Popular tracks from artists like Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Bob Dylan, and Nirvana have been removed from YouTube due to a licensing dispute with SESAC, a prominent music rights organization. The conflict arose after YouTube and SESAC failed to renew their contract, resulting in the temporary removal of millions of songs from U.S. viewers.
In a statement, YouTube said, “We have engaged in good faith negotiations with SESAC to renew our existing deal. Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach an agreement before the contract expired. As a result, content associated with SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the U.S. We’re working towards a resolution and hope to restore access soon.”
SESAC represents more than 1.5 million songs from artists such as Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, and Mariah Carey. Users attempting to stream songs by these artists are being met with a message stating, “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”
While SESAC has not publicly commented on the dispute, YouTube assures fans that discussions are ongoing to bring the music back online. This situation is reminiscent of a similar licensing dispute earlier this year between Universal Music Group and TikTok, which led to temporary song removals before a resolution was reached.
For now, U.S. listeners will have to wait for a new deal before they can enjoy music from some of their favorite artists on YouTube.
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