Songs are missing from YouTube Music due to an expired “SESAC” license

Due to a licensing dispute with SESAC, numerous songs were removed from YouTube and YouTube Music in the United States.

Over the past day, YouTube users in the US have encountered songs marked with an exclamation mark that would not play or tap in the list view. Also, in full screen mode, the Now Playing error message appears: “Song not available – This video contains content from SESAC.” It is not available in your country.”

SESAC “represents the copyrighted musical works of songwriters and publishers and their right under copyright law to publicly perform these works in businesses.” Generally, any public performance, reproduction or broadcast of music requires a license from the copyright holder.”

SESAC offers a Master License Agreement, which is considered the most convenient and cost-effective method to obtain the necessary permission for the public performance of all copyrighted music in the SESAC repertoire.

The organization promotes “top-selling partners such as Adele, REM, Jack Harlow, Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond” with a total of “over 1.5 million songs”. Affected albums will continue to appear on YouTube Music artist pages. In Adele's case, her previous albums are still released, but almost every song has disappeared. However, newer music remains available.

Officially, YouTube said this morning that “despite our best efforts, its music licensing agreement with SESAC has expired without agreement on the renewal terms.” “For this reason, we have blocked content on YouTube in the US that is known to be associated with SESAC – in accordance with copyright law.”

Typically, you associate these content licensing disputes with YouTube TV and cable providers.

Be sure to chime in to see what songs, albums, and artists you're missing.

Update…