Forbes StaffYouTube suddenly blocked the songs of popular artists like Adele, Nirvana, and others due to a legal dispute with SESAC.
YouTube users suddenly couldn’t find the songs of their favorite artists on the platform. YouTube blocked the songs of artists like Adele, Nirvana, Kendrick Lamar, and Bob Dylan over a legal dispute in the US.
YouTube blocks songs of popular artists.
YouTube recently blocked not all but several songs of the artists mentioned above. Users couldn’t play the songs on the platform. All those who attempted to play the blocked videos were followed by the message, “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”
YouTube pulled songs of famous music artists over a legal dispute.
SESAC stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers. It is a performance-rights organization similar to BMI and ASCAP, founded in 1930 and acquired in 2017 by the private equity firm Blackstone. As per the website, 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.” It is the 2nd oldest performance-rights organization in the US, with 30,000 songwriters and more than 1 million compositions in its catalog.
YouTube on blocking songs of popular artists.
Though SESAC hasn’t yet addressed the dispute with YouTube, a representative for the music platform said in a statement to Variety, “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.”
Users take to social media to express their frustration.
Many users of YouTube took to social media to express their frustration. In response, the TeamYouTube account on X wrote, “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.”
