YouTube pulls songs from Adele, Nirvana and others due to the SESAC dispute

Some of the most viewed and listened to music on YouTube and YouTube Music disappeared Saturday, replaced by a short message:

Video not available

This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.

This is probably not what people were expecting when they tried to stream Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.”” or other songs from artists as diverse as Kendrick Lamar, Britney Spears, Green Day, Kanye West and Burna Boy.

Two questions remain: What is SESAC and when will the music come back?

SESAC stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, which has existed since 1930 and, according to its website, “…currently licenses the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs on behalf of its over 15,000 affiliated songwriters and composers,” and music publishers. “

It is smaller than similar organizations such as BMI and ASCAP, but SESAC lists many notable artists in its portfolio. In 2017, it was acquired by private equity firm Blackstone.

The question of when the SESAC music ban on YouTube and YouTube Music will end, or what music has been removed in the first place, is a little more difficult to answer.

SESAC maintains a searchable database of its repertoire, although not all of the songs listed there appear to have been removed. If you’d like to read the full list, there’s even a 44,267-page PDF available on the website. But not all songs were equally affected. While a listing for Kanye West’s “Power” is blocked, the music video version continues to stream fine as of this writing.

The licensing organization has not commented publicly, but YouTube responded to a request for comment The edgeas speaker Mariana de Felice writes:

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.

According to an unnamed source quoted by diversityThis could be a negotiation tactic from YouTube, because “the current deal actually doesn’t expire until next week,” they say.