Songs like Adele‘s “Someone Like You,” Green Day‘s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Bob Dylan‘s “I Want You” and R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” have been blocked by YouTube in a legal dispute with SESAC, a performance rights organization that deals with copyright issues for performers and publishers.
Other musicians affected by the blockage include Alice in Chains, Burna Boy and Fleetwood Mac. Though some of the artists’ songs display a black screen — which reads “Video unavailable” with the subhead “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.” — not all tracks are affected.
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SESAC is among several companies that helps songwriters protect their original work and collect royalties. Just as with Universal Music Group’s dispute with TikTok earlier this year, which resulted in four million songs from artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Adele being pulled from the social media platform for months, SESAC and YouTube have not reached a deal agreement on renewal terms. Thus, SESAC is within its purview to block public performances of music, from streaming to radio play, though this is often hard to enforce.
Numerous Reddit threads popped up as users shared their frustration over being unable to stream their favorite tunes, with the issue seemingly beginning earlier today. While YouTube has not yet released a statement on the matter, its X account replied to several consumers, writing, “we hear you. our music license agreement with SESAC has expired without an agreement on renewal conditions despite our best efforts. for this reason, we have blocked content on YouTube in the US known to be associated with SESAC – as in line with copyright law.”
Some of the most watched and listened to music on YouTube and YouTube Music disappeared on Saturday, replaced by a short message:
Video unavailable
This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.
The account added in a later reply, “we understand this is a difficult situation and our teams continue to work on reaching a renewal agreement.” In a separate comment, Team YouTube wrote it is “continuing” discussions with SESAC, though it has “no exact dates for future updates yet.”
Blocks like this are common when copyright companies and distributing platforms cannot agree on a licensing deal. The duration of such legal disputes can last anywhere from several days to months at a time, such as when the behemoth Warner Music Group pulled music videos off of YouTube for the better part of a year from 2008-09.
That is probably not what people expected when they tried to stream Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” or other songs from artists as varied as Kendrick Lamar, Britney Spears, Green Day, Kanye West, and Burna Boy.
This leaves two questions: what is SESAC, and when is the music coming back?
SESAC stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, which has been around since 1930 and, according to its website, “…currently licenses the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs on behalf of its 15,000+ affiliated songwriters, composers, and music publishers.”
It’s smaller than similar organizations like BMI and ASCAP, but SESAC lists many big-name artists in its portfolio. In 2017, it was acquired by the private equity firm Blackstone.
Answering the question of when the SESAC music ban on YouTube and YouTube Music will end, or even what music has been removed, is a little harder.
SESAC has a searchable database of its repertory, although not all the songs listed there appear to have been removed. There’s even a 44,267-page PDF available on the site if you’d like to read the complete list. But not all songs were affected in the same way. While one listing for Kanye West’s “Power” is blocked, as of this writing the music video version continues to stream just fine.
Songs by Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Green Day and Mariah Carey, among others, are currently unavailable on YouTube due to a contract dispute between the platform and SESAC, a performing rights organization.
A YouTube spokesperson shared in a statement with The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday, “We have held good faith negotiations with SESAC to renew our existing deal. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before its expiration. We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US. We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.”
The licensing organization hasn’t commented publicly, but YouTube did respond to an inquiry from The Verge, as spokesperson Mariana de Felice writes:
We have held good faith negotiations with SESAC to renew our existing deal. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before its expiration. We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US. We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.
According to an unnamed source cited by Variety, this could be a negotiating tactic by YouTube because, they say, “the previous deal actually does not expire until next week.”
Some songs by several artists were met with this message when attempting to be played: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”
SESAC in the U.S. collects royalties and helps protect copyrights on behalf of songwriters and publishers. On the organization’s website, it said, “SESAC currently licenses the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs on behalf of its 15,000+ affiliated songwriters, composers, and music publishers, which include such familiar names as Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, RUSH, Adele, Jack Harlow, Ariana Grande, Disclosure, Zac Brown, Rosanne Cash, Hillary Scott of Lady A, Lee Brice, Margo Price, Nicky Jam, Blanco Brown, and many more.”
Throughout the day on Saturday, the TeamYouTube account on X (formerly Twitter) has been responding to platform users’ frustrations regarding the situation. “Our music license agreement with SESAC has expired without an agreement on renewal conditions despite our best efforts. for this reason, we have blocked content on YouTube in the US known to be associated with SESAC – as in line with copyright law,” their message reads.
THR has also reached out to SESAC for comment.
A similar legal dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok happened for several months earlier this year before they finally reached a music licensing agreement. During that time, some artists’ music was also not available on the social media platform.
