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Here’s why you can’t watch Adele and Nirvana videos on YouTube


Adele and Kurt Cobain perform

Adele and Nirvana fans are not happy with Sesac right now (Pictures: Getty)

If you’re wondering why millions of people have been unable to watch music videos by the likes of Adele and Nirvana, wonder no more.

Their current unavailability has come about as a result of them being blocked on YouTube in North America due to an ongoing copyright dispute.

The video-sharing platform, started in 2005, has failed to reach an agreement with licensing company SESAC to renew its contract, leaving many videos unplayable in the US.

At the moment, videos from the likes of Adele and Nirvana – as well as Kendrick Lamar, Green Day, and Bob Dylan, among others – are blocked by warnings that say US users can’t access them.

Pop fans trying to watch videos by their favourite artists are met with the following message: ‘This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.’

Fans hoping for the dispute to reach a swift conclusion have been given encouragement by a statement YouTube provided to Variety on Saturday.

Kendrick Lamar’s music videos have also been affected by the dispute (Picture: Getty)

It read: ‘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.

The statement continued: ‘We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US.

YouTube concluded its statement by saying, ‘We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.’

Hey @sesac, you all suck eggs.@YouTube fix this asap.

This is a bad look for both companies. And youtube doesn’t need and more negative publicity given their everlasting fight against ad-blocker services. pic.twitter.com/M3Y1QkttzG

— Stuie (@Digging4Bottles) September 28, 2024

YouTube users began to be affected over the weekend (Picture: Olly Curtis/Future via Getty Images)

Hundreds of videos by dozens of artists have been affected, with popular 80s and 90s acts like R.E.M., Mariah Carey, and Alice in Chains also unavailable in the US right now.

On social media, fans have voiced their displeasure and have encouraged YouTube and SESAC to reach a solution in their ongoing negotiations.

@Digging4Bottles said: ‘Hey, Sesac, you all suck eggs. YouTube, fix this ASAP. This is a bad look for both companies… YouTube doesn’t need more and more negative publicity.’

Earlier this year, TikTok and Universal Music Group were locked in a similar dispute after the major label had all of its artists music removed from the smartphone video platform due to concerns about AI and royalties.

Taylor Swift’s music was briefly removed from TikTok earlier this year thanks to similar disputes (Picture: Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management )

Back in January, it was revealed two companies had been unable to agree a new deal that would allow TikTok users to add music by Universal’s artists to their videos.

Speaking at the time, Universal accused TikTok of …read more

Source:: Metro

      

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