Thousands of songs and music videos by hundreds of artists disappeared from YouTube after the company failed to reach a new agreement with publishing rights group SESAC.
Hundreds of artists, including Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Mariah Carey and Green Day, have been affected by the impasse as SESAC’s contract with YouTube approaches.
“We have been negotiating in good faith with SESAC to renew our existing contract. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach a fair agreement before it expired.” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday.
“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.”
Among the songs and videos removed from YouTube during the conflict was Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” with only unofficial uploads remaining on the site. In fact, all studio recordings and music videos have been removed from Nirvana’s official YouTube channel, leaving only the band’s MTV Unplugged and other live performances on the page. (Many of the affected artists remain on YouTube due to copyright loopholes in their live performances.)
Some officially uploaded Nirvana videos, such as “Come As You Are,” are still searchable on YouTube, but cannot be played. This video contains content from SESAC. Not available in your country,” the disclaimer reads.
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Would you like to watch the video for Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”? The video is “unavailable”. Similarly, all songs and music videos from Adele’s latest album 30, including “Hello” and “Chasing Pavements,” have been removed from YouTube.
SESAC “currently licenses more than 1.5 million songs for public performance on behalf of more than 15,000 affiliated songwriters, composers, and music publishers,” but has yet to comment on the YouTube dispute. I haven’t.
