody will live on in all of us who were lucky enough to know her.”
