You may have noticed that songs by popular artists are no longer accessible on YouTube. This is set to expire as a deal between the European Theater Writers and Composers Association and YouTube. YouTube is in talks to extend the contract, but for now certain artists’ songs will no longer be available on the platform.
Depending on where you are in the world, certain songs by popular artists have recently become unavailable on YouTube.
The reason has to do with licensing, specifically YouTube’s expiring contract with the European Society of Stage Writers and Composers (SESAC).
Variety reports that when YouTube users in the US tried to watch music videos by artists such as Adele, Bob Dylan, REM, and Burna Boy, they were greeted with the following message: “This video contains content from SESAC, which is not available in your country.”
An anonymous representative for YouTube told the publication: “We have been negotiating in good faith with SESAC to renew our existing agreement. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we are unable to renew our existing agreement before it expires. We were unable to reach a fair agreement.”
“We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the United States. We are in active discussions with SESAC and will update new content as soon as possible. We hope to reach an agreement,” they added.
As Engadget points out, music videos such as Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” which debuted on the platform 13 years ago and has been viewed more than 2.5 billion times, are currently unavailable.
Fortunately, South Africa does not appear to be affected by the expiring contract, and Adele’s aforementioned music video, embedded below, is playable without any error messages at the time of writing.