Music by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, REM, Burna Boy, Rush and many others is currently not being played on YouTube in the US due to a legal dispute between the platform and the rights organization SESAC.
Attempts to play many, but not all, of the artists’ songs on Saturday were met with the following message: “This video contains content from SESAC. Not available in your country.”
A similar dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok dragged on for several months earlier this year before ending.
In words to Miscellaneous, A representative for YouTube said: “We have had good discussions with SESAC to renew our existing agreement. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we have not been able to reach an agreement that has not yet expired. We take copyright very seriously and therefore, the content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US. We are in negotiations and SESAC and we hope to reach a new agreement soon.” SESAC representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source close to the matter says Miscellaneous that the previous contract does not expire until next week, and suggests that the move to YouTube is a communication process. SESAC is much smaller than ASCAP and BMI – with about 30,000 members and 1.5 million songs while ASCAP has about 800,000 members – but as far as artists are concerned with block shows, it represents a large part of the market.
Copyright organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the US, raise funds and help protect copyright on behalf of songwriters and music publishers. They can ban some public music — which includes everything from the radio to music played in restaurants — though such bans are complex and difficult to enforce, even on a platform as large as YouTube, as evidenced by the seemingly scattered nature of those. blocking of SESAC products on the platform at this time.
Such clips are legally complex and can involve some copyright holders (for example a recording of Green Day recorded by the UK broadcaster BBC is available, showing legal wrinkles), although it can also indicate the number of videos that need to be blocked. . Similarly, some songs that Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and other artists are involved in, maybe because they have songwriters who are affiliated with SESAC.
Fans were quick to notice the block, and received the following response on Saturday from the TeamYouTube account on X (formerly Twitter).
“We hear you,” it says. “Our music license agreement with SESAC has expired without an agreement on renewal despite our best efforts. For this reason, we have blocked content on YouTube in the US that is known to be compatible with SESAC – in accordance with copyright laws.”
It responded to frustrated tweets that followed users by saying that “we understand that this is a difficult situation and our teams are continuing to reach a settlement agreement,” and “we are continuing our discussions with SESAC to reach an agreement, but we do not have specific dates for future changes.”
Such bars are common when the rights holders (such as documentaries, publishers and PROs) and the publisher cannot agree on a license agreement, and they usually do not last for several days or weeks. However, along with the painful battle of UMG-TikTok earlier this year, one such conflict between YouTube and Warner Music Group caused Warner to release its videos on the platform for nine months through 2008 and 2009 before the word was fulfilled.
In the intervening years of YouTube’s adversarial relationship with the music industry, the relationship has become more positive, a surprise after the company hired Warner Music executive Lyor Cohen as its head of music in 2016. However, as music fans learned on Saturday, the conflict it’s still happening.
Miscellaneous they will have more on the situation as it develops.
Additional reporting by Steven J. Horowitz
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