Songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, REM, Burna Boy, Rush and many others are currently unplayable on YouTube in the US due to a legal dispute between the platform and performance rights organization SESAC.

Attempts to play many, but not all, of these artists’ songs on Saturday resulted in the following message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

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A similar dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok lasted several months earlier this year before being resolved.

In a statement about it Diversity, A YouTube representative said: “We have been negotiating in good faith with SESAC to extend our existing contract. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach a fair agreement before the deadline. We take copyright very seriously and therefore the content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the United States. We are in active discussions with SESAC and hope to reach a new agreement as soon as possible.” Representatives for SESAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Performing rights organizations such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the US collect royalties and help protect copyrights on behalf of songwriters and music publishers. They have the ability to block certain public performances of music — which includes everything from streaming to radio to music played in restaurants — although such bans are cumbersome and difficult to enforce, even for a platform as large as YouTube, as the seemingly scattered numbers show prove blockage of SESAC material on the platform at the moment.

Such blocks are legally complex and may affect other copyright holders (for example, a live recording of the British broadcaster BBC’s Green Day is currently available, suggesting litigation), although it may also reflect the sheer volume of videos that are blocked must be. Certain songs by Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and other artists are also affected, presumably because they are featured by songwriters affiliated with SESAC.

Fans were quick to notice the ban and received the following responses from the TeamYouTube account on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.

“We hear you,” it says. “Our music licensing agreement with SESAC has expired without agreement on renewal terms, despite our best efforts. “For this reason, we have blocked content on YouTube in the US that is known to be associated with SESAC – in accordance with copyright law.”

Responding to frustrated follow-up tweets from users, the company said: “We understand this is a difficult situation and our teams continue to work to reach an extension agreement” and “We are continuing our discussions with SESAC to “I don’t have exact dates for future updates yet.”

Such suspensions often occur when rights holders (e.g. record labels, publishers and PROs) and a broadcaster cannot agree on a licensing agreement, and typically last no longer than a few days or weeks. But along with the heated UMG-TikTok battle earlier this year, such a dispute between YouTube and Warner Music Group led to Warner withdrawing its videos from the platform for about nine months in 2008 and 2009 before terms were reached became.

In recent years, YouTube’s formerly contentious relationship with music companies has become much more positive, ironically after the company hired former Warner recording chief Lyor Cohen as music chief in 2016. But as music fans learned on Saturday, disputes still arise.

diversity I will have more information on the situation as it develops.

Additional reporting by Steven J. Horowitz

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