YouTube Takes Down Music from Popular Artists in New Dispute
Movieguide® Contributor
If you tried to stream Adele’s “Rolling in The Deep” on YouTube on Saturday, you would have gotten a “Video unavailable” message. Here’s why.
The music removed from the platform includes songs from Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Green Day, Burna Boy, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Nirvana, Bob Dylan and others. The music is represented under SESAC, and YouTube’s agreement with the organization has almost expired.
“SESAC stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, which has been around since 1930 and, according to its website, ‘…currently licenses the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs on behalf of its 15,000+ affiliated songwriters, composers, and music publishers,’” The Verge reported.
The Verge says SESAC’s repertoire of music spans 44,267 PDF pages. Not all of the music is blocked. For example, Kanye West’s “Power” music video is available while another video meant for just listening to the song has been taken down.
YouTube 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.”
Variety pointed out that YouTube’s deal with SESAC actually doesn’t expire until this week. So YouTube may have removed music represented by SESAC as part of its tactical negotiations.
Tech Crunch said, “The situation echoes a dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok earlier this year, which saw UMG pull songs by artists including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande from the short-form video platform while it was negotiating over royalties.”
Movieguide® reported in February:
“The bruising battle over royalties between Universal Music Group and TikTok entered a new and more severe stage in the early hours of Tuesday as songs published by UMG began to be removed from the platform,” Variety reported Tuesday.
“The standoff, which began earlier this month, initially saw recordings owned or distributed by UMG removed from the platform, but now is extending to a much larger number of songs by including those published by the company,” Variety continued.
The details are messy. While UMG mutes and removes its songs on TikTok, it’s unclear how it bases its criteria for its actions in certain cases. Nor is it clear how much music will be affected.
