Songs by several artists, including Adele, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Green Day, and more have been blocked on YouTube following the video sharing website’s legal dispute with performing rights organization SESAC.
The blocks didn’t affect all of these artists songs, but when users clicked to listen to some of them — like “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele — they instead were met with a message that reads, “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”
A spokesperson from YouTube told the Hollywood Reporter, “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 X account TeamYouTube responded to customer complaints throughout Saturday. In one message they explained that the music license agreement with SESAC expired “without an agreement on renewal conditions despite our best efforts” and as a result, “we have blocked content on YouTube in the US known to be associated with SESAC – as in line with copyright law.”
They later added, “We understand this is a difficult situation and our teams continue to work on reaching a renewal agreement.”
In the United States SESAC is responsible for rights collection and helps to protect copyrights for songwriters and publishers. The organization has not commented on the dispute with YouTube. According to the organization’s website, its repertory currently consists of one million songs that span genres that include “Top 40, Pop, Hip-Hop, R&B, Rock, Country, Spanish (Pop, Regional Mexican, Tropical, Rhythmic), Blues, Jazz, Big Band, Folk, Contemporary Christian, Gospel and many others.”
This news was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
