Songs by Adele , Bob Dylan, Green Day, R.E.M.
, Burna Boy, Rush and many others are currently unplayable on YouTube in the U.S. due to a legal dispute between the platform and the performing rights organization SESAC .
Attempts to play many, but not all, songs by those artists on Saturday met with the following message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.” A similar dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok raged on for several months earlier this year before being resolved.
In a statement to Variety, a YouTube rep said: “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.” Reps for SESAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Performing rights organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the U.
S., 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 entails everything from streaming to radio to music played in restaurants — although such bans are laborious and difficult to enforce, even for a platform as large as YouTube, as evidenced b.
