YouTube is engaged in ongoing negotiations with a music rights organization that protects the copyrights of major pop, rock, and hip-hop acts. That organization is called SESAC, and its lack of a deal with YouTube has restricted access to music videos from artists like Adele, Nirvana, R.E.M., and Kendrick Lamar.
The rights dispute doesn’t cover all of the videos by the affected artists, but several prominent clips have become unlisted, including Adele hits like “Someone Like You” and “Hello” and 90s classics like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Losing My Religion”. In total, SESAC licenses more than 1.5 million tracks on behalf of 15,000 songwriters, composers, and publishers, according to its website.
A YouTube spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that SESAC’s contract with the platform expired, and the two sides have thus far been unable to come to terms on a new deal. “We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US,” the spokesperson said. “We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.”
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The removals impact some of the most significant music videos in YouTube history. “Hello” broke viewership records upon its release in 2016, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” are two of the only music videos of their era in YouTube’s exclusive Billion Views Club. Fortunately for Drake haters, Kendrick Lamar’s recent diss tracks are unaffected by the rights dispute.
YouTube has long existed as a go-to source for on-demand music videos, but its SESAC snafu is a reminder that the platform’s reputation is contingent on cooperation from the recording industry. YouTube hasn’t always had a copacetic relationship with labels and their ilk, even if it has grown YouTube Music into a service enjoyed by millions of subscribers.
TikTok’s friction with record labels made headlines months before the app sidelined its namesake music service. Even for platforms that define pop music trends, rights agreements are not guaranteed, and YouTube is currently learning that lesson the hard way.
[[UPDATE 5 PM ET 9/30: YouTube and SESAC have agreed to a deal. The missing music should be restored on YouTube “over the next day or two.”]]
