As you may remember, last week, YouTube users in the US noticed that some of their favorite songs disappeared from the platform at the beginning of the week. Songs by famous artists such as Bob Dylan, Adele, Nirvana and Kendrick Lamar suddenly became inaccessible. However, this whole process seems to have been settled as of today. Here are the details…
YouTube has officially reached an agreement with the company!
YouTube removed tracks and clips from the platform because Google’s licensing agreement with SESAC had expired and the two sides couldn’t agree on a new deal. However, this problem did not last long. YouTube renewed its license agreement with SESAC, paving the way for all music on the platform to be made available again.
Over the past weekend, many YouTube users experienced a ‘Video unavailable’ error when trying to play some songs. YouTube has officially confirmed that this is due to the expiration of its license agreement with SESAC.
SESAC, the European Stage Authors and Composers Society, represents more than 15,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers and holds licensing rights to more than 1.5 million songs, including Bob Dylan and Nirvana.
YouTube and SESAC reached a new agreement by resolving their license issues. YouTube announced that it will restore all blocked content on the platform within a few days. SESAC’s president Scott Jungmichel also confirmed that the new agreement with the platform will ensure that songwriters and music publishers affiliated with SESAC are fairly compensated.
He also explained that YouTube had removed the content before the agreement expired and that these songs will be reinstated on the platform.