YouTube Removes Adele, Nirvana, and Other Songs Amid SESAC Licensing Dispute

On Saturday, many popular tracks vanished from YouTube and YouTube Music, leaving users puzzled as they encountered this message:

This unexpected removal impacted iconic songs like Adele’s "Rolling in the Deep", along with hits from artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Britney Spears, Green Day, Kanye West, and Burna Boy.

Two main questions arise from this situation: What is SESAC, and when will the music return?

What is SESAC? SESAC, the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, has been around since 1930 and is responsible for licensing the public performance of over 1.5 million songs, representing more than 15,000 affiliated songwriters, composers, and publishers. Despite being smaller than other U.S.-based music licensing organizations like BMI and ASCAP, SESAC manages several high-profile artists. In 2017, the organization was acquired by the private equity firm Blackstone.

When Will the Music Be Back? Pinning down the exact timeline for the return of SESAC-licensed music on YouTube is tricky. While SESAC has a searchable database of its music catalog, not all tracks listed appear to be affected by the removal. For instance, while one version of Kanye West’s "Power" is blocked, the music video continues to stream on YouTube without issue.

Although SESAC has remained silent publicly, YouTube issued a statement explaining the situation. Mariana de Felice, YouTube’s spokesperson, noted:

"We have engaged in good faith negotiations with SESAC to renew our existing deal. Unfortunately, we could not reach a fair agreement before the current deal expired. As a result, SESAC-represented content is no longer available on YouTube in the U.S. We are actively discussing the issue with SESAC and hope to finalize a new deal soon."

According to a source quoted by Variety, this could simply be a negotiation strategy, as they claim the existing agreement isn’t set to expire until next week.