YouTube blocks songs by Adele, Nirvana, Bob Dylan and others due to legal dispute

Songs from several artists, including Adele, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Green Day and more, have been blocked on YouTube following the video-sharing website’s legal battle with performing rights organization SESAC.

The bans didn’t affect all of these artists’ songs, but when users clicked to listen to some of them — like Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” — they instead received a message that read, “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

A YouTube spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter: “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.”

The X Account TeamYouTube responded to customer complaints throughout Saturday. In a statement, they said that “despite our best efforts, the music licensing agreement with SESAC has expired without agreement on the renewal terms” and as a result, we have “blocked content on YouTube in the US known to be associated with SESAC – as in “consistent with copyright law.”

They later added: “We understand this is a difficult situation and our teams continue to work to reach an extension agreement.”

In the United States, SESAC is responsible for rights collection and helps protect the copyrights of songwriters and publishers. The organization did not comment on the dispute with YouTube. According to the organization’s website, its repertoire currently consists of one million songs, spanning genres such as “Top 40, Pop, Hip-Hop, R&B, Rock, Country, Spanish (Pop, Regional Mexican, Tropical, Rhythmic), Blues, Jazz.” , Big Band, Folk, Contemporary Christian, Gospel and many others.”

This news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

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