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YouTube, the popular video streaming platform, has banned many songs from renowned artists like Adele, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Kendrick Lamar, Green Dat, and even Mariah Carey in the United States. The same happened after a contract dispute between YouTube and SESAC, mainly due to copyright issues of the artists.
For the unversed, SESAC, which stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, is a performing rights organization that has been around since the 1930s. As per the organization’s website, SESAC has licensed more than 1.5 million songs from more than 15,000 artists, including songwriters, composers, and even singers.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, SESAC and YouTube have been unable to reach an agreement about renewal terms and copyright laws, which has caused the video streaming platform to remove all the songs licensed by SESAC in the U.S.
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As the songs by many artists were banned, users on the internet expressed their disappointment, which made YouTube respond to the masses. The video streaming company issued a statement to 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."
The company added:
“We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.”
Many popular artists' YouTube videos have displayed 'video unavailable' error in the United States
Apart from Adele, Kendrick Lamar and Nirvana, other artists who are being affected by the ban are Alice in Chains, Burna Boy, and Fleetwood Mac. Due to the ban, netizens are not able to stream many songs by the artists on YouTube. It shows “video unavailable” as the error with a line that reads, “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country."
YouTube took to on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, September 28, 2024, responding to the masses' queries about the videos not streaming. They responded to several users on X, stating:
“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.”
As YouTube and SESAC create headlines for being unable to reach common ground, many social media users now remember the dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok that occurred a few months earlier. Due to the fiasco, many songs by various popular artists were removed from the platform. However, once the two organizations reached a settlement, the removed tracks were restored.
At the time of writing this article, it has not been clarified by YouTube or SESAC about when the dispute would be settled, and whether fans would be able to stream the videos that are blocked in the U.S.
